Friday, January 11, 2019 — DT 28813

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28813
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, August 9, 2018
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28813]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Kath
BD Rating
Difficulty - ★★★ / ★★★★	Enjoyment - ★★★★
Falcon's Experience ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools █ - solved but without fully parsing the clue █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by solutions from Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's Crossword Blog █ - yet to be solved

Introduction

I thought some of the definitions today to be a bit stretched even by RayT's standards.

I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.

Notes on Today's Puzzle

This commentary is intended to serve as a supplement to the review of this puzzle found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, to which a link is provided in the table above.

Click here for an explanation of conventions and symbols used in explaining the parsing of clues.

The purpose of this article is to explain the conventions and symbols that I use on this blog in explaining the parsing of clues.

Legend: The following symbols are used in reviews: "*" anagram "~" sounds like "<" indicates that the preceding letters are reversed "( )" encloses contained letters "_" replaces letters that have been deleted "†" indicates that the word is present in the clue

The review of a clue takes the following general structure:

#a/d   Clue containing parsing markup (num^*)

---

^* num = numeration

Explanations pertaining to the wordplay (or first definition in a double definition)

(Horizontal separator)

---

Explanations pertaining to the definition (or second definition in a double definition) and solution.

Explanatory Box

An explanatory box provides additional information about the clue. In most cases this information will not necessarily help in solving the clue but provides information about the clue. In the case of the weekday syndicated Daily Telegraph puzzles, such information is often intended to help the North American solver appreciate how the clue may be perceived by a British solver. These boxes may also provide information on people, places, films, television programmes, works of art and literature, etc. mentioned in the clue. Although the titles of these boxes will usually be drawn from a standard list, I do occasionally throw in a title specifically suggested by the subject at hand. The standard titles include: Scratching the Surface - an explanation of the surface reading of the clue Delving Deeper - in-depth information pertaining to a subject mentioned in an explanation The Story Behind the Picture - for weekday puzzles, information about an illustration found on Big Dave's Crossword Blog What did he/she/they say? - for weekday puzzles, an explanation of a remark made in a review or comment on Big Dave's Crossword Blog What are they talking about? - for weekday puzzles, an explanation of a discussion on Big Dave's Crossword Blog One box that may provide information that could prove helpful in solving the clue is the following: Here and There - for weekday puzzles, discusses words whose British meaning differs from their North American meaning

Note that there are many types of cryptic crossword clue and it is not my intention to exhaustively go through all of them here. I will only deal with clue types to the extent necessary to explain the conventions and symbols used on the blog. Furthermore, be aware that, in the world of cryptic crosswords, there seems to be an exception to every rule.

With one exception that I can think of, cryptic crossword clues provide two routes to the solution. These are commonly referred to as the definition and wordplay. While these terms serve well for most clues, there are some cases where the more formal terms of primary indication and subsidiary indication may be more appropriate.

Most cryptic crossword clues consist of a definition (primary indication) and wordplay (subsidiary indication). The definition may be a "precise definition" (a definition that is either taken straight from a dictionary or at least phrased in a non-misleading fashion) or it may be a "cryptic definition" (a definition misleadingly phrased so as to misdirect the solver either with respect to the meaning of the definition as a whole or to an incorrect sense of a word used in the definition).

The only type of clue that I can think of where there are not two ways of finding the solution are those in which the entire clue is a cryptic definition.

I identify precise definitions by marking them with a solid underline in the clue and cryptic definitions by marking them with a dotted underline.

In clues in which both definition and wordplay are present, the two parts of the clue combine to provide an overall meaningful statement (the surface reading) which usually bears no relationship to the underlying cryptic reading of the clue. In some cases, an extra word or phrase will be inserted into the clue to create a meaningful link between the definition and wordplay. I define clues which contain such a link word or link phrase as having an explicit link and clues which contain no link word or link phrase as having an implicit link.

I mark the existence of an explicit link by enclosing the link word or link phrase between forward slashes (/link/) and mark the existence of an implicit link with double forward slashes (//) positioned between the definition and wordplay.

Examples

A few examples may help to illustrate these points more clearly.

The first example is a clue used by Jay in DT 28573:

• 4d   Fellow left work // a failure (4)

Here the definition is "a failure" which is marked with a solid underline to show that it is a precise definition. The wordplay parses as F (fellow; abbrev.) + L (left; abbrev.) + OP (work; abbrev. used in music) which gives us the solution F|L|OP. The double forward slashes (//) between the definition and wordplay indicate the existence of an "implicit link" between the two parts of the clue (that is, no extra words are inserted into the clue to form the link).

The second example is a clue used by Giovanni in DT 28575:

• 29a   Female going to match // travels with mother in advance (10)

Here the definition "female going to match" is cryptic (the setter is attempting to misdirect our thoughts to a sports event rather than a marriage ceremony) and thus is marked with a a dotted underline. The wordplay is {RIDES (travels) + (with) MA (mother)} contained in (in) BID (advance) giving us the solution B(RIDES|MA)ID. As in the first example, the double forward slashes indicate the presence of an implicit link.

The third example is a clue used by Rufus is DT 28583:

• 18d   Knight caught by misplaced big blow /is/ staggering (8)

Here the definition is "staggering" which is marked with a solid underline to show that it is a precise definition. The wordplay parses as N ([chess symbol for] knight) contained in (caught in) an anagram (misplaced) of BIG BLOW producing the solution WOBBLI(N)G. Finally, forward slashes mark the link word (/is/).

I also use distinctive underlining to mark &lit.^[7] and semi-&lit. clues. Note that the reviewers on Big Dave's Crossword Blog generally prefer to refer to these clue types by the less pretentious names of all-in-one or semi-all-in-one clues respectively.

In an &lit. clue^[7] (or all-in-one clue) the entire clue provides not only the definition (when read one way), but under a different interpretation also serves as the wordplay.

In future, I will mark such clues with a combined solid and dashed underline. Although this is a departure from past practice, it would seem to make more sense than using a dotted underline as I have in the past). Henceforth, the dotted underline will be reserved for cryptic definitions.

In a semi-&lit. clue (or semi-all-in-one clue), either:

• the entire clue acts as the definition while a portion of the clue provides the wordplay; or
• the entire clue acts as the wordplay while a portion of the clue provides the definition.

For these clues, I will mark the definition with a solid underline and the wordplay with a  dashed underline. This means that a portion of the clue may have a solid underline, a portion of the clue may have a dashed underline and a portion of the clue may have a combined solid and dashed underline.

One final clue type is what I characterize as a cryptic definition comprised of a precise definition combined with cryptic elaboration. For example, in DT 28560 (setter unknown) the following clue appears:

•  26d   Heroic exploit, whichever way you look at it (4)

As the entire clue is a cryptic definition, it is marked with a dotted underline. The 'precise definition' is "heroic exploit" and is indicated by a solid underline.

Given the numeration, the precise definition could give rise to at least two solutions, DEED or FEAT. However, the 'cryptic elaboration' ("whichever way you look at it") indicates that the solution is a palindrome thereby immediately eliminating one of the two obvious choices.

Note that the part of the clue that I have called 'cryptic elaboration' does not provide a second independent route to the solution (as the wordplay would do in most other types of clue). Rather it merely provides a piece of additional information (elaboration) related to the 'precise definition'.

Again, this approach is a departure from past practice, but like the other changes mentioned previously is intended to remove inconsistencies in the way that I have been applying parsing markup to clues. The markup rules that I have been using until now evolved bit-by-bit over a long period of time resulting in some degree of internal inconsistency.

hide explanation

Across

1a   See // core ideas changing about Church (11)

A see^[10] is the diocese (show more ) of a bishop, or the place within it where his cathedral (show more ) or procathedral (show more ) is situated.

A diocese^[5] is a district under the pastoral care of a bishop in the Christian Church — or, more precisely, episcopal churches.

hide

A cathedral^[5] is the principal church of a diocese, with which the bishop is officially associated.

hide

A pro-cathedral^[5] (or procathedral^[10]) is a church used as a substitute for a cathedral.

hide

10a   Overtly gazes, letting eyes settle initially (5)

This is one of RayT's hallmark initialism (or acrostic) clues in which the wordplay (provided by the entire clue) is the initial letters of the first five words in the clue (the initialism fodder) as indicated by the word "initially" (the initialism indicator).

In these type of clues exactly what constitutes the definition (which is embedded in the wordplay) can be open to question. In her review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Kath has opted for simply "overtly gazes". However, one can usually make a strong case for including at least the entire initialism fodder in the definition. Here I see the lecherous nature of the gaze being cryptically suggested by the phrase "letting eyes settle" as the eyes would do in the usage example given by Oxford Dictionaries Online he was ogling^[5] her breasts. Sometimes one can even extend the definition to include the initialism indicator which, perhaps, might be the case today. Could one interpret the clue to be describing a situation in which the lecherous individual's gaze went immediately to her breasts?

11a   Almost put out admitting temper /is/ reckless (9)

12a   Charm /of/ a fine cat's dissipating (9)

13a   Actor // employed by sex trade (5)

14a   Passages // east of Florida Keys (6)

16a   Maximum load for schooner? (8)

Here and There

A schooner is a glass on both sides of the pond — albeit very different ones. I did note that Kath illustrates her review with a North American or Antipodean schooner rather than a British one — an observation that I was pleased to see confirmed by MalcolmR in Comment #4 on Big Dave's Crossword Blog. In Britain, a schooner[5] is a glass for drinking a large measure of sherry, whereas in North America — as well as Australia and New Zealand — the term denotes a tall beer glass.

18a   Boro' under Southgate clinching // game (8)

Rounders^[5,7] is a ball game played between two teams. The game involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a cylindrical bat. Gameplay centres on a number of innings, in which teams alternate at batting and fielding. A maximum of nine players are allowed to field at any time. Points (known as 'rounders') are scored by the batting team when one of their players completes a circuit past four bases arranged in the shape of a diamond without being put 'out'. The game is popular among Irish and British school children. [Sound at all familiar?] (read on )]

The game of rounders^[7] has been played in England since Tudor times, with the earliest reference being in 1744 in A Little Pretty Pocket-Book where it was called "base-ball" by John Newbery. In 1828, William Clarke in London published the second edition of The Boy's Own Book, which included the rules of rounders and which contained the first printed description in English of a bat and ball base-running game played on a diamond. The following year, the book was published in Boston, Massachusetts.

Rounders is played under slightly different rules in Britain and Ireland.

Both the 'New York game' [from which modern baseball evolved] and the now-defunct 'Massachusetts game' versions of baseball, as well as softball, share the same historical roots as rounders and bear a resemblance to the Irish version of the game.

hide explanation

Scratching the Surface

Southgate[7] is a suburban area of north London, England in the London Borough of Enfield. It is located around 8 miles (12.9 km) north of Charing Cross*. The name is derived from being the south gate to Enfield Chase**. * Since the early 19th century, Charing Cross[7] (a street junction in the City of Westminster) has generally been accepted as the notional "centre of London" and is the point from which distances from London are calculated. ** In British place names, Chase denotes an area of unenclosed land formerly reserved for hunting. I presume boro' to be an informal spelling of borough. The London boroughs are the 32 local authority districts that make up the Greater London county. The London boroughs were all created at the same time as Greater London on 1 April 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. Haringey[7] is the borough located under (south of) Enfield (the borough in which Southgate lies).

20a   Doesn't eat going without last of fine // banquets (6)

Without^[5] is an archaic or literary term that can be used either as a preposition or adverb meaning outside ⇒ (i) [as a preposition] the barbarians without the gates or (ii) [as an adverb] the enemy without.

23a   Cut digit catching front of remote // drone (5)

24a   English jumper in charge /for/ vault (9)

Roo^[5] is an informal Australian term for a kangaroo.

26a   Bad smell over time /produces/ neurosis (9)

27a   Fellow comprehends American // author (5)

Fellow^[10] is used in the sense of one of a pair, counterpart, or mate ⇒ looking for the glove's fellow.

As a containment indicator, comprehend^[5] is used in the formal sense of include, comprise, or encompass ⇒ a divine order comprehending all men.

Post Mortem
This sense of the word "fellow" is one that I have never encountered.

28a   'Earthly // time slips' describing Einstein's first experiment (11)

Scratching the Surface
A time-slip[5] is the occurrence of a dislocation in the flow of time, in imagination or (especially) as represented in fiction, film, etc., by means of which travel between different periods of time is supposed to be possible; (also) the bringing together of different points in time, as a result of which events at one period may be perceived or experienced at another.

Down

2d   Has a spin /in/ posh car (5)

Rolls^[10] is an informal name for a Rolls-Royce^[10], a make of very high-quality, luxurious, and prestigious British^* car.

---

^* Although the Rolls-Royce company is no longer British-owned.

3d   Opposed // upright member supporting House (7)

A stile^[5] is a vertical piece in the frame of a panelled door or sash window.

"house" = HO (show explanation )

Although not found in most of the dictionaries I consulted, ho.^[10] is the abbreviation for house.

hide explanation

Scratching the Surface
In the surface reading, member refers to a Member of Parliament[10] and House to the House of Commons[5].

4d   Possibly serve up inside pub // restaurant (6)

Indian^[5] is an informal British term for an Indian meal or restaurant.

5d   Do with females commonly embracing ultimately fanciable // clots (8)

Do^[5] is an informal British term meaning to swindle ⇒ a thousand pounds for one set of photos — Jacqui had been done.

6d   They pursue // limits of knowledge kept by prophets (7)

7d   Fire // criminal lot hosting 'Blue Peter'? (13)

The Blue Peter^[5] is a blue flag with a white square in the centre, raised by a ship about to leave port.

8d   Bishops /and/ pawn touching rows (8)

"pawn" = P (show explanation )

In chess, P^[10] is the symbol for pawn.

A pawn^[5] is a chess piece of the smallest size and value, that moves one square forwards along its file if unobstructed (or two on the first move), or one square diagonally forwards when making a capture. Each player begins with eight pawns on the second rank, and can promote a pawn to become any other piece (typically a queen) if it reaches the opponent’s end of the board.

hide explanation

---

Pontiff^[10] is a a former title of the pagan high priest at Rome, later used of popes and occasionally of other bishops, and now confined exclusively to the pope. The pope^[7] is the Bishop of Rome.

9d   Formation // fighting his battles capturing soldiers (13)

To the best of my recollection, this is the first time that I have seen the word "fighting" used as an anagram indicator. I can see no particular rationale for it other than a battlefield is typically in a state of confusion.

15d   Quite conservative // Queen wears dresses, husband follows (8)

"Queen" = QU (show explanation )

Queen may be abbreviated as Q, Qu. or R.

Q^[5] is an abbreviation for queen that is used especially in describing play in card games and recording moves in chess.

Qu.^[2] is another common abbreviation for Queen.

In the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms^*, Regina^[5] (abbreviation R^[5]) [Latin for queen] denotes the reigning queen, used following a name (e.g. Elizabetha Regina, Queen Elizabeth) or in the titles of lawsuits (e.g. Regina v. Jones, the Crown versus Jones — often shortened to R. v. Jones).

---

^* A Commonwealth realm^[7] is a sovereign state that is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and shares the same person, currently Elizabeth II, as its head of state and reigning constitutional monarch, but retains a crown legally distinct from the other realms. There are currently sixteen Commonwealth realms, the largest being Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom with the remainder being smaller Caribbean and Pacific island nations.

Thus Queen Elizabeth signs her name as 'Elizabeth R' as seen here on Canada's paint-stained constitution.

hide explanation

A sari^[5] (also saree) is a garment consisting of a length of cotton or silk elaborately draped around the body, traditionally worn by women from South Asia.

17d   Supporter nearly /getting/ more rowdy (8)

In Crosswordland, a "supporter" is very often a lady's undergarment that provides support.

Do you think that the definition here may be a mite stretched? Rowdy^[2] means noisy and disorderly while brassy^[2] denotes loudly confident and rude.

19d   Estate // seemed strangely to possess new interior (7)

Demesne^[5] is a historical term that can mean:

• a piece of land attached to a manor and retained by the owner for their own use ⇒ because labour was cheap, there were ample advantages in cultivating the demesne;
• the lands of an estate ⇒ a levy of one tenth on property in the royal demesne.

Scratching the Surface
In the UK, estate[5] is short for estate car[5], the British name for a station wagon[5].

21d   One puts up // vicar after tea, essentially (7)

Although a rector^[5] and a vicar^[5] are both members of the clergy, they are not the same thing and the meanings of the terms vary among religious denominations:

• in the the Church of England, a rector is an incumbent of a parish where all tithes formerly passed to the incumbent, whereas a vicar is an incumbent of a parish where tithes formerly passed to a chapter or religious house or layman;
• in other Anglican Churches, a rector is a member of the clergy who has charge of a parish whereas a vicar is a member of the clergy deputizing for another;
• in the Roman Catholic Church, a rector is a priest in charge of a church or of a religious institution whereas a vicar is a representative or deputy of a bishop;
• in the US Episcopal Church, a vicar is a clergyman in charge of a chapel;
• finally, vicar is also a name for a cleric or choir member appointed to sing certain parts of a cathedral service.

22d   Particles found around hip // articulations (6)

25d   Occasionally, cops also called /into/ foreign port (5)

Osaka^[5] is a port and commercial city in central Japan, on the island of Honshu, capital of Kinki region.

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
^[4]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[11] - TheFreeDictionary.com (Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary)
^[12] - CollinsDictionary.com (Webster’s New World College Dictionary)
^[13] - MacmillanDictionary.com (Macmillan Dictionary)
^[14] - CollinsDictionary.com (COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon