Thursday, February 14, 2019 — DT 28837

Happy Valentine's Day

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28837
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, September 6, 2018
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28837]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By pommers
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

As one usually finds with RayT puzzles, this one elicited a broad range of opinions on Big Dave's Crossword Blog. However, I think on balance the consensus is that the puzzle is positioned toward the gentler end of the RayT spectrum.

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^*)

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^* num = numeration

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

(Horizontal separator)

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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.

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Across

1a   Essence /of/ detective headquarters to contain trouble (12)

"detective" = DI (show explanation )

A detective inspector (DI^[5]) is a senior police officer in the UK. Within the British police, inspector^[7] is the second supervisory rank. It is senior to that of sergeant, but junior to that of chief inspector. Plain-clothes detective inspectors are equal in rank to their uniformed counterparts, the prefix 'detective' identifying them as having been trained in criminal investigation and being part of or attached to their force's Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

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8a   Go back // right before exit (7)

9a   Subterfuge // could be so naive (7)

In the intro to his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, pommers notes that the puzzle contains some well-stretched synonyms. I would think that this might be one of the clues he had in mind.

Subterfuge^[5] means deceit used in order to achieve one's goal ⇒ (i) he had to use subterfuge and bluff on many occasions; (ii) I hated all the subterfuges, I hated lying to you.

An evasion^[5] is an indirect answer; a prevaricating [evasive] excuse ⇒ the protestations and evasions of a witness.

11a   Boxers perhaps // rejected second prize (7)

12a   Tonsure // cut around top of head (7)

Tonsure^[5] (noun) is an act of shaving the top of a monk's or priest's head as a preparation for entering a religious order ⇒ he received the tonsure.

13a   Adolescent youth's head /is/ minuscule (5)

14a   Bubbly // English male that's not without love (9)

"love" = O [tennis term] (show explanation )

In tennis, squash, and some other sports, love^[5] is a score of zero or nil ⇒ love fifteen. The resemblance of a zero written as a numeral (0) to the letter O leads to the cryptic crossword convention of the word "love" being used to clue this letter.

Although folk etymology has connected the word with French l'oeuf 'egg', from the resemblance in shape between an egg and a zero, the term apparently comes from the phrase play for love (i.e. the love of the game, not for money).

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16a   Transferred // company, backing being purchased by mutual? (9)

Scratching the Surface
As an adjective, mutual[5] denotes a building society (show explanation ) or insurance company owned by its members and dividing some or all of its profits between them ⇒ (i) Scottish Amicable may switch from mutual to plc [public limited company] status; (ii) the world's oldest mutual insurance company. As a noun, mutual[5] denotes a mutual building society (show explanation ) or insurance company ⇒ life insurance firms are mutuals, owned by their policyholders. In Britain, a building society[5] is a financial organization which pays interest on investments by its members and lends capital for the purchase or improvement of houses. Building societies originally developed as non-profit-making cooperative societies from friendly societies [see below]. Since 1986 changes in legislation have allowed them to offer banking and other facilities, and some have become public limited companies [companies whose shares trade publicly on a stock exchange]. In the UK, a friendly society[5] is a mutual association providing sickness benefits, life assurance, and pensions. It was originally the name of a particular fire-insurance company operating circa 1700. hide explanation

19a   Rest // start to do all right (5)

21a   Proceeds topless /and/ turns to go? (7)

As an initial letter indicator, top^[10] is used in the sense of beginning ⇒ (i) the top of the hour; (ii) at the top of the programme; (iii) let's run through the piece one more time from the top.

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In cricket, innings^[5] (plural same or informally inningses) can denote any of:

• each of two or four divisions of a game during which one side has a turn at batting ⇒ the highlight of the Surrey innings
• a player’s turn at batting ⇒ he had played his greatest innings
• the score achieved during a player’s turn at batting ⇒ a solid innings of 78 by Marsh.

In the first sense, the term innings (spelled with an 's') would correspond somewhat to an inning (spelled without an 's') in baseball. One significant difference is that an innings in cricket denotes one team's turn at batting. Thus team A is batting in the first and third innings (referred to as team A's innings) and team B in the second and fourth innings (referred to as team B's innings). In baseball, the visiting team bats in the top of each inning and the home team in the bottom of each inning (these might be referred to as team A's half of the inning and team B's half of the inning respectively).

The second sense would be roughly equivalent to an at bat in baseball. One difference is that a cricket player can have only one innings (sense 2) per innings (sense 1) although a turn at batting can be quite lengthy (long enough for Marsh to score 78 runs in the usage example for sense 3). In baseball, it is possible for a player to have more than one at bat during a single inning (players continue to bat around the order until the fielding team achieves three outs and if the batting team has more than nine at bats during an inning, one or more players will have multiple at bats in the inning).

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Brits use the term innings^[5] in a figurative sense to denote a period during which a person or group is active or effective ⇒ Brewer stepped up to the commission and had his innings too.

23a   Consider // Queen backing wing taking pawn (7)

"Queen" = ER (show explanation )

The regnal ciphers (monograms) of British monarchs are initials formed from the Latin version of their first name followed by either Rex or Regina (Latin for king or queen, respectively). Thus, the regnal cipher of Queen Elizabeth is ER^[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.

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"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.

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Consider^[10] is used in the sense of to have regard for or respect ⇒ consider your mother's feelings.

24a   Sweetheart with strange dream about large // gem (7)

"sweetheart" = E (show explanation )

A common cryptic crossword construct is to use the word "sweetheart" to clue the letter 'E', the middle letter (heart) of swEet.

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25a   Film // brilliant gallery (7)

"gallery" = TATE (show explanation )

The Tate Gallery^[5] (commonly known simply as the Tate) is a national museum of art in London, England founded in 1897 by the sugar manufacturer Sir Henry Tate (1819–1899) to house his collection of modern British paintings, as a nucleus for a permanent national collection of modern art. It was renamed Tate Britain in 2000, when the new Tate Modern gallery opened. [I would surmise that by that time the original collection could no longer be considered "modern".]

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26a   Wandering minstrel with a tune, mostly // musical piece (12)

Down

1d   Shame Germany, say, about to take notice (7)

"Germany" = D (show explanation )

The International Vehicle Registration (IVR) country code for Germany is D^[5] [from German Deutschland].

German Licence Plate Format

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2d   'Outlook' /is/ necessary, not as organised (7)

Outlook^[5] is used in the sense of a view ⇒ the pleasant outlook from the club window.

3d   Muggins is tentatively keeping // resolute (9)

Scratching the Surface
Muggins[5] is an informal British term for a foolish and gullible person (often used humorously to refer to oneself) ⇒ muggins has volunteered to do the catering.

4d   City // guides for the audience (5)

Leeds^[5] is an industrial city in West Yorkshire, northern England; population 441,100 (est. 2009). It developed as a wool town in the Middle Ages, becoming a centre of the clothing trade in the Industrial Revolution.

5d   Labour /and/ Tory oddly capping benefit (7)

Scratching the Surface

The Labour Party[5] is a left-of-centre political party in Britain. (show more ) The party was formed to represent the interests of ordinary working people that since the Second World War has been in power 1945–51, 1964–70, 1974-9, and 1997–2010. Arising from the trade union movement at the end of the 19th century, it replaced the Liberals as the country’s second party after the First World War. hide A Tory[10] is a member or supporter of the Conservative Party in Great Britain [or, for that matter, in Canada]. (show more ) Historically, a Tory[10] was a member of the English political party that opposed the exclusion of James, Duke of York from the royal succession (1679–80). Tory remained the label for subsequent major conservative interests until they gave birth to the Conservative Party in the 1830s. The Conservative Party[5] is a a major British political party that emerged from the old Tory Party under Sir Robert Peel in the 1830s and 1840s. Since the Second World War, it has been in power 1951–64, 1970-74, and 1979–97. It governed in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats from 2010 until the general election of May 2015, in which it was returned with a majority. hide

6d   Crack // exterior if I cement internally (7)

7d   'Fix' // cat maybe owning ginger and white fur (12)

Ginger^[5] is a derogatory informal British term for a red-haired or ginger-haired person.

Ermine^[5] is the white fur of the stoat (show explanation ), used for trimming garments, especially the ceremonial robes of judges or peers (members of the nobility in Britain or Ireland) ⇒ the men were dressed in costly ermine and sable-edged cloaks.

The stoat^[5] (also known as the ermine, especially when in its white winter coat) is a small carnivorous mammal (Mustela erminea) of the weasel family which has chestnut fur with white underparts and a black-tipped tail. It is native to both Eurasia and North America and in northern areas the coat turns white in winter. In North America, it is known as the short-tailed weasel.

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10d   Strangely hot etchings including beginner/'s/ bedroom gear (12)

"beginner" = L [driver under instruction] (show explanation )

The cryptic crossword convention of L meaning learner or student arises from the L-plate^[7], a square plate bearing a sans-serif letter L, for learner, which must be affixed to the front and back of a vehicle in various jurisdictions (including the UK) if its driver is a learner under instruction.

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15d   Disparage // article worn by true nerd at sea (9)

In my view, the logic of the wordplay appears to be reversed here as the clue would seem to state that the article contains (is worn by) the anagram rather than the other way around. In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, pommers shows the anagram being "around (worn by) an indefinite article" — which, of course, produces the correct solution but whose logic is the inverse of what is actually stated in the clue. I would think that the clue should read something like:

• Disparage // article grasped by true nerd at sea (9)

However, there is not a single note of objection voiced on Big Dave's Crossword Blog leading me to question my interpretation of the clue.

17d   Left with a new bird /seeing/ light (7)

18d   Ring, possibly // criminal operation, accepting time inside (7)

19d   Sweet // of the French, very French tipping (7)

In French, des^[8] is a partitive article meaning 'some'.

In French, très^[8] is an adverb meaning 'very'.

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Sweet^[5] is a British term for a sweet dish forming a course of a meal; in other words, a dessert.

20d   Drug everyone admitting the old bachelor/'s/ rough (7)

"drug" = E (show explanation )

E^[5] is an abbreviation for the drug Ecstasy^* or a tablet of Ecstasy ⇒ (i) people have died after taking E; (ii) being busted with three Es can lead to stiff penalties.

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^* Ecstasy^[5] is an illegal amphetamine-based synthetic drug with euphoric effects, originally produced as an appetite suppressant. Also called MDMA (Methylenedioxymethamphetamine).

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Ye^[5] is a pseudo-archaic term for the ⇒ Ye Olde Cock Tavern. The character "y" in this word was originally not the letter "y" in the modern English alphabet but a variant representation of the Old English and Icelandic letter thorn (þ or Þ). (show more )

The word 'ye' in this sense was originally a graphic variant of 'the' rather than an alternative spelling.

Thorn^[5] is an Old English and Icelandic runic letter, þ or Þ, representing the dental fricatives /ð/ and /θ/. It was eventually superseded by the digraph th — and thus þe (the old spelling of 'the') became the modern spelling 'the'. 

In late Middle English þ (thorn) came to be written identically with y, so that þe (the) could be written ye. This spelling (usually ye^*) was kept as a convenient abbreviation in handwriting down to the 19th century, and in printers' types during the 15th and 16th centuries. It was never pronounced as ‘yee’ in the past, but this is the pronunciation used today.

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^* I interpret the phrase "usually ye" to mean that the word was customarily not capitalized because the character "y" is not being used to represent the letter "y" in the modern English alphabet but rather as a graphic variant of thorn. Thus, in bygone days, the name of the drinking establishment above would presumably have been written ye Olde Cock Tavern (and pronounced "the old cock tavern").

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"bachelor" = B (show explanation )

The abbreviation for Bachelor is B^[2] [presumably in the context of academic degrees].

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The Chambers Dictionary (or as pommers calls it, the BRB [Big Red Book]) is the only dictionary among the several that I consulted to define eyeball as an adjective:

• Eyeball^[1] (adjective, with respect to a measurement) by eye only, not exact.

22d   Hindu holy character /is/ blue colour, almost (5)

Sadhu^[5] is an Indian term for a holy man, sage, or ascetic.

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Origin: Sanskrit

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