Friday, March 1, 2019 — DT 28848

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28848
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, September 19, 2018
Setter Jay (Jeremy Mutch)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28848]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By 2Kiwis
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

Another great puzzle from Jay to wrap up the week.

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   News hits out about married // poet, perhaps (9)

6a   Detectives ought to arrest leading // matchmaker (5)

"detectives" = CID (show explanation )

The Criminal Investigation Department (seemingly better known by its abbreviation CID^[2]) is the detective branch of a British police force.

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9a   Small and friendly // crowd on the move (5)

"small" = S [clothing size] (show explanation )

S^[5] is the abbreviation for small (as a clothing size).

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10a   Dares to go out of the theatre this way? (5,4)

The entire clue provides the definition in which the wordplay is embedded. I have marked the definition as being cryptic but should you not agree, please feel free to connect the dots.

First, we go out ...

11a   Go in using jemmy, /being/ resourceful (12)

... then we go in.

Jemmy^[10] is the British spelling of jimmy, a short steel crowbar used, especially by burglars, for forcing [or prising] doors and windows.

14a   Exposed rock group/'s/ work around criminal court (7)

"work" = OP (show explanation )

In music, an opus^[5] (Latin 'work', plural opuses or opera) is a separate composition or set of compositions.

The abbreviation Op.^[5] (also op.), denoting opus, is used before a number given to each work of a particular composer, usually indicating the order of publication. The plural form of Op. is Opp..

Opus^[5] can also be used in other contexts to denote an artistic work, especially one on a large scale ⇒ he was writing an opus on Mexico.

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16a   Simple and effective // angle developed in case of export (7)

17a   Habitual response // to gum without protection? (3)

Gum^[3] is used in the sense of to fix in place with gum, an adhesive made from substances exuded by certain plants and trees.

18a   Notices planted in river area /and/ lake (4,3)

The Dee^[5,7] could be any of several rivers in Scotland and England — not to mention Ireland and Australia — the most prominent being:

• a river in northeastern Scotland, which rises in the Grampian Mountains and flows eastwards past Balmoral Castle to the North Sea at Aberdeen
• a river that rises in North Wales and flows past Chester and on into the Irish Sea

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The Dead Sea^[5] is a salt lake or inland sea in the Jordan valley, on the Israel–Jordan border. Its surface is 1,300 feet (400 m) below sea level. The sea is called "dead" because its high salinity prevents macroscopic aquatic organisms, such as fish and aquatic plants, from living in it, though minuscule quantities of bacteria and microbial fungi are present.^[7]

20a   Modern entrepreneur/'s/ European fashion, reportedly (1-6)

An e-tailer^[5] (trademark in the US^*) is a retailer selling goods via electronic transactions on the Internet.

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^* Does this explain why this term seemed to be especially troublesome for the Brits.

For a change, a homophone that works on this side of the pond — even though my pronunciation of the homophone pair would certainly differ from that of many Brits.

In the wordplay, fashion is used as a verb.

22a   Company people must welcome company /getting/ verification (12)

26a   Lapse /in/ supervision (9)

27a   Slim girl's first // obsession (5)

28a   Material /that/ acted as substitute? (5)

29a   Naval officer/'s/ been on rum, drunk (6,3)

I found two entries for number one which I suspect may be a British^* naval term:

• The Chambers Dictionary: number one^[1] is nautical slang for a lieutenant, first officer (under the rank of commander);
• Oxford Dictionaries Online: number one^[5] is an informal term for a first lieutenant in the navy. 

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^* On Wikipedia, the search term Number One (Royal Navy)^[7] redirects to the article Second-in-command^[7]. However, the article itself makes no mention of the term "number one" merely stating "In the Royal Navy, the second-in-command of a vessel, regardless of rank, is known as the first lieutenant or executive officer."

Down

1d   Clean // coat used by painter (4)

In painting, a wash^[2] is a thin application of water colour.

2d   Fear losing head /for/ study (4)

Read^[5] is a British term meaning to study (an academic subject) at a university ⇒ (i) I’m reading English at Cambridge; (ii) he went to Manchester to read for a BA in Economics.

3d   Hurried up after house // discussion group (7)

Semi^[5,10] is an informal British^* term for a semi-detached house ⇒ a three-bedroomed semi.

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^* Although both Oxford Dictionaries Online and Collins English Dictionary consider this to be a British term, the term is definitely in common usage in Canada. However, we would most certainly say ⇒ three-bedroom semi rather than three-bedroomed semi.

4d   Contentious topic /for/ children (5)

Issue^[5] is a legal term denoting children of one's own ⇒ the earl died without male issue.

5d   Some armour /needed for/ the man with a daughter and gun in America (9)

"daughter" = D [genealogy] (show explanation )

In genealogies, d^[5] is the abbreviation for daughter ⇒ Henry m. Georgina 1957, 1s 2d^*.

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^* Henry married Georgina in 1957. Their marriage produced 1 son and 2 daughters.

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From a British perspective, piece^[5] is an informal North American term for a firearm.

6d   English weakness after credit /for/ crack (7)

7d   Rewarding // suitable answer in endless puzzle (10)

8d   Insulting // doctor or aged Conservative (10)

"Conservative" = TORY (show more )

A Tory^[10] is a member or supporter of the Conservative Party in Great Britain [or, for that matter, in Canada].

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.

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12d   Leaders /seeing/ behaviour with soldiers on last of manoeuvres (10)

"soldiers" = OR (show explanation )

In the British armed forces, the term other ranks^[5] (abbreviation OR^[5]) refers to all those who are not commissioned officers.

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13d   The achievement /of/ a teetotaller isn't commonly welcoming people (10)

"teetotaller" = TT (show explanation )

Teetotal^[5] (abbreviation TT^[5]) means choosing or characterized by abstinence from alcohol ⇒ a teetotal lifestyle.

A teetotaller^[5] (US teetotaler; abbreviation TT^[5]) is a person who never drinks alcohol.

The term teetotal is an emphatic extension of total, apparently first used by Richard Turner, a worker from Preston [England], in a speech (1833) urging total abstinence from all alcohol, rather than mere abstinence from spirits, as advocated by some early temperance reformers.

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15d   Tramping around nursing a // grouse (9)

Rock Ptarmigan

The ptarmigan^[5] is a northern grouse of mountainous and Arctic regions, with feathered legs and feet and plumage that typically changes to white in winter.

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Origin: Late 16th century: from Scottish Gaelic tàrmachan. The spelling with p- was introduced later, suggested by Greek words starting with pt-.

19d   Dons /may be/ working after mistakes (5,2)

21d   Early Christian // job in sales discovered (7)

The setter uses "discovered" in a whimsical sense directing the solver to strip away the outer letters of the word preceding it. This cryptic device is based on the logic that if disrobe means to remove one's robe (or other clothing), then it only stands to reason that discover must mean to remove one's cover.

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The Apostles^[5] (show more ) were the twelve chief disciples of Jesus Christ. An apostle^[5] was an important early Christian teacher or pioneering missionary ⇒ Kiril and Metodije, the apostles of the Slavs.

The twelve Apostles were Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James (the Less), Judas (or Thaddaeus), Simon, and Judas Iscariot. After the suicide of Judas Iscariot his place was taken by Matthias

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23d   Symbol /of/ bear market's origin (5)

24d   Agents must have nothing /for/ so long (4)

"agents" = CIA (show explanation )

The Central Intelligence Agency^[5] (abbreviation CIA) is a federal agency in the US responsible for coordinating government intelligence activities. Established in 1947 and originally intended to operate only overseas, it has since also operated in the US.

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Ciao^[5] is an informal exclamation used as a greeting at meeting or parting ⇒ see you later—ciao!.

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Origin: Italian, dialect alteration of schiavo ‘(I am your) slave’, from medieval Latin sclavus ‘slave’.

25d   Fit /is/ imprecise, very lacking (4)

"very" = V (show explanation )

The abbreviation v (or v.)^[1,2,5,10] stands for very. Although this definition is found in most of my British dictionaries, it does not appear in any of my American dictionaries. Unfortunately no explanation is given as to the specific context in which one might encounter this usage. The only possibility that I can imagine is when combined with G as a grade of VG (very good) on school tests or assignments.

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Ague^[5] is an archaic term for:

• malaria or another illness involving fever and shivering
• a fever or shivering fit

Here and There

In their review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, the 2Kiwis hint that vague is a word meaning waffly. Waffly[5] (adjective) is an informal British term denoting (in reference to speech or writing) lengthy in a vague or trivial manner ⇒ You couldn't care less, because their language is waffly and you don't understand a word of it. The adjective waffly derives from the word waffle which has a different meaning in the UK than it does in North America. To Brits, waffle[5] means: (verb) to speak or write at length in a vague or trivial manner ⇒ he waffled on about his problems (noun) lengthy but vague or trivial talk or writing ⇒ we've edited out some of the waffle. To North Americans, waffle[5] means: (verb) to fail to make up one's mind ⇒ Joseph had been waffling over where to go (noun) a failure to make up one's mind ⇒ his waffle on abortion

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