Wednesday, March 20, 2019 — DT 28861

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 28861
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, October 18, 2018
Setter RayT (Ray Terrell)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 28861]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Falcon
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

In a rare occurrence, I immediately recognized this puzzle as one that I had reviewed on Big Dave's Crossword Blog. However, as I worked through the puzzle, I encountered clues that I did not recall and began to doubt whether I had really solved it before.

Then, in writing the review, I discovered a few glaring errors in my previous review. Oh well, c'est la vie!

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   Terribly masculine sporting lad's // bigchested (6)

4a   Trigger's first with rogues // Del and Rodney? (8)

Rotter^[5] is a informal, dated, chiefly British term for a cruel, mean, or unkind person ⇒ Rosemary had decided that all men were rotters.

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Derek "Del Boy" Trotter and his younger brother Rodney Trotter are fictional characters from the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses^[7] which aired from 1981 to 1991 (with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003).

Scratching the Surface
Colin Ball, more commonly known as Trigger[7], is a fictional character in the popular BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses and its prequel Rock & Chips. In my review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, I naively supposed that the name might be a reference to Roy Roger's horse — a faux pas that did not go unnoticed by the Brits (see Comment #9 on Big Dave's Crossword Blog)!

9a   Rubbish actress almost // given new role (6)

As an anagram indicator, I believe that rubbish^[1] is likely being used as an adjective^* denoting of or relating to rubbish (in the sense of nonsense). Nonsense^[12] itself can be an adjective meaning of or designating verse, poetry, or other literary composition consisting of words or syllables constructed of sounds or symbols arranged arbitrarily so as to convey an absurd meaning or no meaning at all. Thus presumably 'rubbish verse' would be another way of saying 'nonsense verse'.

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^* In North America, the word rubbish^[3,11] is employed only as a noun whereas, in the UK, it is also used as both an adjective and verb. (show more )

• Rubbish^[5] (adjective) is an informal British term denoting very bad; worthless or useless ⇒ (i) people might say I was a rubbish manager; (ii) she was rubbish at maths^*.

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  ^* In Britain, the short form for mathematics is maths^[5] ⇒ her mother was a maths teacher, rather than math^[5] as is the case in North America ⇒ she teaches math and science.

• Rubbish^[4,5] (verb) is an informal British term meaning to criticize severely and reject as worthless ⇒ he rubbished the idea of a European Community-wide carbon tax.

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10a   Page // messenger taking time (8)

I must say that I question whether a page would really be considered to be a courtier. Would not the page be an attendant to the courtier?

Historically. a page^[5] was a man or boy employed as the personal attendant of a person of rank.

A courtier^[5] is a person who attends a royal court as a companion or adviser to the king or queen.

12a   Caused // upset on hospital department (8)

"hospital department" = ENT (show explanation )

Should you not have noticed, the ear, nose and throat (ENT^[2]) department is the most visited section, by far, in the Crosswordland Hospital.

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Upset^[10] is used in the sense of to make physically ill ⇒ seafood always upsets my stomach.

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Entail^[5] is used in an archaic legal sense meaning to cause to experience or possess (something) permanently or inescapably ⇒ I cannot get rid of the disgrace which you have entailed upon us.

13a   Dock facing North // River (6)

The Severn^[5] is a river of southwestern Britain. Rising in central Wales, it flows north-east then south in a broad curve for some 290 km (180 miles) to its mouth on the Bristol Channel.

15a   Striking /and/ elegant, but for pants ... (13)

As an anagram indicator, pants^[5] is used in an informal British sense meaning rubbish or nonsense ⇒ he thought we were going to be absolute pants.

18a   ... changing pants, idea is so // cool (13)

22a   Old Nick // relating to skeleton (6)

Nick^[5] is an informal British term meaning to steal ⇒ she nicked fivers from the till.

Scratching the Surface
Nick[2] (also Old Nick) is another name for the devil.

24a   Laurence looking terrible /in/ blue? (8)

Cerulean^[5] is a literary term denoting a deep sky-blue colour.

26a   Popular detective, cocky, coming over // brave (8)

Don't be fooled into thinking that the detective is the PI so obviously sitting in the clue.

"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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27a   Attach 'cut down bad habit' // warning (6)

At least this time I did not repeat the mistake that I made when I first solved the puzzle in October.

28a   Legally /giving/ sanctuary in sacred surroundings (8)

29a   Bad sport inhibiting one/'s/ cheers (6)

Prosit^[5] (also prost) is a German expression used in drinking a person's health.

This puzzle was published in the UK during October and, as such, the solution to this clue was quite timely with Oktoberfest in full swing.

Down

1d   Checked /and/ exposed trapping Queen (6)

"Queen" = R (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 — often shortened to ER) or in the titles of lawsuits (e.g. Regina v. Jones, the Crown versus Jones — often shortened to R. v. Jones).

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^* 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.

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2d   Tool /that's/ fancy eases cut trimming rose's top (9)

3d   Guard dog /is/ old lady's pet (7)

5d   Chess piece // one jumps over King (4)

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

"king" = K (show explanation )

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

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6d   Most cutting // exam after tell-tale turned up (7)

7d   Exclusive lot is terribly exclusive initially (5)

The entire clue provides the wordplay in which the definition is embedded.

I think one might well underline a bit more of the clue:

• Exclusive lot is terribly exclusive initially (5)

where the definition is structured along the lines of crème de la crème.

8d   More offbeat // satire oddly covers outrage (8)

11d   Cool // match official occasionally cried quietly (7)

On Second Thought
In my review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, I wrote that we need an irregular sequence of letters drawn from cRiEd .... I can't imagine what I was thinking at the time. This is obviously a regular sequence of letters.

14d   Demure in action /getting/ seduced (7)

Decoy^[5] means to lure or entice (a person or animal) away from their intended course, typically into a trap ⇒ they would try to decoy the enemy towards the hidden group.

16d   Beer ends namely in containers here? (9)

The entire clue provides a cryptic definition as the solution does specify places where beer ends up in containers — and they are named containers (as shown by the illustration I used in my review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog). Of course, I could have equally well used a picture of a beer bottle or beer can.

Another Second Thought
Although, in my review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, I included the word "here" in the wordplay, that is obviously an error as that word clearly does not factor into the wordplay.

17d   Correct // my French taken by a beauty (8)

Mon^[8] is the masculine singular form in French of the possessive adjective 'my'.

19d   Inspires // American with, like, acquiring knowledge (7)

Ken^[5] (noun) denotes one's range of knowledge or understanding ⇒ politics are beyond my ken.

20d   Adult, small below, // in pieces (7)

"adult" = A [film certificate] (show more )

The A (Adult) certificate is a former film certificate^[7] issued by the British Board of Film Classification. This certificate existed in various forms from 1912 to 1985, when it was replaced by the PG (Parental Guidance) certificate. [Despite its demise in the real world, it continues to find widespread use in Crosswordland.]

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

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

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21d   Consume, // consumed by binges, tippling (6)

23d   God /of/ sex with bronze exterior (5)

"sex" = IT (show explanation )

It^[2,5] (usually written in quotation marks, "it") is an informal term for sex appeal^* or sexual intercourse ⇒ (i) the only thing I knew nothing about was ‘it’; (ii) they were caught doing ‘it’ in the back seat of his car.

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^* Chambers 21st Century Dictionary considers this sense to be an "old use" (Chambers' terminology for archaic, obsolete or old-fashioned). "It"^[7] (written in quotation marks) is a term that has come to mean sex appeal — although, in its earliest manifestation, it seems that the term pertained more to personality than to glamorous looks. Despite having been used as early as 1904 by Rudyard Kipling, the term was popularized  in the 1927 film It starring Clara Bow (who became known as the "It Girl").

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In Classical Greek mythology, the Titans and Titanesses^[7] were members of the second order of divine beings, descending from the primordial deities and preceding the Olympian deities. Based on Mount Othrys, the Titans most famously included the first twelve children of the primordial Gaia (Mother Earth) and Uranus (Father Heaven). They were giant deities of incredible strength, who ruled during the legendary Golden Age, and also composed the first pantheon of Greek deities.

25d   Put pressure on sick /to get/ medicine (4)

"pressure" = P [symbol used in physics] (show explanation )

In physics, p^[5] is a symbol used to represent pressure in mathematical formulae.

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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