Puzzle at a Glance
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Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29226 | |
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph
Thursday, December 5, 2019 | |
Setter
RayT (Ray Terrell) | |
Link to Full Review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29226] | |
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By
Kath | |
BD Rating
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| 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
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Introduction
When this puzzle was published in the UK, the Brits were beginning to prepare for Christmas as evidenced by comments on Big Dave's Crossword Blog concerning Christmas shopping and holiday preparations. The season also seems to have put them in an uncharacteristically charitable mood. Even those who are not fans of RayT — including Brian — express their feelings in the most civil fashion imaginable.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.
| Markup Conventions | |
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| Click here for further explanation and usage examples of markup conventions used on this blog. | |
Across
| 1a | Man with libertine cavorting // without end (12) |
| 9a | Circulated // around street on minor route (9) |
In Great Britain, B roads[7] are numbered local routes, which have lower traffic densities than the main trunk roads, or A roads. This classification has nothing to do with the width or quality of the physical road, and B roads can range from dual carriageways [divided highways] to single track roads with passing places.
| 10a | Number // understood to be about five? (5) |
| 11a | Hermitage /made from/ wood and stuff (6) |
An ashram[5] (especially in South Asia) is a hermitage, monastic community, or other place of religious retreat.
| 12a | Priestly // ancient using speech (8) |
| 13a | Nudist, ill-mannered, keeping // press out (6) |
I presume that distil[1] (British spelling; North American spelling, distill) is likely being used in the figurative sense of to reduce to essentials by sorting and sifting.
| 15a | Thrashing // without holding top of lash (8) |
| 18a | Let off // partner accepting rejected attention (8) |
| 19a | Film-maker possibly // approached artist (6) |
The definition here is perhaps a bit whimsical.
"artist " = RA
A Royal Academician (abbreviation RA[10]) is a member of the Royal Academy of Arts[5] (also Royal Academy; abbreviation also RA[10]), an institution established in London in 1768, whose purpose is to cultivate painting, sculpture, and architecture in Britain.
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A Royal Academician (abbreviation RA[10]) is a member of the Royal Academy of Arts[5] (also Royal Academy; abbreviation also RA[10]), an institution established in London in 1768, whose purpose is to cultivate painting, sculpture, and architecture in Britain.
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| 21a | Continue circling sky with // flight (8) |
| 23a | Unfinished figure on motorway /creates/ accident (6) |
The M1[7] is a north–south motorway* in England connecting London to Leeds.
* Motorway[2,5] (abbreviation M[5]) is a British, Australian, and New Zealand term for a dual-carriageway road [divided highway] designed for fast-moving traffic, especially one with three lanes per carriageway [direction of travel] and limited access and exit points [controlled access].
| 26a | River fish /potentially found in/ rocks (5) |
RayT may be renowned for his concise cluing but here he manages to produce a clue in which the link phrase constitutes fully half of the entire clue. I note that this point also occasioned a bit of discussion at Comment #8 on Big Dave's Crossword Blog.
| 27a | Guardsman // turned out in red gear? (9) |
Yes, they most definitely do turn out in red gear.
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| British Grenadier Guard |
| 28a | Altering manner, lutist /produces/ musical piece (12) |
Down
| 1d | Current reportedly made hole // contained by ship (7) |
Thinking that the current was of the electrical variety greatly slowed my progress on this clue.
| 2d | Initially tests resolve over treacherous husband/'s/ fidelity (5) |
| 3d | Sort of energy // helping to keep support up (9) |
| 4d | Country // yours truly led (4) |
| 5d | Even // American clubs score to catch United (8) |
Here, I thought that even[10] might be an adverb used to introduce a more precise version of a word, phrase, or statement ⇒ (i)
her work is gloomy, even morbid; (ii)
one would certainly describe her as beautiful, gorgeous even.
However, in her reply to Uncle Chip at Comment #13 on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Kath provides a different explanation that is certainly just as good, even better perhaps.
Scratching the Surface
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| Manchester United Football Club[7], commonly known as Man United or simply United*, is an English professional football [soccer] club, based in Old Trafford,
Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League (the top level in
the English football league system). * Although, in Britain, the word United[5] is commonly used in the names of soccer and other sports teams formed by amalgamation, it would seem that the word United in the absence of other context would customarily be assumed to be a reference to Manchester United. |
| 6d | Composer/'s/ record for the audience (5) |
Franz Liszt[5] (1811–1886) was a Hungarian composer and pianist. (show more )
He was a key figure in the romantic movement; many of his piano compositions combine lyricism with great technical complexity, while his twelve symphonic poems (1848–58) created a new musical form.
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He was a key figure in the romantic movement; many of his piano compositions combine lyricism with great technical complexity, while his twelve symphonic poems (1848–58) created a new musical form.
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| 7d | Tremendous // lovers I zealously embraced (8) |
| 8d | Open // a French drink upended (6) |
| 14d | Working at a diet's /getting/ stuffed (8) |
| 16d | Still // stupid tackling one on rug (9) |
| 17d | Unbroken // channel round outskirts of Greenwich (8) |
Scratching the Surface
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| Greenwich[5] is a London borough on the south bank of the River Thames, the site of the Royal Observatory. |
| 18d | Run away from // heartless fool perhaps (6) |
Fool[5] is a chiefly British name for a cold dessert made of pureed fruit mixed or served with cream or custard ⇒
raspberry fool with cream.
| 20d | Shock purchasing occasionally free // clothing (7) |
| 22d | Sap /is/ wrong supporting rise of Queen (5) |
"Queen " = ER [regnal cipher of Queen Elizabeth]
| 24d | Raise // army to protect island (5) |
| 25d | List /of/ soldiers with uniform (4) |
"uniform " = U [NATO Phonetic Alphabet]
In what is commonly known as the NATO Phonetic Alphabet[7]*, Uniform[5] is a code word representing the letter U.
* officially the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet
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In what is commonly known as the NATO Phonetic Alphabet[7]*, Uniform[5] is a code word representing the letter U.
* officially the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet
hide
Key to Reference Sources:Signing off for today — Falcon
[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 Advanced 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)
Solved without help in average time. So, two stars in difficulty.
ReplyDeleteBrian was uncommonly civil, if not complimentary. My beef with Ray T is that legos frequently predominate his clues and some of his constructions are more clunky than artful. 18 and 21, for two examples.