Puzzle at a Glance
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Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29229 | |
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph
Monday, December 9, 2019 | |
Setter
Campbell (Allan Scott) | |
Link to Full Review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29229] | |
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By
Miffypops | |
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
Today's puzzle is a rather gentle bit of mental exercise. However, if you noticed something strange in clue 3d, you are not mistaken. The clue does contain a clear violation of cryptic crossword convention.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 | Of a very high standard, // 'boron' clued cryptically (6,4) |
The term cordon bleu[5] denotes the highest class or standard of quality in cooking ⇒
a cordon bleu chef.
| 6a | Female friend returned /in/ a panic (4) |
| 9a | Garden pest // a Greek character named, ultimately (5) |
Phi[5] is the twenty-first letter of the Greek alphabet (Φ, φ).
| 10a | Cooking in 'lite' was // something a model needed to watch, perhaps (9) |
| 12a | One in a tub, or // one in a crate? (7) |
Crate[2] is derogatory slang for a decrepit vehicle or aircraft.
Scratching the Surface
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|---|---|
| Tub[2] is a colloquial term for a slow and often clumsy boat. |
| 13a | Religious people spending hour /in/ Asian river (5) |
The Indus[5] is a river of southern Asia, about 2,900 km (1,800 miles) in length, flowing from Tibet through Kashmir and Pakistan to the Arabian Sea. Along its valley an early civilization flourished from circa 2600 to 1760 BC.
| 15a | Pray /there's/ melted cheese on first of burgers (7) |
| 16a | A curse, // male having girl's name (7) |
Apparently, the "girl's name" in question is not strictly a girl's name at all but an epicene name (one that is given to both girls and boys). However, if you are like me, you have yet to meet a boy carrying this name.
Alison[7] (and its many spelling variants) is a unisex given name in English-speaking countries. It was originally a medieval French nickname for Alis, an old form of Alice derived with the suffix -on or -son sometimes used in the former French nicknames such as Jeanson ("little Jean") or Pierson ("little Pierre").
Malison[5] is an archaic term for a curse.
| 18a | One ignited inside target, recalled // troops (7) |
| 20a | Basket // orphan girl found after parking next to river (7) |
Little Orphan Annie[7] was a daily syndicated American comic strip created by Harold Gray (1894–1968). The strip ran from 1924 to 2010.
| 21a | Writer retired by a lake /in/ Asian republic (5) |
The
use of the word "writer" to clue PEN is likely to be slightly more
cryptic to the Brits than it is to us on this side of the pond. British
solvers will see "pen" as being a writing implement rather than the person wielding that implement. (show more )
In addition to defining pen[3,11] as a writing implement, North American dictionaries also define it as a writer or an author ⇒
hide
In addition to defining pen[3,11] as a writing implement, North American dictionaries also define it as a writer or an author ⇒
a hired pen, British dictionaries do not list this meaning although they do show pen[2,4] (or the pen[5,10]) as symbolically representing writing as an occupation (a sense of the word not found in US dictionaries).
hide
| 23a | Very strong // colour applied round rear of prison (7) |
| 25a | Restaurant /using/ money I put in before (9) |
Brass[5] is a British informal term for money ⇒
they wanted to spend their newly acquired brass.
A brasserie[11] is an unpretentious restaurant or tavern that serves drinks, especially beer, and simple food.
| 26a | In particular, alpha // male in 'Lord of the Flies' (5) |
Lord of the Flies[7] is a 1954 novel by Nobel Prize-winning English author William Golding (1911–1993). The book's premise focuses on a group of British boys, the only survivors of a plane crash, who are stranded on an uninhabited island and their attempt to govern themselves, with disastrous results. One of the main protagonists is a boy named Ralph who becomes the ultimate authority in the group's leadership structure.
| 27a | Happening briefly /in/ flat (4) |
Scratching the Surface
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|---|---|
| Flat[5] is the British term for what would be called an apartment[5] in North America. |
| 28a | Partner // improved, to an extent (6,4) |
Down
| 1d | Talk // about lid (4) |
| 2d | Tries to disrupt genuine // trial (9) |
| 3d | Mature views broadcast about hackneyed // folk tales (3,5,5) |
A Definite No-No
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|---|---|
| This clue contains a clear violation of cryptic crossword convention. As DaveP puts it in the thread at comment #1 on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, "A cardinal rule is that a word from the answer shouldn’t appear in the clue, at least not directly." To correct this faux pas, The Daily Telegraph later changed the online version of the clue to read:
It is extremely rare for the puzzle published in The Daily Telegraph to differ from that distributed in syndication. However, it is not unusual for the online version of the puzzle in the UK to differ from the version published in the newspaper. In fact, as was the case with today's puzzle, the online puzzle is often updated after publication in response to errors reported by readers of the paper. |
| 4d | Charm /of/ extremely bizarre sorceress (7) |
| 5d | Witty remark, // gem, pair in convulsions (7) |
| 7d | Landowner /in/ place of seclusion with daughter (5) |
In Scotland, a laird[5] is a person who owns a large estate.
| 8d | Friendly comment /with/ variety of ales found in larder (10) |
| 11d | Experimentation /may bring/ fear across Rhode Island (American state) (5,3,5) |
In official postal use, the abbreviation for the US state of Rhode Island is RI[5].
| 14d | Very bad, // a mobile ban all over the place (10) |
Scratching the Surface
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|---|---|
Mobile[5] (short for mobile phone) is a British term for a cell phone[5] (short for cellular phone) ⇒ we telephoned from our mobile to theirs. |
| 17d | Trace // calls in it, improperly (9) |
| 19d | Hostile, // a rhyme about Germany (7) |
| 20d | Backing international // dissent (7) |
International[5] is a British term for a game or contest between teams representing different countries in a sport ⇒
the Murrayfield rugby international.
Test[5] (short for Test match[5]) denotes an international cricket or rugby match, typically one of a series, played between teams representing two different countries ⇒
the Test match between Pakistan and the West Indies.
| 22d | Tree /in/ plot on base (5) |
In mathematics, e[5] is the transcendental* number that is the base of Napierian or natural logarithms, approximately equal to 2.71828.
* A transcendental number[5] is a number such as e or π that is real but not a root of an algebraic equation with rational coefficients.
The plane[5] (also plane tree) is a tall spreading tree of the genus Platanus of the northern hemisphere, with maple-like leaves and bark which peels in uneven patches.
| 24d | Professional in kitchen /given/ revolutionary fine (4) |
"revolutionary " = CHE [Guevara]
Che Guevara[7]
(1928–1967) was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author,
guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A major figure of the
Cuban
Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural
symbol of rebellion and global insignia within popular culture.
hide
Che Guevara[7]
(1928–1967) was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author,
guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A major figure of the
Cuban
Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural
symbol of rebellion and global insignia within popular culture.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)
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