Tuesday, August 25, 2020 — DT 29258

Puzzle at a Glance

Puzzle Number in The Daily Telegraph DT 29258
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, January 13 2020
Setter Campbell (Allan Scott)
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29258]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog Review Written By Miffypops
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

Based on the comments on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, most solvers seem to have found this puzzle to be a walk in the park. Of course, as any statistician knows, there are bound to be a few outliers in any data set.

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
"//" - marks the boundary between wordplay and definition when no link word or link phrase is present "/[link word or phrase]/" - marks the boundary between wordplay and definition when a link word or link phrase is present	"solid underline" - precise definition "dotted underline" - cryptic definition "dashed underline" - wordplay "double underline" - both wordplay and definition
Click here for further explanation and usage examples of markup conventions used on this blog.

Across

1a	Section of gulag has them // overcome with horror (6)

4a	Explain // Pinter's opening in 'Betrayal' (5,3)

Scratching the Surface
Betrayal[7] is a play written by English playwright Harold Pinter (1930–2008) in 1978.

9a	English bishop with // task to perform (6)

"bishop " = RR [Right Reverend]

Right Reverend^[5] (abbreviation RR^[2]) is a title given to a bishop, especially in the Anglican Church ⇒ the Right Reverend David Jenkins, Bishop of Durham.

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10a	What may be ridden // round by one, briefly? (8)

11a	An ingredient of gunpowder // later step developed (9)

Gunpowder^[5] is an explosive consisting of a powdered mixture of saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal, now chiefly used for quarry blasting and in fuses and fireworks.

13a	Starts to round up ruminants at large // in the countryside (5)

14a	Sick to benefit more? // None too soon (3,6,4)

Not before time^[5] is a phrase used to convey that something now happening or about to happen should have happened earlier ⇒ a new law is proposed to curb this type of blatantly dishonest description, and not before time.

17a	Financing it is silly, // meaningless (13)

21a	House /of/ retired US soldier -- look round (5)

"US soldier " = GI

A GI^[5] is a private soldier in the US army ⇒ she went off with a GI during the war.

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Origin: Contrary to popular belief, the term apparently is not an abbreviation for general infantryman, but rather derives from the term government (or general) issue (originally denoting equipment supplied to US forces).

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"look " = LO

Lo^[5] is an archaic exclamation used to draw attention to an interesting or amazing event ⇒ and lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them.

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23a	Send signals /from/ beach about European plot (9)

"European " = E [as in E-number]

E^[1,2] is the abbreviation for European (as in E number^*).

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^* An E number^[1,4,10,14] (or E-number^[2,5]) is any of various identification codes required by EU law, consisting of the letter E (for European) followed by a number, that are used to denote food additives such as colourings and preservatives (but excluding flavourings) that have been approved by the European Union.

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Semaphore^[5] is used as a verb meaning to send (a message) by semaphore or by signals resembling semaphore^* ⇒ Josh stands facing the rear and semaphoring the driver's intentions to frustrated queues of following cars.

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^* Semaphore^[5] is a system of sending messages by holding the arms or two flags or poles in certain positions according to an alphabetic code.

24a	International finished /as/ planned (8)

25a	Calling // attendant about one, finally (6)

26a	House: Philip entering to look at // gardening aid (8)

"house " = HO

Although not found in most of the dictionaries I consulted, ho.^[10] is the abbreviation for house.

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Pip^[7] is a common nickname for Philip (including its numerous alternative spellings and feminine forms).

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Hosepipe^[10] is a British term for a hose that people use to water their gardens or wash their cars.

27a	Guard // small passage (6)

"small " = S [clothing size]

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

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In English dialect, an entry^[10] is a passage between the backs of two rows of terraced houses [row houses^[10]].

Down

1d	Not favouring // American poetry (6)

2d	Bad luck if player gets these? (4,5)

The entire clue might be taken as a cryptic definition in which a precise definition is embedded.

Hard lines (or hard luck^[5]) is an informal British expression used to express sympathy or commiserations.

3d	Some courts and pitches // where children may play (7)

Sandpit^[5] is the British term for sandbox.

Scratching the Surface
In Britain, pitch[5] is another term for field[5] in the sense of an area of ground marked out or used for play in an outdoor team game ⇒ a football pitch.

5d	Turmoil /in/ opium den man sorted out (11)

6d	Uncle swimming across English river /and/ lake (7)

Lake Lucerne^[5] is a lake in central Switzerland, surrounded by the four cantons of Lucerne, Nidwalden, Uri, and Schwyz.

7d	Take place /of/ us outside Cricket Club (5)

CC^[5] is the abbreviations for Cricket Club.

8d	The man's inside playing subtle // form of music (3,5)

12d	Story one may mistakenly associate with 'Rip Van Winkle'? (3,3,5)

"Rip Van Winkle"^[5] is a short story by the American author Washington Irving (1783–1859), first published in 1819. It follows a Dutch-American villager in colonial America named Rip Van Winkle who meets mysterious Dutchmen, imbibes their liquor and falls asleep in the Catskill Mountains. He awakes 20 years later to a very changed world, having missed the American Revolution.

The Big Sleep^[5] (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler (1888–1959), the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, in 1946 (starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall) and again in 1978^*.

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^* Although the 1978 film takes so many liberties with period, location, characters and plot that little would seem to remain of Chandler's work save the title.

15d	Shy type, // mostly ever so tense, after opening (9)

I must deviate from the explanation given by Miffypops on Big Dave's Crossword Blog. I see the wordplay parsing as:

• {VER[Y] (ever so) with the final letter removed (mostly) + T(ense)} following (after) INTRO (opening).

Miffypops' explanation leaves the word "so" unaccounted for.

"tense " = T [grammar term]

Grammatically speaking, t.^[10] is the abbreviation for tense.

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16d	Drop off // short skirt to be collected by stunner (8)

18d	Adult/'s/ complaint reportedly raised (5-2)

19d	Satisfy /with/ a couple of pages on moderate (7)

"page " = P [publishing]

In textual references, the abbreviation for page is p^[5] ⇒ see p 784.

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20d	Enthusiastic // male group heading off (6)

22d	Patch of ground by American // plant (5)

Lotus^[2] is the name of several species of water lily:

• a species of water lily sacred to the ancient Egyptians and often depicted in Egyptian art
• either of two species of water lily belonging to a separate genus, widely cultivated as ornamental plants, one native to Asia, with pink flowers and traditionally associated with Buddhism and Hinduism, and the other native to southern USA, with yellow flowers

The lotus of Greek mythology was not a water lily but the fruit of the jujube shrub, used by the ancient Greeks to make bread and wine, consumption of which was thought to produce a state of blissful and dreamy forgetfulness.

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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]   - TheFreeDictionarycom (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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Signing off for today — Falcon