Puzzle at a Glance
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Puzzle number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29305 |
Publication date in The Daily Telegraph
Saturday, March 7, 2020 |
Setter
Unknown
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Link to full review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29305 – Hints]
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29305 – Review]
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Big Dave's Crossword Blog review written by
Big Dave (Hints)
gnomethang (Review)
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BD rating
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| Difficulty - ★★ | Enjoyment - ★★★ |
Falcon's experience
┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐
███████████████████████████████████
└────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘
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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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Notes
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As this was a Saturday "Prize Puzzle" in Britain, there are two entries related to it on Big Dave's Crossword Blog — the first, posted on the date of publication, contains hints for selected clues while the second is a full review issued following the entry deadline for the contest. The vast majority of reader comments will generally be found attached to the "hints" posting with a minimal number — if any — accompanying the full review.
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Introduction
This puzzle was accorded a bit of a negative reception on
Big Dave's Crossword Blog. In particular, several of the cryptic definitions were singled out for special attention. I must say that I don't share the negative opinion of the puzzle. Of course, I am rather fond of cryptic definitions.
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
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- "solid underline" - precise definition
- "dotted underline" - cryptic definition
- "dashed underline" - wordplay
- "double underline" - both wordplay and definition
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| Click here for further explanation and usage examples of markup conventions used on this blog. |
Across
| 1a | Milk producer /gives us/ energy another way (8) |
is a breed of dairy cattle from the island of Guernsey
*, noted for producing rich, creamy milk.
* Guernsey[5] is the second largest of the
Channel Islands[5], a group of islands in the English Channel off the north-western coast of France. Formerly part of the dukedom of Normandy, they have owed allegiance to England since the Norman Conquest in 1066, and are now classed as Crown dependencies.
| 5a | Heated // battles approaching sea (6) |
is an informal, British name for the
Mediterranean Sea.
| 9a | Mr Toad an eccentric // lacking definite plan (2,6) |
Scratching the Surface
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Mr. Toad[5], of Toad Hall, is one of the main characters in the 1908 children's novel The Wind in the Willows by Scottish writer Kenneth Grahame (1859 – 1932), and also the title character of the 1929 A. A. Milne play Toad of Toad Hall based on the book.
As gnomethang comments in his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, A fairly apt description . Mr. Toad is an anthropomorphic common toad who is the village squire, being the wealthy owner and occupant of Toad Hall. Toad is very rich and a bit of a fop, with a penchant for Harris tweed suits. Narcissistic, self-centred, and completely lacking in even the most basic common sense, he is prone to engaging in reckless behaviour to satisfy his implusive desires.
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| 10a | Economise // seconds before squeeze (6) |
| 12a | Fruit, /from/ tree, in can that needs a shake (9) |
| 13a | Young head-turner? (5) |
are are unable to move their eyes in any direction. Instead of moving their eyes, owls swivel their heads to view their surroundings. Owls' heads are capable of swiveling through an angle of roughly 270°, easily enabling them to see behind them without relocating the torso.
| 14a | Kitchen heater // tested with pair getting evicted (4) |
| 16a | Annual // account about chap in Los Angeles (7) |
"
chap " = MAN
Chap[3,4,11] is an informal British[5] or chiefly British[3] term for a man or boy — although a term that is certainly not uncommon in Canada. It is a shortened form of chapman[3,4,11], an archaic term for a trader, especially an itinerant pedlar[a,b].
[a] Pedlar is the modern British spelling of
peddler[14]
which, in most senses, is considered by the Brits to be a US or old-fashioned British spelling. The
exception is in the sense of a dealer in illegal drugs which the Brits
spell as
drug peddler.
[b] The current meaning of
chap[2] dates from the 18th century. In the 16th century,
chap meant 'a customer'. The dictionaries do not explain how a shortened form of 'chapman' (pedlar) came to mean 'customer'.
hide
| 19a | In which clip round the ear might be necessary? (7) |
| 21a | Stole material // from gym in Knightsbridge (4) |
Scratching the Surface
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| Knightsbridge[7] is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park.
It is home to many expensive shops, including the department stores
Harrods and Harvey Nichols, and flagship stores of many British and
international fashion houses. The district also has banks that cater to
wealthy individuals. Some of London's most renowned restaurants are
here, as well as many exclusive hair and beauty salons, antiques and
antiquities dealers, and chic bars and clubs. The international auction house, Bonhams, one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques, is
located in Knightsbridge. |
| 24a | In Netherlands notice American // tennis star (5) |
"
Netherlands " = NL [
IVR code]
The International Vehicle Registration (IVR) code
for the Netherlands is NL[5].
Netherlands Licence Plate Format
(The IVR code is on the left below the EU flag emblem)
hide
Rafael Nadal[5,7]
is a Spanish tennis player. He won the 2008 Olympic gold medal for
singles, and earlier this month at the French Open he won his twentieth grand slam singles title tying him with Roger Federer for the most in history for a male tennis player.
| 25a | Ivy for one // always jealous (9) |
The reference is to the true
ivy[5], a woody evergreen Eurasian climbing plant of the genus
Hedera, typically having shiny, dark green five-pointed leaves, rather than to similar plants, such as poison ivy, which also bear the name but are not (to my knowledge) evergreen.
Envy and Jealousy: Why Green?
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The ancient Greeks believed that jealousy was accompanied by an overproduction of bile, lending a pallid green cast to the victim. In the seventh century B.C., the poetess Sappho, used the word 'green' to describe the complexion of a stricken lover. Ovid, Chaucer, and Shakespeare followed suit, freely using 'green' to denote jealousy or envy. Perhaps the most famous such reference is Iago's speech in Act 3 of Othello:
O! beware my lord, of Jealousy;
It is the green-ey'd monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.
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| 27a | Freeholder /in/ the old sultanate (6) |
Ye[5] is a pseudo-archaic term for
the ⇒
Ye Olde Cock Tavern
.
The character "y" in this word was originally not the letter "y" in the
modern English alphabet but a variant representation of the Old English
and Icelandic letter thorn (
þ or Þ). (
show more )
The word 'ye' in this sense was originally a graphic variant of 'the' rather than an alternative spelling.
Thorn[5] is an Old English and Icelandic runic letter, þ or Þ, representing the dental fricatives ð and θ. In English it was eventually superseded by the digraph th — and thus þe (the old spelling of 'the') became the modern spelling 'the'.
In late Middle English
þ (thorn) came to be written
identically with
y, resulting in
þe (the) being written
ye. This spelling
(usually ye
*) was kept as a convenient abbreviation in handwriting down
to the 19th century, and in printers' types during the 15th and 16th
centuries. It was never pronounced as ‘yee’ in the past, but this is the
pronunciation used today.
*
I interpret the phrase "usually ye" to mean that the word was customarily not
capitalized because the character "y" is not being used to represent the
letter "y" in the modern English alphabet but rather as a graphic
variant of thorn. Thus, in bygone days, the name of the drinking establishment above would presumably have been written ye Olde Cock Tavern
(and pronounced "the old cock tavern").
hide
Oman[5,7],
officially the Sultanate of Oman, is an Arab country at the southeastern corner of the Arabian peninsula.
Historically, a
yeoman[5] was a man holding and cultivating a small landed estate; in other words, a
freeholder[5] — a British term for a person with permanent and absolute tenure of land or property with freedom to dispose of it at will.
| 28a | Dries out, drinking tea, // more sober (8) |
| 29a | Service charges /for/ castle in the air? (6) |
| 30a | Male, no dove, carrying a // weapon (8) |
What did he say?
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In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, gnomethang describes a hawk as the opposite of a dove in US politics . However, the entries for hawk[1,2,5,10] and dove[1,2,5,10] in British dictionaries give no indication that these are US terms.
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Down
| 1d | Not fine -- // initially grey then wet (6) |
| 2d | Improve /in/ hour after noon in Clapton? (6) |
"
noon " = N
I found four dictionaries listing
n as an abbreviation for
noon, two British
[1,2] and two American
[11,12].
hide
Eric Clapton[5]
is an English blues and rock guitarist, singer, and composer, known
particularly for the song ‘Layla’ (1972) and for his group Cream
(1966-8).
Scratching the Surface
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Clapton[7]
is the name of an area of East London as well as the name of villages in Berkshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset.
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| 3d | Assassin // from town in Japan (5) |
A
ninja[3]
was a member of a class of medieval Japanese mercenary agents who were
trained in the martial arts and hired for covert operations such as
assassination and sabotage.
| 4d | Schoolboy // son Baltic citizen expels (7) |
"
son " = S [
genealogy]
In genealogies,
s[5] is the abbreviation for
son(s) ⇒
m 1991; one s one d
*.
* married in 1991; one son and one daughter.
hide
An
Estonian is a native or inhabitant of
Estonia[5], a Baltic country on the south coast of the Gulf of Finland
. (
show more )
Previously ruled by the Teutonic Knights and then by Sweden, Estonia was
ceded to Russia in 1721. It was proclaimed an independent republic in
1918 but was annexed by the USSR in 1940 as a constituent republic, the
Estonian SSR. With the break-up of the Soviet Union Estonia regained its
independence in 1991.
hide
An
Etonian[5] is a past or present member of Eton College
*.
* Eton College[7], often informally referred to simply as
Eton, is an English boarding school for boys
located in Eton, Berkshire, near Windsor.
| 6d | Host // on a march moving north (9) |
| 7d | Route // zero comes up through American state (4,4) |
| 8d | Fool // takes plunge short time later (8) |
is an informal British term for a moment ⇒
(i) I shan’t be a tick
; (ii) I’ll be with you in a tick
.
| 11d | Star // not totally conscientious foodie? (4) |
is
the
brightest star in the constellation Lyra and one of the most
conspicuous in the northern hemisphere. It is part of an optical double
star having a faint companion.
| 15d | Wobble // being unwell during leave (9) |
| 17d | Sabotaged hunt okay /to provide/ gift (5,3) |
| 18d | Turn, then punch, /producing/ shower of blows? (8) |
Some superb misdirection here with "shower of blows" being used to clue a device that shows wind direction.
| 20d | Sentimental // sports supporter keeping wicket (4) |
On cricket scorecards,
wicket (in the sense of the dismissal of a batsman) is abbreviated as
W[5].
Delving Deeper
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In cricket, the term wicket[5] is used in several ways:
|
Twee[5] is a British term meaning excessively or affectedly quaint, pretty, or sentimental ⇒
although the film’s a bit twee, it’s watchable
.
| 21d | Genius? // Most are nuts (7) |
is used in the sense of any man regarded as the master of an art; often used as a term of address.
| 22d | Artist captures alien in // part one needs to see (6) |
"
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.
hide
"
alien " = ET
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial[7] (often referred to simply as
E.T.)
is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by
Steven Spielberg. It tells the story of a lonely boy who befriends an
extraterrestrial,
dubbed "E.T.", who is stranded on Earth. He and his siblings help
the extraterrestrial return home while attempting to keep it hidden from
their mother and the government.
hide
| 23d | Habit /of/ socially inept person (6) |
In Britain,
anorak[5] is an informal, derogatory term for a studious or obsessive person with unfashionable and largely solitary interests ⇒
with his thick specs, shabby shoes, and grey suit, he looks a bit of an anorak
. The term derives from
the anoraks
* worn by
trainspotters (
see below), regarded as typifying this kind of
person.
* An
anorak[5] is a waterproof jacket, typically with a hood, of a kind originally used in polar regions. Although the terms
anorak and parka[7] are sometimes used interchangeably,
they are actually quite different garments. Strictly speaking, an anorak
is a waterproof, hooded, pull-over jacket without a front opening, and
sometimes drawstrings at the waist and cuffs, and a parka is a
hip-length cold-weather coat, typically stuffed with down or very warm
synthetic fiber, and with a fur-lined hood.
Trainspotter*[5] is a British term for a person who collects train or locomotive numbers
as a hobby.
* The name is also often used in a derogatory sense to refer to a
person who obsessively studies the minutiae of any minority interest or
specialized hobby ⇒ the idea is to make the music really really collectable so the trainspotters will buy it in their pathetic thousands
.
| 26d | Chinese people coming into Georgia/'s/ country (5) |
The
Han[12] are an ethnic group in China constituting the majority of the Chinese people and distinguished from the Manchus, Mongols, etc.
