Puzzle at a Glance
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Puzzle number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29421 | |
Publication date in The Daily Telegraph
Tuesday, July 21, 2020 | |
Setter
Unknown | |
Link to full review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29421]
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Big Dave's Crossword Blog review written by
Mr K | |
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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This puzzle appears on the Monday Diversions page in the Saturday, March 27, 2021 edition of the National Post. | |
Introduction
For readers of the National Post, this may be a "Tuesday" puzzle appearing on a Monday — although, in terms of difficulty, it falls within the gentle range typical of "Monday" puzzles.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 | Stir one's pot with a // piece of cutlery (8) |
| 5a | Energy in deer's // legs (6) |
| 9a | Place for dieter with weight going up and down? (9) |
| 11a | Coward might have written this // answer after drink (5) |
Dram[5] is a Scottish term for a small drink of whiskey or other spirits ⇒
a wee dram to ward off the winter chill.
Sir Noël Coward[5] (1899–1973) was an English dramatist, actor, and composer. He is remembered for witty, satirical plays, such as Hay Fever (1925) and Private Lives (1930), as well as revues and musicals featuring songs such as ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’ (1932).
| 12a | Bird was first /to be/ named (6) |
The tits, chickadees, and titmice[7] constitute the Paridae, a large family of small passerine birds which occur in the northern hemisphere and Africa. These birds are called either "chickadees" or "titmice" in North America, and just "tits" in the rest of the English-speaking world.
| 13a | Daft // king in doorway? Not on a regular basis (8) |
The definition here does seem — to put it mildly — stretched to the breaking point.
Daft[1,5] is an informal British term meaning silly; foolish; weak-minded; insane; unreasonably merry; very fond (of) or enthusiastic (about) ⇒
don't ask such daft questions.
| 15a | Argue no cement that's mixed /can provide/ support (13) |
| 18a | Workers in this stable damaged // business (13) |
| 22a | While // a student, hard to enter firm (8) |
"student " = L [driver under instruction]
The cryptic crossword convention of L meaning learner or student arises from the L-plate[7], a square plate bearing a sans-serif letter L, for learner, which must be affixed to the front and back of a vehicle in various jurisdictions (including the UK) if its driver is a learner under instruction.
hide
The cryptic crossword convention of L meaning learner or student arises from the L-plate[7], a square plate bearing a sans-serif letter L, for learner, which must be affixed to the front and back of a vehicle in various jurisdictions (including the UK) if its driver is a learner under instruction.
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| Automobile displaying an L-plate |
hide
| 23a | One following boss round // workplace (6) |
A boss[5] is a stud on the centre of a shield.
| 26a | Abandon // bushy area (5) |
| 27a | Sign of the cold // winter in Paris with rat outside (9) |
Hiver[8] is a French word meaning 'winter'.
What did he say?
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In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Mr K writesThe French word for winter has rat or grass wrapped around it .... Grass[5] is an informal British term meaning:
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| 28a | In cupboard is he stacking // plates? (6) |
| 29a | Guys count // in their heads (8) |
Down
| 1d | Turn over and fetch the woman // at the same time (8) |
TO[1,3], to[12], or t.o.[11,15] is the abbreviation for turnover[3,11,12,15] or turn over[1,11,15].
* In an exercise of apparent internal inconsistency, The Chambers Dictionary lists TO as the abbreviation for turn over, then spells this term as turnover in its own entry.
In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Mr K interprets TO as "the financial abbreviation for turn over". I thought it might come from the athletic world, where the term is used in several sports including rugby, American and Canadian football, basketball and hockey.
Turnover[1] is ... the total amount of money changing hands in a business; the number of employees starting or finishing employment at a particular place of work over a given period; the money value of total sales over a period; (in sports such as rugby and American football) loss of possession of the ball by a team, due to error or the breach of a rule.
| 2d | Allow // a doctor turning up on strike to leave hospital (5) |
| 3d | Even out // a uniform following crooked pleat (7) |
| 4d | Leave out // some breakfast -- I'm officially rising (4) |
| 6d | Little European // swimmer in pond? (7) |
| 7d | Agree aunt breaks // promise (9) |
| 8d | Begins // pastries after son (6) |
| 10d | Alluring // witchcraft concealing trap (8) |
| 14d | Pop group starts to get extra stroppy after cold // vegetables (8) |
Abba[5] is a Swedish pop group that became popular in the 1970s with catchy, well-crafted songs such as ‘Waterloo’ (1974) and ‘Knowing Me Knowing You’ (1977).
Scratching the Surface
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Stroppy[5] is an informal British term meaning bad-tempered and argumentative ⇒ Patricia was getting stroppy. |
| 16d | Disturb rare, cute and small // animals (9) |
| 17d | US -- it wrongly will remove leaders // with force (8) |
| 19d | Trader's first currency // problems (7) |
Rouble[5] is the British spelling of ruble, the basic monetary unit of Russia and some other former republics of the USSR, equal to 100 kopeks.
| 20d | Most warm -- /and/ most cool? (7) |
| 21d | Left by part of church, daughter // fell from the faith (6) |
An apse[5] is a large semicircular or polygonal recess in a church, arched or with a domed roof and typically at the church's eastern end.
| 24d | Training // doctor badly (5) |
| 25d | Delightful // new diamonds (4) |
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] - Lexico (formerly Oxford Dictionaries Online) (Oxford Dictionary of English)
[6] - Lexico (formerly Oxford Dictionaries Online) (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)
[15] - CollinsDictionary.com (Penguin Random House LLC/HarperCollins Publishers Ltd )
Signing off for today — Falcon
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