Puzzle at a Glance
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Puzzle number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29412 | |
Publication date in The Daily Telegraph
Friday, July 10, 2020 | |
Setter
silvanus | |
Link to full review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29412]
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Big Dave's Crossword Blog review written by
Deep Threat | |
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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Introduction
Overall, not very difficult but I needed a gentle nudge from my electronic assistants before I saw the light at 1a.I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.
Error in Today's Puzzle
There is an error in today's puzzle which was also present in the printed edition of The Daily Telegraph back in July. The error also apparently initially appeared on the Telegraph Puzzles website but was modified at some point during the puzzle's day of publication.Clue 26a should read:
- 26a Gobbles suet regularly, getting very overweight (5)
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 | The new stadium designed for West Ham United, perhaps? (7) |
Scratching the Surface
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| West Ham United Football Club[7] is an English professional football [soccer]
club based in Upton Park, East London, England who play in the
Premier League, England's top tier of football. For Brits, the clue evokes some bittersweet memories. West Ham United, though nominally based in Upton Park, currently play at London Stadium[7] in the nearby Stratford district of east London. This stadium was constructed specifically for the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Paralympics, serving as the track-and-field venue, and as the site of their opening and closing ceremonies. From 1904 to 2016, the team played at the now-demolished Boleyn Ground[7], often referred to as Upton Park, a football stadium located in Upton Park. |
| 5a | Floral wreath // kid is upset to put down (7) |
Video Gone Missing
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| Here is the video that has gone missing from Deep Threat's review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog: |
| 9a | Compensate // occasionally greedy, grasping old man (5) |
| 10a | Dance a lot when tipsy, // according to accounts (9) |
| 11a | Encourage // female to abandon a facelift -- it melted! (10) |
| 12a | Scrap // audio tapes to some extent (4) |
| 14a | Knowledgeable about water sources? (4-8) |
This is a cryptic definition consisting of a precise definition with accompanying cryptic elaboration.
| 18a | Traditional chorus /in/ England, say, rendered around middle of July (4,4,4) |
Perhaps mid-July in Crosswordland but, in the real world, Auld lang syne[7] is more likely to be heard on New Year's Eve.
| 21a | Drunk back by hotel? // Nonsense (4) |
Tosh[5] is an informal British term meaning rubbish* or nonsense ⇒
it's sentimental tosh.
* in the sense of foolish words or speech
| 22a | Content to leave etching // as an illustration (3,7) |
| 25a | Song couple heard with others /in/ Bury (3,2,4) |
In cryptic crosswords, it is considered fair game to create misdirection by unnecessarily capitalizing words — such as "Bury" in this clue. However, it is verboten to omit necessary capitalization.
Scratching the Surface
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| Bury[7] [pronounced berry*] is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Irwell 7.9 miles (12.7 km) northwest of Manchester. * Although according to Gazza in a review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog As someone who used to live in said borough I have to say that this is not the way the locals pronounce it – they make it sound more like flurry than merry. |
| 26a | Gobble suet regularly, /getting/ very overweight (5) |
At some point on the day of publication, this clue was modified on the Telegraph Puzzles website to read:
- Gobbles suet regularly, /getting/ very overweight (5)
| 27a | Exam's first question was worrying, second // is deemed comparable (7) |
| 28a | Went to bed // exhausted following ride I'd taken (7) |
Down
| 1d | Notice golfer finally, short distance // off course (6) |
| 2d | Feature // performance involving special source of expertise (6) |
| 3d | Dietary supplement from which a queen benefits? (5,5) |
Royal jelly[5] is a substance secreted by honeybee workers and fed by them to larvae which are being raised as potential queen bees.
| 4d | Intended // food must contain new ingredient (5) |
| 5d | Respects // detailed environmental articles husband disregarded (9) |
| 6d | Rough // game is supported by lowest social classes (4) |
This clue alludes to the NRS social grades[7], a system of demographic classification used in the United Kingdom. The categories were originally developed by the National Readership Survey to classify readers, but are now used by many other organisations for wider applications and have become a standard for market research. They were developed over 50 years ago and achieved widespread usage in 20th Century Britain. The classifications, which are based on the occupation of the head of the household, are shown in the following table.
| Grade | Social class | Chief income earner's occupation |
|---|---|---|
| A | upper middle class | Higher managerial, administrative or professional |
| B | middle class | Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional |
| C1 | lower middle class | Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative or professional |
| C2 | skilled working class | Skilled manual workers |
| D | working class | Semi and unskilled manual workers |
| E | Those at the lowest levels of subsistence | Casual or lowest grade workers, pensioners and others who depend on the welfare state for their income |
| 7d | Creations // modelled from trash, mostly? (3,5) |
| 8d | Slow people // boring when crossing road (8) |
| 13d | Revolutionary children's entertainer? (10) |
Roundabout[5] is a British term for a merry-go-round — either as an amusement park or fairground attraction or (on a smaller scale) a similar item of playground equipment.
| 15d | Spaniard visits solitary individuals, // capitalists (9) |
A don[5] is a Spanish gentleman ⇒
She imagined a Spanish don living here in the 1800s, and building a stately hacienda in stages as his family grew.
London[5] is the capital of the United Kingdom. Thus, by the whimsical logic of Crosswordland, its residents are considered to be capitalists.
Video Gone Missing
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| Here is the video that has gone missing from Deep Threat's review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog: |
| 16d | Sweet // smell, it's apparently returning somewhat (8) |
Sweets[5] is the British term for candy[5] and a sweet is a piece of candy*.
* In Britain, candy[5] has a different meaning than in North American, denoting sugar crystallized by repeated boiling and slow evaporation ⇒
making candy at home is not difficult—the key is cooking the syrup to the right temperature.
Pastille[5] is a British term* for a small sweet or lozenge.
* I am certain they found in Canada — though perhaps imported from the UK
| 17d | Affectionate expression // boy uses freely about student (5,3) |
"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
| 19d | Show up // a House of Lords member, reportedly (6) |
The House of Lords[5,10] is the upper chamber of the British Parliament, composed of the peers* and bishops.
* A peer[5] is a member of the nobility in Britain or Ireland, comprising the ranks of duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron.
| 20d | Key // story that may not be true (6) |
| 23d | Go in /for/ chips without carp (5) |
Chips[1] is slang for a carpenter.
| 24d | Dispute // low temperature (4) |
Moot[1] means to argue, dispute, or propose for discussion.
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
Certainly more than * for me. While I did manage most (1a and 20d the exceptions), needed help on the parsing.
ReplyDeleteAs you can see from the review, 1a foxed me as well. However, as soon as my word finder program produced a list words matching the checking letters, the solution was pretty obvious.
Delete