Puzzle at a Glance
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Puzzle number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29418 | |
Publication date in The Daily Telegraph
Friday, July 17, 2020 | |
Setter
Zandio | |
Link to full review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29418]
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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
I must say that Zandio's slightly wacky mindset is beginning to grow on me.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 | They protect young things /and/ elderly bodies beyond 100 (4,6) |
| 6a | Spectacular // cognac I personally sampled, from the East (4) |
| 9a | Gather scattered forces // about school? (7) |
| 10a | Bit unsettling, entertaining as mum /makes/ rice (7) |
| 12a | Star excited with boat/'s/ decorative design (4,3,6) |
| 14a | One's away // east, been all over the place (8) |
| 15a | Someone who gives others a hand (6) |
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: |
| 17a | Thinking // it over in advance? (6) |
I would say that thinking is used in the sense found in ⇒
What, in heaven's name, were you thinking?which could also be expressed as
Whatever possessed you to do that?or, roughly speaking,
What was your motive (for doing that)?.
* I did not find this specific sense of the word in any of the several dictionaries that I consulted.
| 19a | Sets up // meals eating area (8) |
| 21a | Cricketer // who takes guard late? (5-8) |
I see this as a double definition in which the entire clue could be considered to be a cryptic definition.
In cricket, a nightwatchman[5] is an inferior batsman sent in to bat when a wicket falls just before the end of a day's play, to avoid the dismissal of a better one in adverse conditions.
* The Chambers Dictionary (which serves as the spelling authority for The Daily Telegraph crossword puzzles) is the only dictionary I found to spell night-watchman[1] with a hyphen. Other dictionaries spell it as either night watchman[3,4,5,10,12,14] or nightwatchman[2,5,10,14] (or sometimes both).
| 24a | One brings food /in/ vehicle to sit around tree, unwinding (7) |
| 25a | Consider // US lawyer's twisted justice (7) |
| 26a | Emergency call boxes opening for '999' /and/ children? (4) |
Scratching the Surface
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| Call box[5] is a British term for a public phone booth. I believe an "emergency call box" may be one with a direct line to emergency services rather than being for general use. In the UK, "999"[5] is the phone number one would dial to contact emergency services. |
| 27a | Cook segregates // seasonal specialities (6,4) |
This clue is certainly far more "seasonal" today than it was when it first appeared in the UK last July.
Down
| 1d | Port // that's put in a sherry bottle? (4) |
Cork[5,7] is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland, a port on the River Lee located in the south-west of Ireland, in the province of Munster. Cork Harbour is one of the largest natural harbours in the world.
| 2d | Stoppages // spread in Accounts (3,4) |
| 3d | One doesn't know where to cross (8,5) |
Floating voter[5] is a British term for a person who has not decided which way to vote in an election, or one who does not consistently vote for the same political party ⇒
the party leader stepped up his efforts to appeal to floating voters.
| 4d | All the letters /from/ two Greek characters one abridged (8) |
Alpha[5] (Α, α) and beta[5] (Β, β) are the first and second letters of the Greek alphabet.
| 5d | Implant // added -- bumped up evenly (5) |
| 7d | Philip lay fulminating about // teasing (7) |
| 8d | Caught start of rugby scissors manoeuvres // intersecting (5-5) |
"caught " = C [cricket notation]
Scratching the Surface
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| In rugby, scissors[5] is a tactical move in which a player running diagonally takes the ball from a teammate and changes the direction of the attack, or feints to do so. |
| 11d | NCO // material, six-footer accompanying ex-PM (8-5) |
"six-footer " = ANT
Sir John Major[5] is a British Conservative statesman, Prime Minister 1990-7. (show more )
His premiership* saw the negotiations leading to the Maastricht Treaty and progress toward peace in Northern Ireland.
* Outside Australia and Canada, the term premier[5] refers to a prime minister or other head of government. In Australia and Canada, a premier is the chief minister of a government of a state or province respectively.
hide
His premiership* saw the negotiations leading to the Maastricht Treaty and progress toward peace in Northern Ireland.
* Outside Australia and Canada, the term premier[5] refers to a prime minister or other head of government. In Australia and Canada, a premier is the chief minister of a government of a state or province respectively.
hide
In the armed forces, an NCO[5] or noncommissioned officer[5] is a person, such as a sergeant or corporal, who is appointed from the ranks as a subordinate officer.
A sergeant major[5] (or sergeant-major[2]) is a warrant officer in the British army whose job is to assist the adjutant* of a regiment or battalion (regimental sergeant major) or a subunit commander (company sergeant major, battery sergeant major, etc.).
* an adjutant[5] is a military officer who acts as an administrative assistant to a senior officer [does that not make the Sergeant Major an assistant to an assistant?]
| 13d | Charisma -- dancing, carrying on // blowing instruments (10) |
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 | Diagram /showing/ local top ten? (3,5) |
Local[5] is an informal British term for a pub convenient to a person’s home ⇒
had a pint in the local.
Chart[5] (usually the charts) denotes a weekly listing of the current bestselling pop records ⇒
she topped the charts for eight weeks.
| 18d | Reportedly giant /is/ tense (7) |
In Classical Greek mythology, the Titans and Titanesses[7]
were giant deities of incredible strength. They were members of the second order of divine beings, descending from the
primordial deities and preceding the Olympian deities. (show more )
Based on Mount Othrys, the Titans most famously included the first twelve children of the primordial Gaia (Mother Earth) and Uranus (Father Heaven). They ruled during the legendary Golden Age, and also composed the first pantheon of Greek deities.
hide
Based on Mount Othrys, the Titans most famously included the first twelve children of the primordial Gaia (Mother Earth) and Uranus (Father Heaven). They ruled during the legendary Golden Age, and also composed the first pantheon of Greek deities.
hide
| 20d | Abject // display by setter? (7) |
| 22d | Gold volunteers located under a // vessel (5) |
"volunteers " = TA [Territorial Army]
| 23d | Encloses // scribbles (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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