Puzzle at a Glance
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Puzzle number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29442 | |
Publication date in The Daily Telegraph
Friday, August 14, 2020 | |
Setter
Zandio | |
Link to full review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29442]
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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 managed to complete this puzzle unaided. Fortunately, I recalled the puppets from an encounter with them in a previous puzzle. Nevertheless, 7d was my last one in — the penny finally dropping long after the rest of the puzzle had been put to bed.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 | Making an issue of what's been written? (10) |
| 6a | Italian church // passion (4) |
"Italian " = IT [in reference to either the language or the vermouth]
| 10a | Shabby inner-city parking /causes/ depression (5) |
| 11a | Charging // in, verbalising (9) |
| 12a | Trooped off /to see/ something exploding (7) |
| 13a | Colourful bit of scenery // drops -- sign the show's over (7) |
| 14a | Communist allowed ground-up dry tea /for/ celebration (3,6,3) |
| 18a | Electrical fault noticed // with restricted observation? (5-7) |
Like some others, I contemplated SHORT-CIRCUIT but did not write it in as I could not parse it.
| 21a | Slip put right near the back of a book (7) |
| 23a | Praise // British university breaking routine (7) |
| 24a | Food giving a chap toil when cooking (9) |
Chipolata[5] is a British term for a small thin sausage.
| 25a | Makes more flat // golfing equipment (5) |
| 26a | Revolutionary 'Something in the Air', with a // narrative (4) |
Scratching the Surface
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| "Something in the Air"[7] is a song recorded by British rock band Thunderclap Newman that was a No. 1 single for three weeks on the UK Singles Chart in July 1969. |
| 27a | Disregarding odds, unties astern -- the US task, /finding/ wartime havens (6,4) |
Nissen hut[5] is a British name for a tunnel-shaped hut made of corrugated iron with a concrete floor, named after Peter N. Nissen (1871–1930), the British engineer who invented it. This structure would seem to be similar to (and, given that Nissen died in 1930, likely predate) the American Quonset hut[5] (Trademark) from the Second World War which is named after Quonset Point, Rhode Island, where such huts were first made.
Down
| 1d | Vegetable bringing in ready // money once (6) |
Prior to the introduction of the euro in 2002, the peseta[5] was the basic monetary unit of Spain, equal to 100 centimos.
For a long time, I toyed with POTATO thinking it might be another Cockney term for money (from a pound of potatoes, perhaps).
Once again, I did not write it in as I could not parse it.
Scratching the Surface
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| Here we have a great example of needing to separate a common term into its component parts with one part going in the wordplay and the other part contributing to the definition. Ready money[5] (also called ready cash) is money in the form of cash that is immediately available ⇒ you might find yourself without the ready money you need to snap up a bargain. |
| 2d | Obscure // outbreak starts with Belgium not France (6) |
I suppose outbreak and flurry are synonymous within the bounds of of cryptic crossword licence:
- An outbreak[5] is a sudden occurrence of something unwelcome, such as war or disease.
- A flurry[5] is a sudden short period of activity or excitement ⇒
there was a brief flurry of activity in the hall
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| 3d | Discharge /from/ lemon -- impatient to get cleaned up (14) |
| 4d | Populace/'s/ vote given to Hearts with two narrow away wins (3,6) |
When reporting sports results, the score of the home team is always shown first. Thus a narrow win by the visiting team might be 0-1.
Hoi polloi[5] (usually the hoi polloi) is a derogatory term for the masses or the common people ⇒
avoid mixing with the hoi polloi.
Scratching the Surface
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| Heart of Midlothian Football Club[7], commonly known as Hearts, is a professional football [soccer] club in Edinburgh, Scotland. The team competes in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League. |
| 5d | On the up, some prosper eventually -- /or/ not (5) |
I don't understand why, in his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Deep Threat marks this as an all-in-one clue. To my mind, the definition is simply provided by the final word.
| 7d | Rest found here in Bill and Ben's garden? (4,4) |
Bill and Ben are the principal characters from the Flower Pot Men[7], a British children's programme, produced by BBC television, first transmitted in 1952, and repeated regularly for more than twenty years. Bill and Ben are two little men made of flower pots who lived at the bottom of an English suburban garden. A reboot of the show called Bill and Ben was produced in 2001.
The solution alludes to the fact that the pair are identical in appearance and live in a garden.
| 8d | Bad manners // where driving is fastest? (8) |
| 9d | Something printed /from/ two journalists I crashed into south of border (7,7) |
| 15d | Island folk // project a hit, Ian Stewart boasts (9) |
Scratching the Surface
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| Ian Stewart[7] (1938–1985) was a Scottish keyboardist and co-founder of the Rolling Stones. He was removed from the line-up in May 1963 at the request of manager Andrew Loog Oldham who felt he did not fit the band's image. He remained as road manager and pianist for over two decades and was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the rest of the band in 1989. |
| 16d | Spirits /seen in/ German city church steeple's entrance (8) |
Essen[5] is an industrial city in the Ruhr valley, in northwestern Germany.
| 17d | Brief time in front of grave around memorial /showing/ grief (8) |
"brief time " = MO
Mo[5] (abbreviation for moment) is an informal term* for a short period of time ⇒
* Identified by several British dictionaries as being a British[5][14], chiefly British[2][4], or mainly British[10] term. However, one British[1] and two US dictionaries[11][12] do not specify that it is British. This meaning of the word "mo" is not found in a third US dictionary[3].
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Mo[5] (abbreviation for moment) is an informal term* for a short period of time ⇒
hang on a mo!.
* Identified by several British dictionaries as being a British[5][14], chiefly British[2][4], or mainly British[10] term. However, one British[1] and two US dictionaries[11][12] do not specify that it is British. This meaning of the word "mo" is not found in a third US dictionary[3].
hide
| 19d | Strange dusk gathers over uniform // figures in square (6) |
| 20d | Playing // lines United used to replace energy once (6) |
Scratching the Surface
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| Manchester United Football Club[7], commonly known as Man United or simply United*, is an English professional football [soccer] club, based in Old Trafford,
Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League (the top level in
the English football league system). * Although, in Britain, the word United[5] is commonly used in the names of soccer and other sports teams formed by amalgamation, it would seem that the name United in the absence of other context would customarily be assumed to be a reference to Manchester United. |
| 22d | Coming from the south, one's goal /to make/ US city (5) |
In the wordplay, one[2] is used in a formal or facetious (first person) sense denoting I or me ⇒
One doesn't like to pry, but could you please explain ...(which accounts for the first person contraction in the solution).
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
I too was tempted by “potato” and “short circuit”but held off until the checking letters indicated something else. I didn’t know the twins, but the answer to 7D seemed obvious to me. Regarding Nissen Huts, I had occasion recently to research the difference between them and Quonset Huts, and discovered that the inventor, Major Peter Nissen of the Royal Engineers, although born in the US was raised in Canada and studied mining engineering at Queen’s, where a curved-roof drill shed later gave him the inspiration for the eponymous hut, which he designed for the British Army during WW 1 after he had emigrated to Britain. I rather liked that clue, as I did the puzzle. **/****
ReplyDeleteFascinating bit of research regarding Nissen. Thank you for contributing that.
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