Puzzle at a Glance
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Puzzle number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29458 | |
Publication date in The Daily Telegraph
Wednesday, September 2, 2020 | |
Setter
Jay (Jeremy Mutch) | |
Link to full review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29458]
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Big Dave's Crossword Blog review written by
2Kiwis | |
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
The Brits solved this puzzle back in September while keeping an eye on the Tour de France on TV.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 & 6a | Poor Father Ted -- lager /is/ king! (6,3,5) |
Alfred[5] (849–899), known as Alfred the Great, was king of Wessex 871–99. Alfred’s military resistance saved southwestern England from Viking occupation. A great reformer, he is credited with the foundation of the English navy and with a revival of learning.
Scratching the Surface
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| Father Ted[7] is a British television sitcom that originally aired from 1995 to 1998. The show concerns three priests, exiled on a remote island off west coast of Ireland for various past incidents, who live together in the parochial house with their housekeeper. In 2019, Father Ted was ranked second to Fawlty Towers in a list of "the greatest British sitcoms" compiled by a panel of comedy experts for the British TV and radio listings magazine Radio Times. |
| 6a | See 1a |
| 9a | Season must exclude November // shoot (5) |
What did they say?
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In their review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, the 2Kiwis refer toAs New Zealand is in the Southern Hemisphere, spring begins there in September* (the month in which this puzzle was published in The Daily Telegraph).the season that we in New Zealand are just entering. |
| 10a | Regularly repeated // content of free stream (9) |
| 11a | Sedate // Latin rule is designed to cover question (12) |
Canadians are likely more apt to see the US spelling tranquilize than the British spelling tranquillise.
| 14a | Scraps // small investment in mushrooms (7) |
 |
| Black morel |
| 16a | News /of/ detective involved in criminal sting (7) |
"detective " = DI [detective inspector]
A detective inspector (abbrevation DI[5]) is a senior police officer in the UK. Within the British police, inspector[7] is the second supervisory rank. It is senior to that of sergeant, but junior to that of chief inspector. Plain-clothes detective inspectors are equal in rank to their uniformed counterparts, the prefix 'detective' identifying them as having been trained in criminal investigation and being part of or attached to their force's Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
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A detective inspector (abbrevation DI[5]) is a senior police officer in the UK. Within the British police, inspector[7] is the second supervisory rank. It is senior to that of sergeant, but junior to that of chief inspector. Plain-clothes detective inspectors are equal in rank to their uniformed counterparts, the prefix 'detective' identifying them as having been trained in criminal investigation and being part of or attached to their force's Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
hide
| 17a | Signal /that's/ universal in church (3) |
| 18a | Condition /of/ island circumnavigated by drunken seaman (7) |
In Crosswordland, conditions and ailments are most often medical in nature.
| 20a | Endless bother must be found in actual // rejection (7) |
| 22a | Setter's shock after too much 24? (4,2,3,3) |
The
numeral "24" is a cross
reference indicator pointing to clue 24d (show more ).
To complete the clue, a solver must replace the cross reference indicator with the solution to the clue starting in the light* identified by the cross reference indicator.
The cross reference indicator may include a directional indicator but this is customarily done only in situations where there are both Across and Down clues originating in the light that is being referenced.
* light-coloured cell in the grid
hide
To complete the clue, a solver must replace the cross reference indicator with the solution to the clue starting in the light* identified by the cross reference indicator.
The cross reference indicator may include a directional indicator but this is customarily done only in situations where there are both Across and Down clues originating in the light that is being referenced.
* light-coloured cell in the grid
hide
The hair of the dog[10] (or hair of the dog that bit one) denotes an alcoholic drink taken as an antidote to a hangover.
| 26a | Communication from bank, // say, intended to be broadcast (9) |
| 27a | Captain Hook, say, losing head /and/ spitting feathers (5) |
Captain James Hook[7] is a fictional character, the antagonist of Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and its various adaptations, in which he is Peter Pan's archenemy. The character is a pirate captain of the brig Jolly Roger.
Spit feathers[5] is an informal British term meaning to be very angry.
| 28a & 29a | What may report // collapse of pithead gallery? (5,9) |
In their review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, the 2Kiwis state "The whole clue can be the definition". True enough, it can be—but I see no compelling reason why it has to be (and thus have not marked it as such).
The Daily Telegraph[7] is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper, founded in 1855 as The Daily Telegraph and Courier, which is published in London and distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally.
Delving Deeper
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| The Daily Telegraph is the newspaper in which this puzzle first appeared. At one time, the National Post and The Daily Telegraph were both owned by Canadian-born British* former newspaper publisher Conrad Black. * As Canadian law bans British honours for Canadian citizens, Black relinquished his Canadian citizenship in order to accept a British peerage. |
Scratching the Surface
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| A gallery[5] is a horizontal underground passage, especially in a mine. |
| 29a | See 28a |
Down
| 1d | A short note added to end of the // recess (4) |
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.
| 2d | Fashion // etiquette (4) |
| 3d | Agreed to be flexible about new // warning (2,5) |
In the sport of fencing, en garde[5] is a direction to be ready to fence, taking the opening position for action.
Origin: French en garde '(be) on guard'
| 4d | City /that may see/ one in shot (5) |
Turin[5] is a city in north-western Italy on the River Po, capital of Piedmont region. Turin was the capital of the kingdom of Sardinia from 1720 and became the first capital of a unified Italy (1861–4).
| 5d | Meeting // in Parisian bar (9) |
In French, en[8] is a preposition denoting 'in'.
| 6d | Clothing was in the van, // all mixed up (7) |
| 7d | Person at the scene perhaps // sees win yet is upset (10) |
| 8d | Milliners without hope initially invested in unlikely // material (10) |
Tattersall[5] (also tattersall check) is a woollen fabric with a pattern of coloured checks and intersecting lines, resembling a tartan.
| 12d | Felt for // shipmate roughly grabbed by journalist (10) |
| 13d | Fine Indian princess holding an animal up /to get/ perfume (10) |
Frangipani[5] is perfume obtained from the frangipani plant*.
* The frangipani[5] is a tropical American tree or shrub with clusters of fragrant white, pink, or yellow flowers.
| 15d | Briefest // check, and another, to include international (9) |
| 19d | Reticent about heartless proprietor /being/ a bit wet (7) |
Scratching the Surface
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Wet[5] (adjective) is an informal British term meaning showing a lack of forcefulness or strength of character; in other words, feeble ⇒ they thought the cadets were a bit wet. I believe the surface reading refers not to the proprietor but to another unidentified party who, being a bit wet, is reticent (to speak up) about a mean-spirited proprietor. |
| 21d | Basis /for/ paying (7) |
| 23d | Honour // old flame on rising fortune (5) |
| 24d | A short holiday going north /for/ a drink (4) |
Vac[10] is an informal British short form for vacation.
Cava[5] is a Spanish sparkling wine made in the same way as champagne.
| 25d | Get engaged // during game show (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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