Puzzle at a Glance
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Puzzle number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29669 | |
Publication date in The Daily Telegraph
Friday, May 7, 2021 | |
Setter
Zandio | |
Link to full review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29669]
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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
As I was working with the revised puzzle from the Telegraph Puzzles website, I wasn't aware of the error in today's puzzle (see below) until after I had finished solving it. Even with the corrected clue, I had difficulty deciphering the wordplay.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. The National Post repeats a mistake that originally appeared in the printed edition of The Daily Telegraph as well as on the Telegraph Puzzles website.Clue 11a in the puzzle was later modified on the Telegraph Puzzles website to read:
- Maybe steak-and-kidneys and veg. seconds coming at the end (4)
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 | Cool quality of most aircraft wings? (14) |
One might characterize this clue as a cryptic definition with an embedded precise definition.
| 9a | Twisting in Bengali's net, unusual // thing for eating (7) |
Scratching the Surface
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| A Bengali[5] is a native of Bengal*. * Bengal[5] is a region in South Asia, containing the Ganges and Brahmaputra River deltas. In 1947 the province was divided into West Bengal, which has remained a state of India, and East Bengal, now Bangladesh. |
| 10a | Had a tramp // cooked up drug taken by old rocker? (7) |
Ted[2] is short for Teddy boy[5], a slang term originally applied to a young man belonging to a subculture in 1950s Britain characterized by a style of dress based on Edwardian fashion (typically with drainpipe trousers, bootlace tie, and hair slicked up in a quiff* and a liking for rock-and-roll music. The name comes from from Teddy, pet form of the given name Edward (with reference to Edward VII's reign). Judging by the entry in the Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, it would appear that the term Teddy boy[2] is now applied to any unruly or rowdy adolescent male.
* Quiff[3,4] is a chiefly British term for a prominent tuft of hair, especially one brushed up above the forehead.
| 11a | Maybe steak-and-kidneys /and/ veg, on the counter (4) |
The wordplay is intended to be a reversal of (on the counter) SPUD (veg.). However, as the setter admits and apologizes for on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, this does not work (producing DUPS rather than the required PUDS).
Pudding[5] is used not in the sense of a dessert but, rather, in a British sense meaning a sweet or savoury steamed dish made with suet and flour ⇒
a steak and kidney pudding.
Steak and kidney pudding[7] is a traditional British main course in which stewed beef steak and ox kidney is enclosed in suet pastry and slow steamed on a stove top.
Pud[5] is an informal British short form for pudding.
Note that "steak-and-kidneys" is plural implying that it is an informal short from for "steak-and-kidney puddings" (plural) and thus "puds" ⇒
Server: 'What will you have?' Customer: 'one steak-and-kidney. No, on second thought, make that two steak-and-kidneys.'.
Amended Clue
The clue was later amended on the Telegraph Puzzles website to read:
- Maybe steak-and-kidneys /and/ veg, seconds coming at the end (4)
| 12a | Shattering exercises // to unwind (10) |
| 14a | Check about mother/'s/ stay (6) |
| 15a | Funds for the old // writer, one being housed by offspring (8) |
The
use of the word "writer" to clue PEN is likely to be slightly more
cryptic to the Brits than it is to us on this side of the pond. British
solvers will see "pen" as being a writing implement rather than the person wielding that implement. (show more )
In addition to defining pen[3,11] as a writing implement, North American dictionaries also define it as a writer or an author ⇒
hide
In addition to defining pen[3,11] as a writing implement, North American dictionaries also define it as a writer or an author ⇒
a hired pen, British dictionaries do not list this meaning although they do show pen[2,4] (or the pen[5,10]) as symbolically representing writing as an occupation (a sense of the word not found in US dictionaries).
hide
| 17a | Changed sides /and/ caught foxtrot instead of tango (8) |
What did he say?
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In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Deep Threat writesThe Criminal Investigation Department (seemingly better known by its abbreviation CID[2]) is the detective branch of a British police force.start with a word which could me[a]n ‘caught’ by the CID .... |
| 18a | Straightforward // command (6) |
| 21a | Recognition /of/ pupil a Tory arranged (10) |
| 22a | Look after husband/'s/ personal growth (4) |
| 24a | Some deliveries friend sent back // come together (7) |
In cricket, an over[5] is a division of play consisting of a sequence of six balls bowled [delivered] by a bowler from one end of the pitch, after which another bowler takes over from the other end.
| 25a | Figure hoarding 1,000 diamonds /gets/ stabbed (7) |
What did he say?
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In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Deep Threat tells us we need aTrader[2] is another term for merchant or shopkeeper.figure a trader is asking for .... |
| 26a | Unfortunately HR miscast comedians // -- they're employed only once a year (9,5) |
Down
| 1d | Mum's curry -- poetry on occasion, // one assumes! (7) |
| 2d | Right to be utterly liberated? (7,2,6) |
| 3d | A majority of capital raised // in addition (4) |
| 4d | Royal house -- time for Charlie /to show/ appreciation? (6) |
Palate[5] is used in the sense of a person's ability to distinguish between and appreciate different flavours.
| 5d | Grass /and/ booze covering food carrier (8) |
Grass[5] is an informal British term meaning:
- (noun) a police informer
- (verb, often grass on or grass up) to inform the police of someone’s criminal activities or plans ⇒ (i)
someone had grassed on the thieves
; (ii)she threatened to grass me up
.
| 6d | Lie about going to clubs perhaps /in/ smart gear (6,4) |
Lounge suit[5] is a British term for a man's suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers, worn during the day, especially in the workplace. I had initially guessed this might be a British term for leisure suit[5], but instead it would seem to be another name for a business suit[5], a term which also appears to be used in the UK.
| 7d | Drunk guy maybe, pedestrian // performer who looks about to drop off? (9,6) |
| 8d | Heart-throb/'s/ song and dance go wrong, getting upset (6) |
In modern usage, an Adonis[5] is an extremely handsome young man ⇒
not all of us have the body of an Adonis.
* In Greek mythology, Adonis[5] was a beautiful youth loved by both Aphrodite and Persephone. He was killed by a boar, but Zeus decreed that he should spend the winter of each year in the underworld with Persephone and the summer months with Aphrodite.
| 13d | Cut a plant, they say // it's tasty (10) |
Piccalilli*[5] is a pickle of chopped vegetables, mustard, and hot spices.
* Rather than an Italian word as I had presumed, this is a mid-18th century English word, likely of Indian origin. Lexico (based on the Oxford Dictionary of English or ODE) states that this term is probably a portmanteau formed from a blend of the words 'pickle' and 'chilli'. However, this seems to be an evolution from an earlier version. Wikipedia quotes the Oxford English Dictionary or OED (not to be confused with the aforementioned ODE) as tracing the origin of the word piccalilli[7] to "the middle of the 18th century when, in 1758, Hannah Glasse described how 'to make Paco-Lilla, or India Pickle'".
| 16d | Doddering // eccentric, pierced and tattooed (head only) (8) |
| 17d | Having forgotten odd bits of Byron, lip-reads, inverting // order (6) |
Deploy[2] means to to spread out and position (troops) ready for battle [in other words, to organize or order them].
Scratching the Surface
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George Gordon Byron[5], 6th Baron Byron (1788–1824), commonly known simply as Lord Byron[7], was an
English poet. (show more )
Byron’s poetry exerted considerable influence on the romantic movement, particularly on the Continent. Having joined the fight for Greek independence, he died of malaria before seeing serious action. Among Byron's best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812–18) and Don Juan (1819–24) and the short lyric She Walks in Beauty (1814). hide |
| 19d | Lectures // this person's held in markets (7) |
"this person " = I
It is a common cryptic crossword convention for the creator of the puzzle to use terms such as (the or this) compiler, (the or this) setter, (the or this) speaker, (this) author, (this) writer, or this person to refer to himself or herself. To solve such a clue, one must generally substitute a first person pronoun (I or ME) for whichever of these terms has been used in the clue.
hide
It is a common cryptic crossword convention for the creator of the puzzle to use terms such as (the or this) compiler, (the or this) setter, (the or this) speaker, (this) author, (this) writer, or this person to refer to himself or herself. To solve such a clue, one must generally substitute a first person pronoun (I or ME) for whichever of these terms has been used in the clue.
hide
| 20d | Increased touring to Italy, a // paradise (6) |
| 23d | Musical item // is set in Washington (4) |
The District of Columbia[5] (abbreviation DC) is a federal district of the US, coextensive* with the city of Washington, situated on the Potomac River with boundaries on the states of Virginia and Maryland.
* that is, the boundaries of the District of Columbia are identical to those of the city of Washington
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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