Puzzle at a Glance
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Puzzle number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29725 | |
Publication date in The Daily Telegraph
Monday, July 12, 2021 | |
Setter
Campbell (Allan Scott) | |
Link to full review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29725]
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Big Dave's Crossword Blog review written by
pommers | |
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
It was a bit of GK (general knowledge)—although it could equally well stand for geographical knowledge—that did me in today. I did not know the South American port or the other meaning for the name of the garden ornament. I did know the old English court and the part of the sundial (although spelling it incorrectly messed me up).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 | Trim // tree (6) |
| 4a | Eavesdrop, // I wager, craftily (6) |
Earwig[5] is an informal British term meaning to eavesdrop on a conversation ⇒
he looked behind him to see if anyone was earwigging.
| 8a | Tight young lady // narrowly avoided collision (4,4) |
Near[5] is an archaic term denoting mean [stingy] or miserly.
| 10a | Cured ham, /and/ tripe (6) |
Gammon[5] is a British term that can denote either:
- ham which has been cured or smoked like bacon ⇒
gammon steaks
- the bottom piece of a side of bacon, including a hind leg ⇒
a whole gammon on the bone
Tripe[5] is an informal term* meaning nonsense or rubbish ⇒
you do talk tripe sometimes.
* "Formally", tripe is the first or second stomach of a cow or other ruminant used as food.
Gammon[3,5,11] is a dated informal British term for nonsense or rubbish.
| 11a | Gem /in/ ring presented to friend (4) |
| 12a | Fight dishonest sailor /in/ South American port (4,6) |
In Britain, the word bent[5] has the same connotation (dishonest or corrupt) as does the word crooked[5] in North America*.
* It would appear that Brits use both crooked and bent in this sense.
Ordinary seaman[5] (abbreviation OS[5]) is the lowest rank of sailor in the Royal Navy, below able seaman.
Fray Bentos[5] is A port and meat-packing centre in western Uruguay.
| 13a | Section of society // running study group (7,5) |
| 16a | Ventilation aid /in/ vehicle kept by former supporter (9,3) |
Extractor fan[10] is the British name for a fan used in kitchens, bathrooms, workshops, etc, to remove stale air or fumes.
North American name: exhaust fan
| 20a | There's much talk from me // about fight involving milliner (10) |
| 21a | Shrewd // signal saving time (4) |
| 22a | Leader of delegation is member // to win over (6) |
| 23a | Plumper son's // game (8) |
Rounders[5,7]
is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams. It is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a
small, hard, leather-cased ball with a cylindrical wooden, plastic, or metal bat. The players score by running a circuit around four bases on the field.
Gameplay centres on a number of innings, in which teams alternate at batting and fielding. Points (known as 'rounders') are scored by the batting team when one of their players completes a circuit past four bases arranged in the shape of a diamond without being put 'out'. The batter must strike at a good ball and attempt to run a rounder in an anti-clockwise direction around the first, second, and third base and home to the fourth, though they may stay at any of the first three. A batter is out if the ball is caught; if the base to which they are running to is touched with the ball; or if, while running, they are touched with the ball by a fielder.
The game is popular among British and Irish school children, particularly among girls. [Sound at all familiar?] (read on )]
The game of rounders[7] has been played in England since Tudor times, with the earliest reference being in 1744 in A Little Pretty Pocket-Book where it was called base-ball. In 1828, William Clarke in London published the second edition of The Boy's Own Book, which included the rules of rounders and also the first printed description in English of a bat and ball base-running game played on a diamond. The following year, the book was published in Boston, Massachusetts.
Rounders is played under slightly different rules in Britain and Ireland. Rounders is also linked to British baseball, which is still played in Liverpool, Cardiff and Newport. Although rounders is assumed to be older than (British) baseball, literary references to early forms of 'base-ball' in England pre-date use of the term rounders.
Both the 'New York game' [from which modern (American) baseball evolved] and the now-defunct 'Massachusetts game' versions of baseball, as well as softball, share the same historical roots as rounders and bear a resemblance to the Irish version of the game.
hide
Gameplay centres on a number of innings, in which teams alternate at batting and fielding. Points (known as 'rounders') are scored by the batting team when one of their players completes a circuit past four bases arranged in the shape of a diamond without being put 'out'. The batter must strike at a good ball and attempt to run a rounder in an anti-clockwise direction around the first, second, and third base and home to the fourth, though they may stay at any of the first three. A batter is out if the ball is caught; if the base to which they are running to is touched with the ball; or if, while running, they are touched with the ball by a fielder.
The game is popular among British and Irish school children, particularly among girls. [Sound at all familiar?] (read on )]
The game of rounders[7] has been played in England since Tudor times, with the earliest reference being in 1744 in A Little Pretty Pocket-Book where it was called base-ball. In 1828, William Clarke in London published the second edition of The Boy's Own Book, which included the rules of rounders and also the first printed description in English of a bat and ball base-running game played on a diamond. The following year, the book was published in Boston, Massachusetts.
Rounders is played under slightly different rules in Britain and Ireland. Rounders is also linked to British baseball, which is still played in Liverpool, Cardiff and Newport. Although rounders is assumed to be older than (British) baseball, literary references to early forms of 'base-ball' in England pre-date use of the term rounders.
Both the 'New York game' [from which modern (American) baseball evolved] and the now-defunct 'Massachusetts game' versions of baseball, as well as softball, share the same historical roots as rounders and bear a resemblance to the Irish version of the game.
hide
Who knew that baseball—the quintessential American game—was, in fact, imported from Britain!
| 24a | Expected // Dutch portrait painter to accommodate current king (6) |
Sir Peter Lely[5] (1618–1680) was a Dutch portrait painter, resident in England from 1641; Dutch name Pieter van der Faes. He became principal court painter to Charles II. Notable works include Windsor Beauties, a series painted during the 1660s.
| 25a | Attacked outside by // church worker (6) |
A sexton[5] is a person who looks after a church and churchyard, typically acting as bell-ringer and gravedigger.
Down
| 1d | So hedge built to keep in initially pugnacious // farm animal (8) |
| 2d | Starts to rig up ropes at location // in the countryside (5) |
| 3d | Female cutting inch of woven // material (7) |
Chiffon[5] is a light, transparent fabric typically made of silk or nylon.
| 5d | Lab gear reassembled /for/ school subject (7) |
| 6d | Philanderer, // better advised around sultanate (9) |
Oman[5,7], officially the Sultanate of Oman, is an Arab country at the southeastern corner of the Arabian peninsula.
| 7d | Short maxim about // part of sundial (6) |
A gnome[5] is a short statement encapsulating a general truth; in other words, a maxim.
A gnomon[5] is the projecting piece on a sundial that shows the time by the position of its shadow.
| 9d | Old English court /in/ leading dictionary (abridged version) (4,7) |
The Star Chamber[5] was an English court of civil and criminal jurisdiction that developed in the late 15th century, trying especially those cases affecting the interests of the Crown. It was noted for its arbitrary and oppressive judgements and was abolished in 1641.
| 14d | Follow // part of castle path (4,5) |
A keep[5] is the strongest or central tower of a castle, acting as a final refuge.
| 15d | Very strong, // all the players with club (4-4) |
In golf, an iron[2] is any of various clubs with an angled iron head, used for shorter distance shots of about 100-200 yards.
| 17d | Another malt, partly // responsible for getting you warm (7) |
| 18d | Message about welcoming uniform // consistency (7) |
| 19d | Excitement /caused by/ the short stream (6) |
| 21d | Trainee // forced to spend minutes in court (5) |
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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