Puzzle at a Glance
| |
|---|---|
Puzzle number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29808 | |
Publication date in The Daily Telegraph
Saturday, October 16, 2021 | |
Setter
Cephas (Peter Chamberlain) | |
Link to full review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29108 – Hints]Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29108 – Review] | |
Big Dave's Crossword Blog review written by
Tilsit (Hints)crypticsue (Review) | |
BD rating
| |
| Difficulty - ★ | Enjoyment - ★★★ |
Falcon's experience
┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐
███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ | |
|
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
| |
|
Notes
| |
As this was a Saturday "Prize Puzzle" in Britain, there are two entries related to it on Big Dave's Crossword Blog — the first, posted on the date of publication, contains hints for selected clues while the second is a full review issued following the entry deadline for the contest. The vast majority of reader comments will generally be found attached to the "hints" posting with a minimal number — if any — accompanying the full review.
| |
Introduction
While the thought did occur to me while solving that this was shaping up to be a pangram, I neglected to verify if it, in fact, was one. Does it count as a detection if the alarm goes off and you don't follow 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 | |
|
|
| Click here for further explanation and usage examples of markup conventions used on this blog. | |
Across
| 1a | Medieval tournament, not old, /is/ fair (4) |
"old " = O [linguistics]
In linguistics, O[12] is the abbreviation for Old ⇒ (i)
However, a second entry from this same source shows o (lower case) meaning old (not capitalized) suggesting that the use of this abbreviation may not necessarily be confined to the field of linguistics.
Another possibility arises from the British abbreviation OAP[5] standing for old-age pensioner.
hide
In linguistics, O[12] is the abbreviation for Old ⇒ (i)
OFr[Old French]; (ii)
OE[Old English].
However, a second entry from this same source shows o (lower case) meaning old (not capitalized) suggesting that the use of this abbreviation may not necessarily be confined to the field of linguistics.
Another possibility arises from the British abbreviation OAP[5] standing for old-age pensioner.
hide
| 3a | Show/'s/ former location (10) |
| 8a | Plainchant /in/ service (8) |
In the Church of England, evensong[10] (also called Evening Prayer or vespers) is the daily evening service of Bible readings and prayers prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer. In the Roman Catholic Church, evensong[10] is an archaic name for vespers[10], the sixth of the seven canonical hours of the divine office*, originally fixed for the early evening and now often made a public service on Sundays and major feast days.
* the divine office[10] comprises the canonical prayers recited daily by priests, those in religious orders, etc.
Scratching the Surface
| |
|---|---|
| Plainchant[5] is another term for plainsong[5], unaccompanied church music sung in unison in medieval modes and in free rhythm corresponding to the accentuation of the words, which are taken from the liturgy. |
| 9a | Right in front of you and me, hard // apple (6) |
| 10a | Wicked // nuns stripped in front of Christmas decoration -- heartless! (6) |
| 11a | American representative // not characteristic (8) |
| 13a | Toil with same ground /that is/ most fertile (8) |
As an anagram indicator, ground is used as the past tense or past participle of the verb grind[5]. An anagram indicator is typically a word that denotes movement or transformation. Grind denotes transformation, for example, in the sense of grain being ground into flour.
| 14a | Fingers perhaps // something found in excavations (6) |
| 16a | Felix's short sleep? (6) |
Felix the Cat[7] is a comedy cartoon character created in 1919 during the silent film era. An anthropomorphic black cat with white eyes and a giant grin, he was one of the most recognized cartoon characters in film history.
| 19a | Reportedly eavesdrop // in this direction (4,4) |
| 21a | Gossip /with/ school facing lows, it's said (8) |
| 22a | Open // a French shawl (6) |
| 23a | Subtle difference // when one's leaving pest (6) |
| 24a | It is said to be coming from young child (4,4) |
| 25a | Pastime // building card-castle (4-6) |
Cat's cradle[3] is a game in which a string is looped on the fingers to form an intricate pattern between a player's hands that can be successively varied or transferred to another player's hands.
| 26a | Weather /when/ sun god is not out? (4) |
In Egyptian mythology, Ra[5] (also Re) is the sun god, the supreme Egyptian deity, worshipped as the creator of all life and typically portrayed with a falcon’s head bearing the solar disc. From earliest times he was associated with the pharaoh.
Down
| 1d | Couple jibe endlessly about // average man in the street (3,6) |
Joe Public[5] is an informal British name for a hypothetical representative member of the general public, or the general public personified.
North American term: John Q. Public
| 2d | Number of orders booked many years ago (3,12) |
| 3d | Group of organisms, // green sort (7) |
An ecotype[5] is a distinct form or race of a plant or animal species occupying a particular habitat.
| 4d | Display // insect under leaf (7) |
| 5d | Hurried round fish, // kept it moist (7) |
| 6d | Judging people's feelings /is/ what one might be doing getting into bath (7,3,5) |
The second part of the clue is what I think of as descriptive definition. It may not be a precise definition (i.e., one that might be found in a dictionary) but it certainly very accurately describes the solution to the clue.
| 7d | Old province // of birth (5) |
Natal[5] is the former name of a province of South Africa, situated on the east coast. It was renamed KwaZulu-Natal in 1994. (show more )
Having been a Boer republic and then a British colony, Natal acquired internal self-government in 1893 and became a province of the Union of South Africa in 1910. It was renamed KwaZulu-Natal in 1994.
The name comes from Latin Terra Natalis 'land of the day of birth', a name given by Vasco da Gama in 1497, because he sighted the entrance to what is now Durban harbour on Christmas Day.
hide
Having been a Boer republic and then a British colony, Natal acquired internal self-government in 1893 and became a province of the Union of South Africa in 1910. It was renamed KwaZulu-Natal in 1994.
The name comes from Latin Terra Natalis 'land of the day of birth', a name given by Vasco da Gama in 1497, because he sighted the entrance to what is now Durban harbour on Christmas Day.
hide
| 12d | Back at sea (3) |
This has to be one of the least cryptic definitions I have ever encountered.
| 15d | Older lamb's family/'s/ fleece (9) |
Scratching the Surface
| |
|---|---|
| I couldn't help but think of Kath, my fellow blogger on Big Dave's Cryptic Crossword Blog, who always refers to her daughters as her elder and younger lambs. |
| 17d | Round bit? (3) |
| 18d | Be first // individual to enter wharf (7) |
| 19d | Offer more in order to take the lot? (7) |
| 20d | Not easily disturbed /by/ question and answer in rising river (7) |
The Elbe[5] is a river of central Europe, flowing 1,159 km (720 miles) from the Czech Republic through Dresden, Magdeburg, and Hamburg to the North Sea.
| 21d | Young fellow in charge // of sound (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
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.