Puzzle at a Glance
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Puzzle number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29811 | |
Publication date in The Daily Telegraph
Wednesday, October 20, 2021 | |
Setter
Jay (Jeremy Mutch) | |
Link to full review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29811]
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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
I would agree with the 2Kiwis that Jay demands a bit more effort than usual today.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 | Talk about right before consumer /finds/ jumper (11) |
| 9a | Hit back /at/ volunteers employed by online seller making a comeback (9) |
"volunteers " = TA [Territorial Army, former name for the Army Reserve]
An e-tailer[5] (trademark in the US) is a retailer selling goods via electronic transactions on the Internet.
| 10a | Pointed remarks /from/ lawyers with briefs lacking content (5) |
Scratching the Surface
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| In British legal practice, a brief[5] is a summary of the facts and legal points in a case prepared by a solicitor and given to a barrister to argue in court.
Barristers and solicitors[7]
are two classes of lawyer. However, the distinction between them
varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction around the world.
The UK has a split legal profession in which barristers and solicitors have separate and distinct roles. Solicitors are attorneys which means they can act in the place of their client for legal purposes. However, a solicitor is not a member of the bar and therefore cannot speak on behalf of a client in court [with the possible exception of certain lower courts]. A barrister is not an attorney and is usually forbidden, either by law or professional rules or both, from "conducting" litigation. This means that while the barrister speaks on the client's behalf in court, he or she can do so only when instructed by a solicitor or certain other qualified professional clients, such as patent agents. (read more ) However, the foregoing would appear not to be strictly true. Collins English Dictionary defines a solicitor[10], in Britain, as a lawyer who advises clients on matters of law, draws up legal documents, prepares cases for barristers, etc, and who may represent clients in certain courts and a barrister[10] (also called barrister-at-law), in England [not Britain], as a lawyer who has been called to the bar and is qualified to plead in the higher courts. In the US and Canada (with the exception of Quebec), there is generally no legal or regulatory distinction between a barrister and a solicitor - with any qualified lawyer being entitled to practice in either field. In the US, most lawyers call themselves attorneys while in Canada, lawyers will adopt different titles depending on the type of legal practice on which they choose to concentrate (barrister, solicitor, or barrister and solicitor). hide |
| 11a | Thrill /of/ quote by former partner (6) |
| 12a | Cue /from/ soldiers and bodyguard (8) |
Minder[5] is a mainly British term meaning:
- a person whose job it is to look after someone or something ⇒
‘their baby-minder is getting married
- (informal) a bodyguard employed to protect a celebrity or criminal ⇒
he was accompanied by his personal minder
| 13a | Prone // to drink plonk, taking cap off (6) |
"to drink " = SUP
As a verb, sup[5] is a dated or Northern English term meaning to take (drink or liquid food) by sips or spoonfuls ⇒ (i)
As a noun, sup[5] means
As a verb, sup[5] is a dated or Northern English term meaning to take (drink or liquid food) by sips or spoonfuls ⇒ (i)
she supped up her soup delightedly; (ii)
he was supping straight from the bottle.
As a noun, sup[5] means
- a sip of liquid ⇒
he took another sup of wine
- (in Northern England or Ireland) an alcoholic drink ⇒
the latest sup from those blokes at the brewery
Plonk[5] is an informal British term for cheap wine of inferior quality ⇒
we turned up at 8 p.m., each clutching a bottle of plonk.
Origin: 1930s (originally Australian) probably an alteration of 'blanc' in French vin blanc ‘white wine’
Synonym or Antonym?
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| This clue generated quite a bit of discussion on Big Dave's Crossword Blog. The Chambers Dictionary (the "Bible" for The Daily Telegraph puzzles) provides the following definitions:
However, the Chambers Thesaurus provides the following listings:
So, prone and supine are both synonyms of prostrate, flat, horizontal and recumbent and both are antonyms of upright. Does that make them synonym of each other? On the other hand, prone is specifically shown to be an antonym of supine. I suppose there are many words that could be made out to be synonyms by focusing solely on the attributes and characteristics they have in common and ignoring those they don't share. |
| 15a | Vessel // preferably parked outside church (8) |
| 18a | Light transport /such as/ tank, for example (8) |
A landship[1] is a land vehicle having certain properties of a ship*, e.g. a tank.
* it is perhaps telling that the vehicle was originally conceived by the Royal Navy
Delving Deeper
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| The Landship Committee[7] was a small British committee formed during the First World War to develop armoured fighting vehicles for use on the Western Front. The eventual outcome was the creation of what is now called the tank. Established in February 1915 by First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, the Committee was composed mainly of naval officers, politicians and engineers. It was chaired by Eustace Tennyson d’Eyncourt, Director of Naval Construction at the Admiralty. For secrecy, by December 1915 the name was changed to "the D.N.C.'s Committee" to disguise its purpose*. * Seemingly, the committee was concerned about keeping its activities secret not only from the Germans but from other other UK government departments and branches of the British military. "The committee's activities were concealed from Kitchener [Secretary of State for War, Herbert Kitchener (an army officer)] at the War Office, the Board of the Admiralty, and the Treasury, all of whom were expected to block the project." In July 1915, the Committee's existence came to the attention of the War Office. This led to its operations being taken over by the Army and a number of its members transferring from the Navy. From December 1915 the word "tank"* was adopted as a codename for the vehicles in development, and the Landship Committee became known officially as the Tank Supply Committee. The word tank[7] was adopted to keep the nature of the vehicles secret. However, just who coined the term is in dispute. Some claim the term originated with officials working on a senior government interdepartmental committee while others credit the men on the shop floor where the first units were built. According to one story, the original plan was to call them "water carriers" but as that would inevitably be shortened to WC (a British term for a toilet), the name was changed to "tank". |
| 19a | Blunt // point (6) |
| 21a | Sort of business // college once attached to Doctor No (8) |
Poly[5] is short for polytechnic[5], a dated British term* for an institution of higher education offering courses at degree level or below, especially in vocational subjects.
* In Britain the term polytechnic has largely dropped out of use [and thus "college once"]. In 1989 British polytechnics gained autonomy from local education authorities and in 1992 were able to call themselves universities.
Scratching the Surface
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| Dr. No[7] is the sixth novel in British author Ian Fleming's James Bond series, first published in the UK in 1958. It was the first James Bond feature film of the Eon Productions series, released in 1962 and starring Sean Connery. |
| 23a | Basket // supplying unboxed fizz! (6) |
Champers[5] is an informal British name for champagne.
| 26a | Small and delicate // female found in river flowing west (5) |
The Nile[5] is a river in eastern Africa, [disputably (show more
)] the longest river in the world, which rises in east central Africa
near Lake Victoria and flows 6,695 km (4,160 miles) generally northwards
through Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan, and Egypt to empty through a large
delta into the Mediterranean.
There are many factors, such as the source, the identification or the definition of the mouth, and the scale of measurement of the river length between source and mouth, that determine the precise meaning of "river length"[7]. As a result, the length measurements of many rivers are only approximations. In particular, there has long been disagreement as to whether the Nile or the Amazon is the world's longest river. The Nile has traditionally been considered longer, but in recent years some Brazilian and Peruvian studies have suggested that the Amazon is longer by measuring the river plus the adjacent Pará estuary and the longest connecting tidal canal.
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There are many factors, such as the source, the identification or the definition of the mouth, and the scale of measurement of the river length between source and mouth, that determine the precise meaning of "river length"[7]. As a result, the length measurements of many rivers are only approximations. In particular, there has long been disagreement as to whether the Nile or the Amazon is the world's longest river. The Nile has traditionally been considered longer, but in recent years some Brazilian and Peruvian studies have suggested that the Amazon is longer by measuring the river plus the adjacent Pará estuary and the longest connecting tidal canal.
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| 27a | Gold in toilet facility /for/ the president of the yacht club! (9) |
| 28a | Direct view /of/ Spooner's indication of dawn? (4,2,5) |
Down
| 1d | Studies underpinning rise of tabloid // plots (7) |
Rag[5] is an informal term for a newspaper, typically one regarded as being of low quality.
| 2d | Language /of/ Zulu arrested by an investigating officer (5) |
Tec[5] is a dated (seemingly British*) informal term for a detective.
* based on the absence of the term from American dictionaries
The Aztec[5] were the indigenous people dominant in Mexico before the Spanish conquest of the 16th century.
Scratching the Surface
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| The Zulu[5]
are a South African people traditionally living mainly in KwaZulu-Natal
province. The Zulus formed a powerful military empire in southern
Africa during the 19th century before being defeated in a series of
engagements with Afrikaner and British settlers. |
| 3d | Shared objectives /may produce/ shock problem (5,4) |
A shock[5] is an unkempt or thick mass of hair ⇒
a man with a shock of ginger hair.
| 4d | State // officers originally provide crew (4) |
Oman[5,7], officially the Sultanate of Oman, is an Arab country at the southeastern corner of the Arabian peninsula.
| 5d | Impressive carriage /in/ attendance (8) |
| 6d | Arab bitterness about // spiritual leader (5) |
| 7d | Financial institution // ruins new queen (7) |
"queen " = ER [regnal cipher of Queen Elizabeth]
The regnal ciphers (monograms) of British monarchs are initials formed from the Latin version of their first name followed by either Rex or Regina (Latin for king or queen, respectively). Thus, the regnal cipher of Queen Elizabeth is ER[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.
* A cipher[5] (also cypher) is a monogram[5] or motif of two or more interwoven letters, typically a person's initials, used to identify a personal possession or as a logo.
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The regnal ciphers (monograms) of British monarchs are initials formed from the Latin version of their first name followed by either Rex or Regina (Latin for king or queen, respectively). Thus, the regnal cipher of Queen Elizabeth is ER[5] — from the Latin Elizabetha Regina.
* A cipher[5] (also cypher) is a monogram[5] or motif of two or more interwoven letters, typically a person's initials, used to identify a personal possession or as a logo.
hide
| 8d | Caution /from/ coppers covering game day (8) |
Copper is a British[5] or chiefly British[12] (or, perhaps, not so British[3,11]) term for brown coins of low value made of copper or bronze.
Pence[5] is a plural* form of penny[5],
a British bronze coin and monetary unit. (show more ).
* Both pence and pennies have existed as plural forms of penny since at least the 16th century. The two forms now tend to be used for different purposes: pence refers to sums of money (five pounds and sixty-nine pence) while pennies refers to the coins themselves (I left two pennies on the table). The use of pence rather than penny as a singular (the chancellor will put one pence on income tax) is not regarded as correct in standard English.
Today, a penny is equal to one hundredth of a pound and is the smallest denomination in Britain's modern decimal currency system introduced in 1971. The abbreviation for the modern penny or pence is p[5].
In the British currency system used prior to 1971, a penny[5] (abbreviation d[5] [for denarius]) was a coin or monetary unit equal to one twelfth of a shilling or 240th of a pound.
hide
* Both pence and pennies have existed as plural forms of penny since at least the 16th century. The two forms now tend to be used for different purposes: pence refers to sums of money (five pounds and sixty-nine pence) while pennies refers to the coins themselves (I left two pennies on the table). The use of pence rather than penny as a singular (the chancellor will put one pence on income tax) is not regarded as correct in standard English.
Today, a penny is equal to one hundredth of a pound and is the smallest denomination in Britain's modern decimal currency system introduced in 1971. The abbreviation for the modern penny or pence is p[5].
In the British currency system used prior to 1971, a penny[5] (abbreviation d[5] [for denarius]) was a coin or monetary unit equal to one twelfth of a shilling or 240th of a pound.
hide
| 14d | This might cut // swan with broken neck if not caught (8) |
A female swan is called a pen[5].
"caught " = C [cricket notation]
A penknife[11] is a small pocketknife, formerly one used for making and sharpening quill pens.
| 16d | A proviso arranged about university // as a layer perhaps (9) |
In zoology, the adjective oviparous[5] denotes (of an animal) producing young by means of eggs which are hatched after they have been laid by the parent, as in birds.
| 17d | William is able to // cook in this vessel (5-3) |
Billycan[5] [spelled billy-can[1] in The Chambers Dictionary] is another name for a billy, a mainly Australian and New Zealand name for a tin or enamel cooking pot with a lid and a wire handle, for use when camping ⇒
Roger had our fire going and the billy boiling.
Spelling variants: billy-can[1], billycan[2,4,5,10], billy[1,2,4,5,10], billie[1] [Note: In my edition of The Chambers Dictionary, the word "billy-can" is spread across two lines of text so I have to wonder if the word is really hyphenated or if the hyphen merely indicates that the word continues on the next line]
| 18d | Doorstep millions holding / stickers / up (7) |
In an unusual construction, the wordplay is split around the definition.
The limpet[5] is a marine mollusc which has a shallow conical shell and a broad muscular foot, found clinging tightly to rocks.
| 20d | Flood /coming from/ fissure under hill (7) |
"hill " = TOR
A tor[7] is a large, free-standing rock outcrop that rises abruptly from the surrounding smooth and gentle slopes of a rounded hill summit or ridge crest. In the South West of England, the term is commonly also used for the hills themselves – particularly the high points of Dartmoor in Devon and Bodmin Moor in Cornwall.
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A tor[7] is a large, free-standing rock outcrop that rises abruptly from the surrounding smooth and gentle slopes of a rounded hill summit or ridge crest. In the South West of England, the term is commonly also used for the hills themselves – particularly the high points of Dartmoor in Devon and Bodmin Moor in Cornwall.
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| 22d | Parking on road the wrong way /is/ punishable in law (5) |
Penal[5] is used in the sense of (said of an act or offence) punishable by law ⇒
None shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the same time when it was committed.
| 24d | Spike /may be/ mistaken getting power for women (5) |
| 25d | Occasionally calm second // rounds (4) |
"second " = MO [short period of time]
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].
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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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