Puzzle at a Glance
| |
|---|---|
Puzzle number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29896 | |
Publication date in The Daily Telegraph
Friday, January 28, 2022 | |
Setter
proXimal (Steve Bartlett) | |
Link to full review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29896]
| |
Big Dave's Crossword Blog review written by
Deep Threat | |
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
| |
Introduction
The post for this puzzle marked the 13th anniversary for Big Dave's Crossword Blog, which debuted in late January 2009 — about three months prior to my own blog which first appeared in early May 2009. I joined Big Dave's blogging crew some twenty months later, in September 2010.A combination of lack of knowledge, wrong answers, impatience, and plain simple laziness led me to use a fair amount of electronic assistance with today's puzzle.
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 | Pour tea // drink over flyer (2,6) |
Be mother[10] is a British expression meaning to pour the tea* ⇒
I'll be mother.
* presumably, in a British home, mother traditionally pours the tea; in other social situations, someone must volunteer to fill the role of 'mother'
| 6a | Assistant/'s/ job to keep record (6) |
| 9a | One beginning // gallop energetically, but not all (6) |
In cricket, an opener[2] is either of the two* batsmen who begin the batting for their team.
* in cricket, batsmen always bat in pairs, positioned at opposite ends of the pitch
| 10a | Clumsy /and/ sluggish tackling ten exercise classes (8) |
| 11a | Revolutionary urge with several // revolting (8) |
| 12a | Soft // fruit dropping on common (6) |
| 13a | Peculiarity /of/ noisy cry as I'd roused (12) |
| 16a | Turning sickly in cup, a yellowish-brown // soup (12) |
Mulligatawny[5] is a spicy meat soup originally made in India.
| 19a | Have beef // joint after whiskey (6) |
" whiskey " = W[5] [NATO Phonetic Alphabet[7]]
Here and There
| |
|---|---|
| Whereas North Americans merely whine, it would seem that Brits both whine and whinge. Whinge[5] is an informal British term that means:
|
| 21a | Board // cut here, paring edges (8) |
I would guess that board is used in the sense of a small flat piece of wood or other material used for the preparation and serving of food ⇒ (i)
breadboard; (ii)
cheeseboard; (iii)
cutting boardor, in the UK
chopping board.
Trencher[5] is a historical term for a wooden plate or platter for food.
Post Mortem
| |
|---|---|
| I had never heard of the old-fashioned name for a platter. This, combined with the wrong entry at 22d, contributed to my downfall here. |
| 23a | Unity /in/ company hour before commotion returned (8) |
Co (also Co.)[5] is the abbreviation for Company [in particular, in the name of a business].
" hour " = H [h. or H.[10]]
| 24a | Annoying // liars oddly ignored by monarch (6) |
| 25a | I follow after father // leaves (6) |
" father " = FR [Fr[5]; Father, courtesy title for a priest]
Frisée[5] is another name for the curly endive*.
* Endive[5] is a British term for an edible Mediterranean plant, the bitter leaves of which may be used in salads. The varieties of endive are placed in two groups: curly endive, with curled leaves, and Batavian endive, with smooth leaves.
| 26a | Plant // western doctor inserted in nose (8) |
" Western " = W[2]
" doctor " = DR [Dr[2]]
The snowdrop[5] is a bulbous European plant which bears drooping white flowers during the late winter.
Down
| 2d | Show right // way to trade (6) |
An expo[5] is a large international exhibition.
Origin: abbreviation of exposition
| 3d | Scrap // spring not opening (5) |
Post Mortem
| |
|---|---|
| Unfortunately, the correct synonym for spring did not spring to mind. The synonym that I eventually settled on was not the same one to which Deep Threat alludes in his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog. My synonym starts with a B, while his starts with a P. |
| 4d | Agonising // hard over stick for shooting in golf (9) |
" hard " = H[2,5] [grade of pencil lead]
" golf " = G[5] [NATO Phonetic Alphabet[7]]
| 5d | They attack // people on horseback surrounding area (7) |
" area " = A[2] [geometry]
| 6d | Graduate regularly neared elevated // ambition (5) |
" graduate " = MA[5] [Master of Arts]
| 7d | Usually // turned up in criminal payroll (9) |
| 8d | One's unhurried // love is put into cake (8) |
" love " = O [love[5]; nil score in tennis]
A torte[5] is a sweet cake or tart.
| 13d | Is first to like Scandinavian name /for/ Brits, perhaps (9) |
Anders[7] is a male name in Scandinavian languages and Fering North Frisian*, an equivalent of the Greek Andreas ("manly") and the English Andrew.
* Fering[7] is the dialect of North Frisian spoken on the island of Föhr in the German region of North Frisia.
| 14d | Dodging mice, oxen bearing wide // somewhere in America (3,6) |
In cricket, a wide[5] (also called wide ball and denoted on cricket scorecards by the abbreviation w[5]) is a ball that is judged to be too wide of the stumps for the batsman to play, for which an extra is awarded to the batting side.
* An extra[5] is a run scored other than from a hit with the bat, credited (in most cases) to the batting side rather than to a batsman. The types of extra[7] are no ball, wide, bye, leg-bye, and penalty runs.
Scratching the Surface
| |
|---|---|
| In the surface reading, I believe bear[5] is used in the sense of turn and proceed in a specified direction. While the word is usually found in expressions such as 'bear left' or 'bear north', here I think "bear wide" may mean 'to give a wide berth'. |
| 15d | When arteries may get clogged up? (4,4) |
| 17d | Two Greek characters involved in case of this // disease (7) |
Eta[5] is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet (Η, η).
Nu[5] is the thirteenth letter of the Greek alphabet (Ν, ν).
Post Mortem
| |
|---|---|
| I was simply too lazy to sift through the Greek alphabet to find the two letters I needed. |
| 18d | Shelter // repaired late on (4-2) |
| 20d | Send away // text files, both unprotected (5) |
| 22d | Put in liquor barrel, son's left /to get/ plastered (5) |
" son " = S [s[5]; genealogy]
Post Mortem
| |
|---|---|
| I stymied progress in the southeast by initially entering oaked here, taking it as a shortened form of oak-aged[5]. Wine is sometimes aged in barrels that were previously used to age whisky. Soak[5] is an archaic informal term meaning to drink heavily; thus, I surmised that soaked might be a synonym for plastered in the sense of drunk. |
References
Key to Reference Sources:
[1] - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
[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.