Puzzle at a Glance
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Puzzle number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29938 | |
Publication date in The Daily Telegraph
Friday, March 18, 2022 | |
Setter
proXimal (Steve Bartlett) | |
Link to full review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29938]
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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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Notes
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This puzzle appears on the Monday Diversions page in the Saturday, July 16, 2022 edition of the National Post. | |
Introduction
We start the week here in Canada with what was an end of the week puzzle in the UK.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 | Concentrate again, // female in course resolved (7) |
" female " = F [f or f.[2]]
| 5a | Considered // act to protect club (7) |
The Brits are more than likely to think of the club as one used to hit a ball in cricket.
| 9a | Church beside mostly dim // wood (5) |
| 10a | In worry, turned back before // clash (9) |
| 11a | Amazing // pub by path male individual recalled (10) |
What did he say?
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In his review on Big Dave's Crossword Blog, Deep Threat describes the abbreviation for pub as oneIn the UK, the Ordnance Survey[5] is an official survey organization, originally under the Master of the Ordnance, preparing large-scale detailed maps of the whole country.seen on Ordnance Survey maps. |
| 12a | Bring forward last of huge // barrels (4) |
| 14a | You heard chatting about heartless fool /that's/ not complimentary (12) |
| 18a | Writer /of/ wills clear or intricate (5,7) |
Lewis Carroll[5] (1832–1898) was an English writer; pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He wrote the children's classics Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1871), which were inspired by Alice Liddell, the young daughter of the dean at the Oxford college where Carroll was a mathematics lecturer.
| 21a | Hit // shuffle, skipping first of songs (4) |
| 22a | Plank /from/ stump drilled audibly (10) |
Floor[5] is used in the sense of to baffle (someone) completely ⇒
that question floored him.
| 25a | Ecstasy playing piece to capture knight /in/ contest (9) |
"ecstasy " = E [the illicit drug Ecstasy]
E[5] is an abbreviation for the drug Ecstasy* or a tablet of Ecstasy ⇒ (i)
* Ecstasy[5] is an illegal amphetamine-based synthetic drug with euphoric effects, originally produced as an appetite suppressant. Also called MDMA (Methylenedioxymethamphetamine).
hide
E[5] is an abbreviation for the drug Ecstasy* or a tablet of Ecstasy ⇒ (i)
people have died after taking E; (ii)
being busted with three Es can lead to stiff penalties.
* Ecstasy[5] is an illegal amphetamine-based synthetic drug with euphoric effects, originally produced as an appetite suppressant. Also called MDMA (Methylenedioxymethamphetamine).
hide
" knight " = N[2] [chess notation; N is used for kNight as K is used for King]
| 26a | Character // enthralled by unusual phantom (5) |
Alpha[5] is the first letter of the Greek alphabet (Α, α).
| 27a | Calmed /and/ rested entertaining journalist before another (7) |
| 28a | Hold /and/ sup rum, gripped by broadcast (7) |
As an anagram indicator, rum[5] is used in a dated informal British sense meaning odd or peculiar ⇒
it’s a rum business, certainly.
Scratching the Surface
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Used as a verb (as in the surface reading), 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. Sup[5] can also be used as a noun meaning:
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Down
| 1d | Directions /from/ playing field, that is including parking (6) |
Here and There
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|---|---|
Rec[5] is an informal British term for recreation ground whereas in North America it is a short form for the word recreation ⇒ the rec centre. Thus while Brits conduct their recreational activities at the rec, North Americans pursue theirs at the rec centre. |
| 2d | Following identification, understand // restless person (6) |
| 3d | Crumbled tacos rot in // drawer (10) |
| 4d | Take // measurement, encircling base (5) |
In mathematics, e[5] is the base of Napierian or natural logarithms, approximately equal to 2.71828.
| 5d | Critic/'s/ rubbish conveyed upset (9) |
Rubbish[3,4,11] and rot[3,4,11] are used in the sense of nonsense (foolish or pointless writing or speech).
| 6d | Empty // drinking establishment close to collapse (4) |
| 7d | Topical // item chat sorted out (8) |
| 8d | Arrange some time /for/ equestrian event (8) |
Dressage[5] is the art of riding and training a horse in a manner that develops obedience, flexibility, and balance ⇒ (i)
she was learning dressage on a black mare; (ii)
Britain's top dressage rider.
| 13d | Sweets // start to descend in stomach in denim trousers (5,5) |
Sweets[5] is the British term for what is known in North America as candy[5] with a sweet being a piece of candy ⇒
a bag of sweets.
| 15d | Sent paperwork // to give guidance about fleet at sea (9) |
| 16d | Gets dirty // book and relaxes, missing out intro (8) |
" book " = B [b or b.[1]; likely in textual references]
| 17d | Deceitful // act few do suspect (3-5) |
| 19d | Flier /is/ publication oddly prized (6) |
A magpie[5] is a long-tailed crow with boldly marked (or green) plumage and a noisy call.
| 20d | Former king /in/ European conflict invading Germany twice (6) |
" European " = E[2]
Edward[5] was the name of six kings of England and also one of Great Britain and Ireland and one of the United Kingdom, the most receent being Edward VIII[5] (1894–1972), son of George V, who reigned as king of the United Kingdom in 1936 but was not crowned. Edward abdicated eleven months after coming to the throne in order to marry the American divorcee Mrs Wallis Simpson.
| 23d | Revolutionary Japanese game about small // monsters (5) |
 |
| Go is played on a grid of black lines |
| (usually 19×19). Game pieces, called stones, |
| are played on the lines' intersections. |
From China the game spread, first to Korea and Japan, and eventually worldwide. Despite its relatively simple rules, Go is very complex. Compared to chess, Go has both a larger board with more scope for play and longer games, and, on average, many more alternatives to consider per move. In a simple and anecdotal way of explaining the rules of Go, a teacher simply says to a student "you may place your stone (playing piece) on any point on the board, but if I surround that stone, I may remove it." The name Go is derived from the Japanese name of the game "igo".
hide
" small " = S[5] [clothing size]
| 24d | Stop // bedcover shifting left (4) |
As a deletion indicator, shift[5] (in the form of its present participle shifting) is used in the informal British sense of remove (a stain) ⇒
thorough cleaning is necessary to shift all cooking residues.
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
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