Puzzle at a Glance
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Puzzle number in The Daily Telegraph
DT 29931 | |
Publication date in The Daily Telegraph
Thursday, March 10, 2022 | |
Setter
Unknown | |
Link to full review
Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 29931]
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Big Dave's Crossword Blog review written by
Miffypops | |
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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* The BD Rating was provided by Beaver rather than Miffypops.
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Introduction
Although I did find this puzzle to be quite challenging, I would say it received a surprisingly high difficulty rating on Big Dave's Crossword Blog.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 | Head examiner // slammed poor English teaching primarily (12) |
| 9a | Island // school with university entrance (4) |
Gam[5] is a rare term for a school of whales, porpoises, or dolphins.
" university " = U [U or U.[1]]
| 10a | Agreement // at home -- something taken out overnight? (9) |
| 12a | Mysterious // firm backed religious group (6) |
Co[5] (also Co.) is the abbreviation for Company [in particular, in the name of a business].
| 13a | In favour of youngsters reportedly /getting/ dietary requirements (8) |
| 15a | Authentic quality /of/ minister, one attached to Exeter? (10) |
A canon[2] is a member of the clergy* attached to a cathedral.
* in rank, below a dean
Exeter[5] is a city in southwestern England, the county town of Devon, on the River Exe. Exeter was founded by the Romans, who called it Isca.
Canonicity[5,10] is the fact or quality of being accepted as accurate and authoritative.
Scratching the Surface
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| Exeter[7] became a religious centre during the Middle Ages and into the Tudor times. Exeter Cathedral, founded in the mid 11th century, became Anglican during the 16th-century English Reformation. |
| 16a | Female wants listener // to show concern (4) |
| 18a | Result of gym being closed? // Negative response (4) |
PE[5] is an abbreviation* for physical education.
| 20a | Somehow catch a lone // fish (10) |
The coelacanth[5] is a large bony marine fish with a three-lobed tail fin and fleshy pectoral fins. It was known only from fossils until one was found alive in 1938; since then others have been found near the Comoro Islands in the Indian Ocean and off Sulawesi, Indonesia.
| 23a | Soldiers being insincere, // showing uncooperative attitude? (8) |
| 24a | Where blood flows, it's said, // without effectiveness (2,4) |
| 26a | The thing badly placed in gallery // to amuse (9) |
"gallery " = TATE
The Tate Gallery[5] (commonly known simply as the Tate) is a national museum of art in London, England founded in 1897 by the sugar manufacturer Sir Henry Tate (1819–1899) to house his collection of modern British paintings, as a nucleus for a permanent national collection of modern art. It was renamed Tate Britain in 2000, when the new Tate Modern gallery opened.
* I think it would be safe to surmise that by that time the original collection could no longer be considered "modern".
In addition to Tate Britain and Tate Modern, the Tate group[7] of galleries also includes Tate Liverpool and Tate St. Ives.
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The Tate Gallery[5] (commonly known simply as the Tate) is a national museum of art in London, England founded in 1897 by the sugar manufacturer Sir Henry Tate (1819–1899) to house his collection of modern British paintings, as a nucleus for a permanent national collection of modern art. It was renamed Tate Britain in 2000, when the new Tate Modern gallery opened.
* I think it would be safe to surmise that by that time the original collection could no longer be considered "modern".
In addition to Tate Britain and Tate Modern, the Tate group[7] of galleries also includes Tate Liverpool and Tate St. Ives.
hide
| 27a | Support that often comes with ruin (4) |
I have marked this clue as a cryptic definition with embedded precise definition as the latter part of the clue seems to me to be more elaboration on the precise definition than an independent definition in its own right.
| 28a | See doomster rant terribly -- that could be me (12) |
I have marked this clue as a cryptic definition with embedded wordplay.
Down
| 2d | Lowering // sound, crooner admits hint of laryngitis (8) |
Bing Crosby[5] (1903–1977) was an American singer and actor; born Harry Lillis Crosby. His songs include ‘White Christmas’ (from the film Holiday Inn, 1942). He also starred in a series of films (1940–62) with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour.
| 3d | Old flame with sort of appeal /is/ way out (4) |
It[2,5] (usually written in quotation marks, "it") is an informal term for sex appeal* or sexual intercourse ⇒ (i)
the only thing I knew nothing about was ‘it’; (ii)
they were caught doing ‘it’ in the back seat of his car.
* Chambers 21st Century Dictionary considers this sense to be an "old use" (Chambers' terminology for archaic, obsolete or old-fashioned).
"It"[7] (written in quotation marks) is a term that has come to mean sex appeal — although, in its earliest manifestation, it seems that the term pertained more to personality than to glamorous looks. Despite having been used as early as 1904 by Rudyard Kipling, the term was popularized in the 1927 film It starring Clara Bow (who became known as the "It Girl").
| 4d | Trouble with day working? // Sticking at it, no matter what (10) |
| 5d | Old sailors had /to be/ decorated (6) |
" old " = O[12] [linguistics;
OFr(Old French),
OE(Old English)]
| 6d | One crazy person on French island // no good for anything (7) |
The French word for island is ile[8].
| 7d | Use the rat-run possibly, /making/ journey with a purpose (8,4) |
| 8d | Italian // workers united -- bad goings-on half concealed (6) |
" workers united" ⇒ " trade union " = TU[1]
A Tuscan[5] is a native or inhabitant of Tuscany[5], a region of west central Italy, on the Ligurian Sea.
| 11d | Focused // study needing minimal money deemed very good (12) |
The cent[5] is a monetary unit [usually, if not always, the smallest] in various countries*,
equal to one hundredth of a dollar, euro, or other decimal currency
unit. However, in Britain — despite having adopted a decimal currency
system — one hundredth of a pound is known as a penny rather than a cent.
* Collins English Dictionary lists some 85 jurisdictions having the cent[10] as a monetary unit worth one hundredth of their respective standard units (show list ).
American Samoa, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Brunei, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guyana, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Liberia, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Micronesia, Monaco, Montenegro, Namibia, Nauru, the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, the Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Surinam, Swaziland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, the United States, the Vatican City, the Virgin Islands, and Zimbabwe.
hide
* Collins English Dictionary lists some 85 jurisdictions having the cent[10] as a monetary unit worth one hundredth of their respective standard units (show list ).
American Samoa, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Brunei, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guyana, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Liberia, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Micronesia, Monaco, Montenegro, Namibia, Nauru, the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, the Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Surinam, Swaziland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, the United States, the Vatican City, the Virgin Islands, and Zimbabwe.
hide
Rate[5,10] is an informal [almost certainly British*] term meaning to have a high opinion of ⇒ (i)
Mike certainly rated her, goodness knows why; (ii)
the clients do not rate the new system.
* at least when used as in the cited examples
| 14d | Story worker/'s presented for/ person handling finances (10) |
"worker " = ANT
The terms "worker" and "social worker" are commonly used in cryptic crossword puzzles to clue ANT or BEE.
A worker[5] is a neuter or undeveloped female bee, wasp, ant, or other social insect, large numbers of which do the basic work of the colony.
In crossword puzzles, "worker" will most frequently be used to clue ANT and occasionally BEE but I have yet to see it used to clue WASP. Of course, "worker" is sometimes also used to clue HAND or MAN.
hide
The terms "worker" and "social worker" are commonly used in cryptic crossword puzzles to clue ANT or BEE.
A worker[5] is a neuter or undeveloped female bee, wasp, ant, or other social insect, large numbers of which do the basic work of the colony.
In crossword puzzles, "worker" will most frequently be used to clue ANT and occasionally BEE but I have yet to see it used to clue WASP. Of course, "worker" is sometimes also used to clue HAND or MAN.
hide
| 17d | Are coins unearthed /from/ plot? (8) |
| 19d | Hard to penetrate top man, unusually // shady figure (7) |
" hard " = H[2,5] [grade of pencil lead]
| 21d | Refinement /in/ pest is lacking (6) |
| 22d | Taken /to be/ part of Bristol enterprise (6) |
Scratching the Surface
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| Bristol[5] is a city in southwestern England. Situated on the River Avon about 10 km (6 miles) from the Bristol Channel, it has been a leading port since the 12th century. |
| 25d | Huge // game of two halves, first to last (4) |
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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