Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 2506
A full analysis by Peter Biddlecombe
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Much easier than last week for me, but there’s plenty to see. First, a bit of symmetry – half-turn rotational symmetry still applies when you’ve drawn in little bars to mark word breaks in multi-word answers.
Legend: (act)* indicates an anagram of act
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Live quartet heard previously (6) |
| BEFORE = BE=live,FORE=”four” | |
| 4 | Scion not on hunting expedition (8) |
| OFFSHOOT – OFF=not on,SHOOT=hunting expedition. A scion is a twig or offshoot, esp. one used for planting or grafting. It’s also a fairly obvious component of a family tree. | |
| 10 | What footballers try to avoid in clubs, for example (5) |
| CARDS – 2 defs, from football and card-playing | |
| 11 | China correspondent? (9) |
| PENFRIEND – cryptic def punning on china=mate=friend and a possible location for a penfriend. 2 words or 1? 1 in Concise Oxford, 2 in Collins. There’s probably no right answer, and the lesson for xwd solving is not to rely too much on the enumeration matching your expectation. | |
| 12 | Author collecting royalty as person producing books (7) |
| PRINTER – R in PINTER – R=royalty by way of rex and regina, not as a direct abbreviation | |
| 13 | Kind of power, one French back completely (7) |
| NUCLEAR – rev. of un,clear=completely | |
| 14 | Reassembled trio can inspect keyboard musician (7,7) |
| CONCERT PIANIST = (trio can inspect)* | |
| 17 | It requires good performance in test, hitting initial shots with freedom (7,7) |
| DRIVING = hitting initial shots (golf),LICENCE = freedom. If you really want to be picky, you might point out that a learner has a driving licence, though a provisional one. A similar point was made on the Times blog a while ago when something like “one without a licence” was used for ‘learner’. | |
| 21 | Slight change in RAF, not including first of flights (7) |
| AFFRONT – F in (RAF, not)* – “Slight change” is a classic bit of disguise, “slight” being the definition rather than a description of the change | |
| 23 | Insert minute design in it (7) |
| IMPLANT – (M = minute, PLAN = design) in IT | |
| 24 | Open to investigation likely to include drug (9) |
| PROBEABLE – E = drug, in PROBABLE = likely | |
| 25 | Escort family from falling house (5) |
| USHER – 2 defs, one referring to Edgar Allan Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher | |
| 26 | Swaggered along with supporting members (8) |
| STRUTTED – 2 defs, one based on the “equipped with” meaning of the -ed suffix | |
| 27 | Fuel, we hear, for this flier over ocean (6) |
| PETREL = “petrol” | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Luggage – altogether, nine of fifteen (8) |
| BACKPACK – referring to a BACK being one Rugby player, and the pack=scrum eight of them | |
| 2 | Person from elsewhere putting gold in counterfeit sovereign (9) |
| FOREIGNER – OR = gold in FEIGN = counterfeit (vb.), then E.R. = sovereign | |
| 3 | Old dog moving right to top gets award in show (7) |
| ROSETTE – move the R = right to the top when writing “O(=old),SETTER(=dog)” | |
| 5 | Source of economic advice, not a white paper (9,5) |
| FINANCIAL TIMES, which is of course a “pink paper”. I’m sure you all know the cheesy joke about the FT crossword already. | |
| 6 | Arab people surrounded by endless sand (7) |
| SARACEN = Arab – RACE = people in SAN(d) | |
| 7 | Honours bestowed on European with big corporation (5) |
| OBESE – O.B.E.’S = honours, E = European | |
| 8 | People from house demolished in Stroud (6) |
| TUDORS = Stroud* – members of a royal house=dynasty | |
| 9 | Patient supporter when cuts are needed in theatre (9,5) |
| OPERATING TABLE – CD with “Arts funding” surface using three puns – “Patient supporter”, “cuts” and “theatre” | |
| 15 | Possibly burns absorbing heat disastrously as this? (9) |
| SUNBATHER – heat* in burns* | |
| 16 | Frantically clear top of chest (8) |
| PECTORAL = “of chest” – (clear top)* | |
| 18 | Wild flower, without name (7) |
| VIOLENT – n = name in VIOLET. A sharp-eyed solver has grumbled about this use of “without” on the Times blog, pointing out that the crucial meaning of “without” is “outside of” rather than “surrounding”. He has a point, I think. | |
| 19 | Take on board what’s fitting in solution (7) |
| CAPTURE – APT = fitting in CURE = solution | |
| 20 | Author seizing power in university position (6) |
| CAMPUS – P = power in (Albert) Camus = author | |
| 22 | Knock down part of building (5) |
| FLOOR – 2 defs | |
I take the point that “without” means “outside of” rather than “surrounding, (18dn), but I don’t think that alters its validity in a cryptic clue. Wouldn’t “flower outside of name” just as acceptably allude to the answer as “flower surrounding name”?
Welcome to the blog Radler
I’m very inclined to agree with you. I would be much more concerned with constructs like A B in C meaning to put B in A to get C which is just not English.
If anyone’s still interested …
I explained this badly – the point is that “without” in (e.g.) “there is a green hill far away, without a city wall”, does NOT mean surrounding – the hill is not a circular ridge! As far as I can tell, “outside” can mean “surrounding”, but this meaning of “without” cannot.
I understand the distinction and agree with you. However, I don’t think “without” precludes the case where the object outside is also “surrounding” – e.g. it would be correct to state that “the moat was without the castle”.
Another thought… The meaning of a word is of course determined by usage. Could its long-standing, frequent (and possibly originally erroneous) use in crossword clues mean that it now really does mean “surrounding”?
The moat could be described as”without the castle”, but this would equally describe a moat outside but not surrounding it. This is true for “outside” too, but I think there’s a case for more precision when using old-fashioned meanings. I can’t support the “used in crossword clues” argument for meanings of words unless the dictionaries start going down that route, but thinking of a particular pet hate, I hope never to see a dictionary definition like “ion: a charge (from cryptic crossword clues)”.
We all have our particular likes and dislikes.
Does this mean that “outside” cannot be used either? And what about “outwith”?
I am happier with “without” meaning surrounding (Chambers – outside the limits of) than I am with “in” joining the wordplay to the definition, as in ST 2509.
I have no problem with “outside”, as this is in modern vocabulary and “surrounding” is a possible meaning as well as “exterior to”. My problem with the archaic meaning of “without” for “surrounding” is that I cannot think of an example with this meaning that would be as recognisable as “An Agony in eight fits” (see today’s stuff on 2509).
It’s not a requirement recognised explicitly by any set of cryptic crossword “rules” I’ve ever seen, but I’m always happier if I can illustrate a meaning with a convincing snippet of English – and for archaic stuff, convincing usually ends up meaning “something I can quote and at least some people will recognise”.