Monday, August 24, 2009 (Mystery Puzzle)

This posting is late as I have spent considerable time in an unsuccessful effort to identify the source of today's puzzle. It is not the expected DT 25900 originally published Saturday, April 11, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph. In fact, an exhaustive search of Big Dave's site would seem to confirm that it is not a Daily Telegraph Cryptic Crossword published since the inception of his blog.

Introduction

I found today's puzzle to be a fairly difficult one - having to open the Tool Chest very early in the solving process. In a number of cases, I made a stab at a solution without having any real confidence in its correctness - and several of these later proved to be incorrect.

Congratulations to England

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate England on winning The Ashes - and, appropriately, there is at least one cricket reference in today's puzzle. From the report in our local paper, I gather that the victory was a bit of an unexpected outcome. As for my comprehension of the rest of the report, I must confess that I probably would have understood it just as well if it had been written in Greek.

Today's Glossary

Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle

chat - any of various songbirds noted for their harsh chattering calls (entry 2)

form - a school class (noun, defn. 9)

L - Brit. abbrev. learner (in North American parlance, a driver holding a beginner's permit) (noun, defn. 3)

off-break - cricket deviation in the direction of a ball inwards from the offside spin with which it is bowled

Today's Links

Having been unable to identify the source of the puzzle, there are naturally no links today.

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

Where did this mystery puzzle come from. Given its uneven quality, I suspect it may be a "scrap from the cutting room floor" that inadvertently got included in the syndication in place of the puzzle that appeared in the Daily Telegraph. Or perhaps this puzzle was originally intended to be published in the DT and was replaced at the last minute. We will probably never know the answer.

While there were some quite clever clues in this puzzle, such as 11ac, 13ac, 14d, and 19d, there were also some pretty weak clues, such as 9d, some repetition of clue elements, as well as at least one seemingly very poorly constructed clue.

10ac Pressing need for home club (8)

My initial thought was that the solution might be GRIDIRON, a North American term for a football field (it seemed to make sense, since the home club must provide the playing field). However, I don't think the British use this terminology so I figured that it would be unlikely to appear in the puzzle.

12ac Bird-talk (4)

A CHAT is a new type of bird to me. My first guess was CROW - which turned out to be nothing to boast about.

20ac Club regulation that must be strictly obeyed (4,4)

For the second time in the puzzle, we see "club" signifying IRON (also in 10ac).

27ac Money advanced for empty apartment (5)

At first, I mistakenly thought that "empty apartment" might signify "A_T". Instead, apartment signifies "FLAT" and empty signifies "containing nothing". Therefore, an "empty apartment" is a "flat containing nothing" or FL(O)AT.

I note that this is the second occurrence of FLAT ("home" in 10ac and "apartment" here) in the puzzle.

4d In age so twisted, suffering pains (7)

This appears to be a rather poorly constructed clue. Unless there are two anagram indicators back-to-back (twisted and suffering), there would seem to be a mismatch between the definition and the solution. If the wordplay is "In age so twisted" and the definition is "suffering pains" then the solution (AGONIES) matches the wordplay but not the definition (which would seem to indicate AGONISING). AGONIES does match "pains", but that would leave "suffering" unaccounted for.

21d Yet such a description may be fair comment (4)

This seemed to be a bit of an UGLY clue, so I went with that as my choice of solution. The only alternative appeared to be UGLI (a type of citrus fruit). Perhaps I am missing some nuance in the wordplay.

25ac A pop song creature (6)

The second Nursery Rhyme reference in the puzzle (with 8ac). I'm certainly glad I studied my Mother Goose.

Solution to Today's Puzzle

Legend:	"CD" Cryptic Definition; "DD" Double Definition
	"*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed
	"( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted

Across

7ac DISCHARGE - DD

8ac SIMON - from the Nursery Rhyme Simple Simon (met a pie man)

10ac FLAT|IRON

11ac HEDGED - CD

12ac CHAT - DD

13ac ELEGISTS* - broken {LEG IS SET}*

15ac BECAUSE - CD

17ac COVER UP

20ac IRON RULE

22ac FIFE

25ac WEASEL - From the Nursery Rhyme Pop! Goes the Weasel

26ac AIR|CRAFT

27ac FL(O)AT

28ac STRAT*|AGEM* - GAME* anew (anagram indicator) after (positional indicator) false (anagram indicator) START*

Down

1d YIELD - DD

2d SCOTCH - DD

3d NARRATES* - lead to making {AN ARREST}*

4d AGONIES* - {IN AGE SO}* twisted

5d WILD|FIRE

6d MO|MEN|TO|US - MO: Medical Officer

9d SH(O)E

14d BEER BELLY - CD

16d A(MNESIA*)C - AC: account (bill); {NAME IS}* incorrect

18d OFF-BREAK

19d REGATTA - CD

21d UGLY

23d FORM|A|L

24d _OFFER - remove top from (delete first letter) c[OFFER]

Signing off for today - Falcon