Tuesday, August 4, 2009 (DT 25886)

This puzzle was originally published Thursday, March 26, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

In hindsight, this seems to be a fairly straightforward puzzle and I was not surprised to see Big Dave's blog rate it two stars for degree of difficulty. Despite this, after quite some time spent puzzling over it, I set it aside not having been able to solve a single clue. Returning to it later in the day, I finally cracked one clue which seemed to break the logjam (or release the mental block). In fact, I was then able to totally complete the puzzle without having to resort to my Tool Chest.

Today's Glossary

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

butty - Brit. a sandwich

gen - colloq. information

roentgen - a unit of measurement for radiation

SP - abbrev. starting price: horse racing final odds just prior to the start of a race

TT - abbrev. Tourist Trophy, motorcycle races held on the Isle of Man

Today's Links

I found no questions on AnswerBank discussing today's puzzle.

A review of today's puzzle by gazza may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25886].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

4ac Accepts there's trouble with the points (6)

"Points" is often a reference to the points of the compass - but not today.

1d Right tone perhaps, to suppress information on scale of radiation (8)

My first thought was that "suppress information" might be a direction to "delete GEN" from some word to arrive at the solution (along the lines of yesterday's "delete mail from voicemail to get voice" clue). However, I eventually discovered that this was not the correct approach.

2d Races in to purchase something to eat (5)

Once again, the Tourist Trophy motorcycle races on the Isle of Man make an appearance. Despite never having heard of a "butty", I was still able to derive the solution based on the wordplay.

18d Old wine is different - it has to rest (3,4)

While working through this clue, the following potential cryptic clue idea sprang to mind:

• Used to toast new idol (3,4)

The solution is contained in 18d. I am also assuming that toast is a plausible anagram indicator (I believe I have seen less credible ones). If not, throw in an appropriate one.

Signing off for today - Falcon