Monday, January 18, 2010 (DT 26047)

This puzzle was originally published Wednesday, September 30, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

I found today's offering to be a fairly easy puzzle which I completed unaided in near record time - although with one solution that needed to be verified and one bit of wordplay yet to be decoded. Since the troublesome solution turned out not to be in the dictionary, I had to go back to the drawing board on that one. As for the bothersome wordplay, the answer finally hit me just as I was about to throw in the towel and seek assistance from Big Dave's site. Despite its relative ease, I found that this puzzle contained a goodly number of interesting clues and I quite enjoyed working on it.

Today's Glossary

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

banger - noun chiefly Brit. 2 informal an old car

bushranger - noun 1 US a person living far from civilisation 2 Austral./NZ historical an outlaw living in the bush

calypso - noun a type of popular song originating in the West Indies, usually dealing with current happenings in an amusing way, and often improvised by the singer (while somewhat familiar with calypso, it had never occurred to me that this genre of music is typically of a satirical nature)

clapped-out - adjective informal, chiefly Brit. worn out from age or heavy use

plea - noun 3 Law an excuse or claim of mitigating circumstances

Scotch egg - noun a hard-boiled egg enclosed in sausage meat, rolled in breadcrumbs, and fried

Today's Links

Big Dave's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 26047].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

15d Backwoodsman in awful rush in clapped-out car (10)

The combination of Australian and British slang in this clue proved a little tricky, as this was the instance where my initial stab at a solution (BUSHRUNNER) turned out to be incorrect (actually, nonexistent) when I checked the dictionary. Perhaps I should have seen banger, as I believe this British term it is also heard occasionally in Canada.

20d Spike one member's beer (6)

My first thought was that the 's seemed to be superfluous. However, after some thought I concluded that "member's" may have different meanings in the surface reading and the cryptic reading. In the surface reading it is the possessive (member's ale); however, in the cryptic reading, it probably is intended to mean member has (as in "the member's been re-elected to a second term").

The solution is therefore:

IMPALE (spike) /\ I (one) MP (member) plus (has) ALE (beer)

I seem to recall the verb to have often being used in this manner as a charade indicator.

22d One about to leave country to top the bill with others (2-4)

This is the clue where the wordplay gave me so much trouble. And, no wonder, as it is a reduction-type clue - a style of clue that I often find problematic.

The solution is:

{I (one) CA (about)} removed from (to leave) COSTA RICA (country) /\ CO-STAR (to top the bill with others)

Signing off for today - Falcon