Introduction
For the last couple of days, I have clearly been on the same wavelength as the setters. However, today is a different story - I am in a totally different frequency band altogether. I did feel somewhat less inept to see that Gazza gave today's puzzle four stars for difficulty. The puzzle has a distinct British flavour today, with a serving of cricket terminology that required a bit of sorting out. Using every resource available to me in my Tool Chest, I was able to solve all but one clue. However, I guess the puzzle had just worn me down to the point that, in the end, I failed to solve a fairly simple and straightforward clue.
Today's Glossary
Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle
Barb - a breed of horse well-suited to the desert, developed on the Barbary Coast of Africa
leg - noun 6 (also leg side) Cricket the half of the field away from which the batsman’s feet are pointed when standing to receive the ball. The opposite of off.
mobile library - bookmobile
panto - noun Brit. informal a pantomime
punt3 - [American Heritage Dictionary] verb 2. Chiefly British Slang To gamble
punter - noun 1 informal a person who gambles or places a bet. 2 Brit. informal a customer or client.
rip - noun informal, dated 1 a dissolute immoral man
starting price (SP abbreviation) - noun the final odds at the start of a horse race
up - adverb 9 formal to or at university • up at Oxford
Today's Links
Gazza's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 26043].
Commentary on Today's Puzzle
18a Drug - horse is given it before lunchtime? (9)
This clue contains a breed of horse (Barb) that I had never heard of, an hour to have lunch that is perhaps a bit on the late side, and the solution is a drug (barbitone) with which I was heretofore unfamiliar.
6d Girl keeps going, wasting little time (4)
When it comes to cryptic crossword puzzles, four-letter words are the bane of my existence. This was the last clue remaining, and despite knowing half the word based on the intersecting clues, I had to surrender and seek assistance at Big Dave's site. From the checking letters (_A_S), I considered that the solution might be LASS - but was unable to decipher the wordplay so as to produce this result. I was kicking myself severely after reading Gazza's review where I discovered that I not only had the right solution, but moreover that the wordplay was almost trivial (at least in 20/20 hindsight).
9d What's accepted, in short, by various punters (8,5)
Of course, the first thing that comes to my mind is that the punter (a kicker in football of the North American variety) accepts the snap (of the football). However, the clue actually utilises at least one - and maybe two - British meanings for punter. In the cryptic reading, a punter is someone who bets on horses. In the surface reading, we may be expected to visualize a "customer or client".
I have to admit that I did not see the hidden word wordplay in this clue, presuming instead that the clue was merely meant to be a cryptic definition for STARTING PRICE. Having read Gazza's review, it would now appear to me that this may be an & lit. (all in one clue). In one reading, the clue is a definition for STARTING PRICE as those bettors (punters) who place bets shortly before the start of a race (in short?) would presumably be accepting the STARTING PRICE (odds at the start of the race). In the other reading, the clue says that the solution (what) is a term whose abbreviation (in short) is hidden in (accepted by) variouS Punters.
Of course, I realize I tread on treacherous ground by proclaiming on this clue - having been shown to be wrong on numerous occasions!
19d Cricketer's leg (6)
This clue, a cryptic definition with a cricket theme, proved to be the excuse for a major digression investigating terminology related to this sport. It took me a while to make sense of (if that is possible when it comes to cricket) this bit of terminology. It seems that leg, in cricket, refers to the on side of the cricket pitch (field). It is interesting to note that, as a noun, the sides of the pitch are referred to as leg and off; however, as an adjective, they are referred to as on and off. Thus the on side is called the leg (or leg side), but presumably not the on. On the other hand, the off side is called simply the off.
The appropriate dictionary citations are provided below. Supplementary reading: those of you interested in furthering your knowledge of the sport of cricket may wish to investigate the meanings of fine leg, long leg, short leg and square leg.
- off - [Chambers] noun 2 cricket the side of a field towards which the batsman's feet are pointing, usually the bowler's left.
- leg - [Chambers] noun 7 cricket a (also leg side) the side of the field that is to the left of a right-handed batsman or to the right of a left-handed batsman; b a fielder positioned on this side of the field. (See also fine leg, long leg, short leg and square leg.)
- off - [Chambers] adjective 6 cricket on the side of the field towards which the batsman's feet are pointing, usually the bowler's left. Opposite of on (adjective 6).
- on - [Chambers] adjective 6 cricket on the side of the field towards which the bat is facing, usually the batsman's left and the bowler's right. Opposite of off (adjective 6).
9D: you're right this time!
ReplyDelete19D: I'm no expert on cricket, so can't say whether the noun/adj distinction is as you describe, but I'd think not. The crucial fact for xwd solvers is that 'leg' in the clue can indicate ON in the answer, or (less often) vice versa. This clue seems to be written to help non-cricketing solvers to understand why!
And those 4-letter words: I know the feeling - they may still trouble you if you carry on solving cryptics for decades. Patterns like ?A?S offer so many possibilities that you can easily go wrong. The best you can do is to try to STAY CALM and just think through the words that fit both checking letters and a possible def, going through the alphabet for each unchecked letter if necessary.
ReplyDeletePeter,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments.
My supposition about cricket terminology was based solely on what definitions were (or were not) present in (the online version of) Chambers. I realize that is probably not the most rigorous research approach.
Falcon