Friday, April 23, 2010

Friday, April 23, 2010 (DT 26130)

This puzzle, set by Jay, was originally published Wednesday, January 6, 2010 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

Given the fact that I managed to complete the puzzle without the need to resort to my Tool Chest, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this puzzle had garnered a three star rating for difficulty from Big Dave. However, before I could become too smug, I noticed that many of the Brits questioned that assessment suggesting that Big Dave may have been overly generous in handing out stars.

Today's Glossary

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

cavalier - noun 1 (Cavalier) historical a supporter of King Charles I in the English Civil War

co-ed - [Collins English Dictionary] noun 2. (Social Science / Education) Brit a school or college providing coeducation

gen - noun Brit. informal information

REME - abbreviation (Corps of) Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers: a corps of the British Army

RU - abbreviation rugby union

Today's Links

Big Dave's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26130].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

3a Intimidated by school admitting women (5)

In Britain, the word "co-ed", when used as a noun, means "a school or college providing coeducation" whereas in North America it means "a female student in a coeducational college or university". Imagine the image created in the mind of a North American should a British student happen to mention that he had gained entry to a co-ed.

In this clue, "school" is used to mean co-ed and the wordplay is COED (school) containing (admitting) W (women) to produce the solution COWED (intimidated). Note that the entire phrase "school admitting women" presumably could mean co-ed (in the British sense).

1d Floods area and struts around with no resistance initially (9)

To be picky (a practice that is generally encouraged in Crosswordland), I would say that Big Dave may have flagged the wrong R to be dropped in his write-up. There are two Rs in AREA STRUTS and I believe that the instruction is to drop the first one (no resistance initially).

Signing off for today - Falcon

2 comments:

  1. On 1d I agree with Big Dave that "initially" means the first letter of Resistance rather than the first R in the anagram fodder.
    Regards
    Gazza

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Gazza,

    Thanks for the comment. I had overlooked the possibility that "no resistance initially" would mean the first letter of the word "resistance" - but I concede that you (and Big Dave) are undoubtedly correct on this point. I had supposed that "AREA STRUTS with no R" would have to mean that both Rs must be deleted, but - while this may be a plausible interpretation - it would appear not to have been the intent of the setter.

    Falcon

    ReplyDelete

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