Thursday, October 7, 2010 (DT 26286)

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26286
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph  Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Setter Jay
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26286]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - **	Enjoyment - ***

Introduction

Big Dave rates today's puzzle on a par with the one we saw yesterday. Perhaps the reason I found today's offering less difficult and more enjoyable is due to being able to tackle it first thing in the morning when my brain was still fresh.

Today's Glossary

Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle

Appearing in Solutions:

doss - verb British informal 1 sleep in rough accommodation or on an improvised bed: he dossed down on a friend's floor

hard cheese - phrase British informal used to express sympathy over a petty matter

hard cheese - exclamation colloquial, often insincere or ironic bad luck!

nick - verb 2

• British informal steal: she nicked fivers from the till
• (nick someone for) North American informal cheat someone of (a sum of money): banks will be nicked for an extra $40 million

Territorial Army (abbreviation TA) - noun in the UK: a fully trained volunteer force intended to provide back-up to the regular army in cases of emergency.

tout¹ - noun

• 1 (also ticket tout) British a person who buys up tickets for an event to resell them at a profit [North American scalper]
• 2 North American a person who offers racing tips for a share of any resulting winnings

Today's Links

The link to Big Dave's Crossword Blog is now found in the table at the top of the blog.

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

4a Decorate, with help from sailor (8)

I want to focus on the use of the word "from" in this clue, which is used as a link word joining the wordplay to the definition. I suspect that some solvers, especially those new to cryptic crosswords, might solve clues like this without fully comprehending the role of the link word in the clue.

The definition is "sailor" and the wordplay (a charade) is DECK (decorate) + (with) HAND (help) producing the solution DECKHAND. The clue is a terse statement of what could be expressed more verbosely as "[One can get] 'decorate with help' from 'sailor' [by performing the appropriate action]" where, of course, the words in single quotation marks must be replaced by the appropriate substitutes. In this case, the 'appropriate action' is to split the solution (DECKHAND) into two words (DECK and HAND).

13a Diplomas once protective of craftsman (5)

Although I quickly spotted our craftsman busy at his stonework from the definition and checking letters, I failed to see him lurking in the wordplay (clued by protective). Instead, I supposed that MAS (Masters of Arts) would account for "diplomas", leaving me with a fruitless search to justify ON meaning "once protective of" - thinking that I was looking for some archaic meaning for the word "on".

17a Ignore an interlude by getting drunk (4,1, 5,3)

Having fooled me on 13a, our setter almost pulled off the same feat again. Once more I got the solution from the definition and checking letters, but had trouble with the wordplay (and I don't even have the excuse of a blind eye). The definition is "ignore" and the wordplay is an anagram (getting drunk) of AN INTERLUDE BY resulting in the solution TURN A BLIND EYE.

My initial thought was that TURN = "interlude" and so I was vainly trying to figure out if A BLIND EYE might mean "getting drunk" (it seemed plausible that this might be a British expression). The word turn has many meanings, several of which might equate to "interlude". However, the best match is probably a meaning used in British theatre "a short theatrical act, especially in music hall, cabaret, etc." [Collins English Dictionary, noun 18] which might be seen to be similar to interlude meaning "a brief piece of music, dance, etc., given between the sections of another performance" [Collins English Dictionary, noun 3].

25a Food that's unlucky when hard (6)

I am sure that this was one of the easiest clues for the Brits and likely one of the first to be solved. It was quite the reverse in my case as I had never heard the expression on which the clue is based.

26a One privy to secret supporter of opener (8)

Many Brits are likely to see opener as suggesting "a [cricket] batsman who opens the batting", equivalent to the leadoff batter in baseball. Bridge players on both sides of the Atlantic may see it as "the player who makes the first bid in the auction". More than a few Canadians are likely to think of a device to pop the cap off a bottle of beer. However, it is none of the above. It is something that opens to give access to your back yard, for example (or garden, in Britain).

27a Stopped being formal in hearing (6)

I misinterpreted (or can we say, interpreted differently) the wordplay. Big Dave explains that this is meant to be a homophone (sounds like) clue, where the homophone indicator is "in hearing" and STAYED (stopped, as in the sense of "resided") sounds like STAID (formal). I had thought of another meaning for stay, being the formal term for the stopping of a court proceeding (hearing). With this is mind, a lawyer speaking to a judge in a hearing would use the formal term 'stayed' rather than the informal term 'stopped'. Perhaps the clue was not intended to be read this way, but it is always interesting to come up with plausible explanations of the wordplay that were not foreseen by the setter.

22d Group nicking silver from abandoned cottage (5)

I started Today's Commentary by discussing the use of the word "from" in 4a. Here we have the same word but used in a different manner. In this clue, there is no link word between the definition and wordplay (i.e., the boundary is implicit). The definition is "group" and the wordplay is an anagram (abandoned) of COTTAGE with AG (chemical symbol for silver) removed (nicking ... from; nick being British slang meaning steal). The solution is OCTET (an eight member musical group). Thus "from" which was a link word in 4a plays a different role here, being part of a deletion indicator (nicking ... from).

One might wonder about the use of abandoned as an anagram indicator. I suppose if a cottage is abandoned, it will eventually fall into a state of disrepair (which would be a form of change or transformation).

Signing off for today - Falcon