Wednesday, November 10, 2010 (DT 26314)

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26314
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, August 9, 2010
Setter Rufus
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26314]
Big Dave's Review Written By Libellule
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - **	Enjoyment - ***
Notes The National Post has skipped DT 26313 which was published in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, August 7, 2010

Introduction

It is a relatively easy - but nevertheless enjoyable - puzzle today. I especially enjoyed the cryptic definitions - of which there were several quite outstanding examples today. Even the rather obscure British resort was easily deciphered from the wordplay, without ever having heard of it before.

In today's commentary, I discuss a couple of cryptic crossword conventions that appear in today's puzzle. Conventions are established practices in a field - things that usually seem obvious to the long time practitioner but which can often mystify newcomers.

Today's Glossary

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

Appearing in Solutions:

almoner - [Collins English Dictionary] noun 1. British obsolete a trained hospital social worker responsible for the welfare of patients

Broadstairs - a coastal town on the Isle of Thanet in Kent, England

neat ² - noun archaic a bovine animal

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

16d A fisherman may use many a spinner (5)

The definition is given by "a fisherman may use". I have learned that for clues of this type one must often mentally insert an implied word into the definition to complete the thought. Thus, I think of the definition as being "[something] a fisherman may use" or "[what] a fisherman may use". We must then rely on the wordplay to narrow down the range of options provided by this very general definition. This gives us C (many) + REEL (a spinner).

One who is new to cryptic crosswords might well question how I get C from "many". This is a well established cryptic crossword convention where "many" and similar words and phrases (such as "a large number") are used to represent high value Roman numerals, such as L (fifty), C (one hundred), D (five hundred), and M (one thousand). These clues never seem to specify exactly which of these possibilities we must use; we must figure that out from the context of the clue.

This clue also demonstrates how words often take on different meanings in the surface reading and the cryptic reading. In the surface reading, a "spinner" refers to 'a fishing lure with a fin or wing that revolves when drawn through the water', whereas in the cryptic reading the word takes on a more generic meaning as a reel is simply 'any of various cylindrical objects or frames that turn on an axis ...' (i.e., something that spins).

20a Hospital worker once left doctor in near chaos (7)

The definition is "hospital worker once" indicating that we are looking for an obsolete or archaic term, the name of position that once existed but presumably is not extant in modern medical establishments. The position is that of ALMONER, a term that carries a bit of a double whammy in terms of difficulty - it is both British and archaic. By the way, this clue provides another example of a word changing meaning in the surface reading, where "once" indicates 'on some occasion in the past'.

The wordplay is {L (left) + MO (doctor)}contained in (in) an anagram (chaos) of NEAR. Several abbreviations for doctor make regular appearances in cryptic crosswords, these being MO (Medical Officer, a medical practitioner in the armed forces), MB (Bachelor of Medicine, from Latin Medicinae Baccalaureus, this being the degree conferred on medical doctors by British universities), and, of course, DR (Doctor). Much more rarely found, in my experience, is MD (Doctor of Medicine, from Latin Medicinae Doctor, the degree conferred on medical doctors by North American universities). While one might attribute the discrepancy in frequency of appearance to the British versus North American aspect of these terms, that may be an incorrect supposition as the MD degree does apparently exist in the U.K. as an advanced degree beyond the MB level. Perhaps the letter sequence MD just occurs less frequently in words than does the sequence MB.

Signing off for today - Falcon