Friday, December 10, 2010 (DT 26340)

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26340
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Setter Jay
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26340]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - ***	Enjoyment - ****
Falcon's Performance ****

Introduction

I thought that today I had finally broken the jinx of finishing one solution short, in that I was able to complete the grid unaided. However, through a dictionary check I was to discover that one of my entries was not a real word and I had to pull out the Tool Chest to help me find the correct solution.

Today's Glossary

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

Appearing in Clues:

golf - noun 2 a code word representing the letter G, used in radio communication.

Appearing in Solutions:

cast-iron - adjective 1 made of cast iron. 2 very strong. 3 said of a rule or decision: firm; not to be altered. 4 said of an argument, etc: with no flaws, loopholes, etc.

CID - abbreviation Criminal Investigation Department, the detective branch of the British police force.

f - abbreviation 6 (plural ff.) following (page).

Financial Times (FT) - a British international business newspaper, a morning daily published in London. It is printed on pink newsprint (thus Big Dave's reference to "the pink newspaper" - which I am pretty sure is definitely not a comment on the paper's political stance).

manor - 2 (one's manor) informal the district covered by a police station.

RE - abbreviation (2^nd entry) (in the UK) Royal Engineers, the field engineering and construction corps of the British army.

Sark - one of the Channel Islands, a small island lying to the east of Guernsey.

tenner - noun colloquial 1 [British] a £10 note. 2 US a $10 bill.

wind-up - noun 1 British informal an attempt to tease or irritate someone.

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

This commentary should be read in conjunction with the review at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, to which a link is provided in the table above.

8d Money for singer's broadcast (6)

As were some of the Brits, I was convinced that this clue was an anagram (as indicated by the word "broadcast") of SINGER. The only possibilities that fit the checking letters seemed to be SEGNIR and GESNIR. The former, especially, actually looked like it might well be a Scandinavian word, so I went with it. However, a check in the dictionary showed that neither possibility was, in fact, a word. So back to the drawing board. Eventually, it dawned on me that this is a homophone (sounds like) clue (with the indicator being "broadcast"). What we want is a slang expression for money that sounds like a singer.

20d Hopin' to find a way to cure the pain (7)

By dropping the G from the word in the clue (hopin'), the setter is telling us that the solution is a word that means "hoping" with the final G dropped. Thus, ASPIRING means "hoping", and we drop the G to get ASPIRIN, which is "a way to cure the pain".

One sometimes sees similar clues in which the leading H is dropped (a la the Cockney dialect).

Signing off for today - Falcon