Tuesday, March 15, 2011 (DT 26425)

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26425
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, December 16, 2010
Setter Ray T
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26425]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - ★★	Enjoyment - ★★★
Falcon's Performance ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog

Introduction

An unmistakable Ray T puzzle today, with clues such as 3d and, especially, 23d being dead giveaways. The southwest quadrant proved to be the biggest challenge, and I needed support from my Tool Chest to complete that part of the puzzle.

Remarkably, an error which apparently appeared in clue 13a in both the print and online editions of The Daily Telegraph has been corrected in the syndicated version of the puzzle.

Today's Glossary

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

[Items marked with an asterisk are from a Cumulative Glossary of entries appearing, since the beginning of this year, in either this blog or its companion blog, the Ottawa Citizen Cryptic Crossword Forum.]

Appearing in Clues:

Meanings listed in this section may reflect how the word is used in the surface reading of the clue. Of course, that meaning may be contributing to the misdirection that the setter is attempting to create.

china - noun 2 British informal a friend. [from rhyming slang china plate ‘mate’]

do - noun 3 archaic, informal a swindle or hoax

Appearing in Solutions:

*I³ - abbreviation [2^nd entry] Italy (international vehicle registration)

*it² - noun British informal, dated Italian (vermouth): he poured a gin and it

onside - adjective & adverb 1 (of a player, especially in soccer, rugby, or hockey) occupying a position where playing the ball or puck is allowed; not offside

tolerance - noun 3 an allowable amount of variation of a specified quantity, especially in the dimensions of a machine or part: 250 parts in his cars were made to tolerances of one thousandth of an inch

vin - noun [usually with modifier] French wine: vin rouge

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.

7d   Return match (11)

This is a double definition for which the solution is RECIPROCATE. The first usage is as a verb (transitive or intransitive) meaning "to give or feel in return" and the second is as an intransitive verb meaning "to be correspondent or equivalent" [definitions from Collins English Dictionary].

13a   Struck and slapped initially with glove (7)

I would say that North Americans consider gloves and mittens as quite separate items, whereas it would seem that to the Brits a mitten is just a special type of glove. This observation would seem to be supported by the definitions for mitten at TheFreeDictionary.com, where the American Heritage Dictionary entry is "A covering for the hand that encases the thumb separately and the four fingers together" while Collins English Dictionary says "a glove having one section for the thumb and a single section for the other fingers". Oxford Dictionaries Online has a definition that is almost identical to that of Collins.

Signing off for today - Falcon