Wednesday, May 20, 2009 (DT 25826)

This puzzle was originally published Thursday, January 15, 2009 in the Daily Telegraph

Introduction

A rather challenging puzzle today but the wordplay was at least comprehensible - unlike some of the clues in yesterday's puzzle. I managed to successfully solve all but one clue today.

Today's Links

1. Crossword Ends in Violence (5) [DT 25826]: CEIV provides only a partial solution to today's puzzle. I provide solutions for the omitted entries below.

I found one question at AnswerBank relating to today's puzzle:

2. AnswerBank [DT 25826]-a: 28ac

As indicated by the exchange which takes place with respect to this question (and confirmed from other sources), the use of "butt" to mean "buttocks" is a North American expression. Knowing this should make the clue more comprehensible. It looks like its not just the Brits who have their unique expressions. It's like accents - everyone has an accent except yourself!

Today's Puzzle

I missed solving one clue:

20ac Relaxed about having lost value to pound (8)

A correspondent on CEIV states the solution to be DOWNBEAT (without further explanation). Based on this, I would parse the clue as follows:

20ac Relaxed about [DOWN|BEAT] /\ having lost value [DOWN] to pound [BEAT] (8)

The closest that I came on this clue was an ill-fated attempt to make R(OUND)EST work, with R^EST (which bears a grammatically incorrect relationship to "relaxed") about (outside) OUND (pound losing a p).

Following are the solutions not provided on CEIV (or those for which I deemed some elaboration to be worthwhile):

Across

1ac STAMPING-GROUND - one meaning of "resort" is "frequently visited place" (not the first meaning to come mind, I am sure)

10ac ELOP<|E - back (reversal indicator) {eastern [E] European [POLE]}

15ac PAD(LOCK)S - A cryptic definition incorporating apartments [PADS] and rugby player [LOCK]

16ac A|BA(SE)D - home counties [SE] {in (start of insertion indicator)} {A poor [BA^D]} {environment (end of insertion indicator)}

I have termed indicator constructs such as {in ... environment} to be a "split indicator" (analogous to a "split infinitive").

Home counties refers to the counties in the south east [SE] of England surrounding London.

24ac ERGO - leathER GOods {detained (i.e., held - hidden word clue)}

26ac O|LIVE< - nothing [O] {bad [EVIL] about (reversal indicator) = [LIVE]}

Down

3d P|HEW - price initially (first letter of)

4d NET(WORK)S - {Uses contacts [NETWORKS]} /to find\ employment [WORK] during cricket practice [NET^S]

Cricket nets are to cricket what batting cages and bullpens are to baseball - places for batsmen and bowlers (pitchers) to practice. I'm not sure whether "nets" is actually used as a term meaning "cricket practice" as this parsing would suppose. If not, then this clue might more accurately be classified as a cryptic definition - in which case the rigorous parsing would not be applicable. If that is indeed the case, this clue would be similar to 15ac, being a cryptic definition that incorporates some elements of a "regular" cryptic clue. [Note: Most cryptic crossword clues fairly rigorously follow a well-established set of conventions. I consider these to be "regular" clues. There is, however, a type of clue known as a "cryptic definition" that does not adhere to these conventions. I think of these as "irregular" clues. If you detect a parallelism in this terminology to regular and irregular verbs, you are not without reason.]

7d N|OODLES

11d D|IS|POSITION - {finally (last letter of) achieved [D]}{one's [IS]}

14d TOUR|N|AMENT< style="font-weight: bold;">TSAR - {Accommodation in (hidden word indicator)} apartmenTS ARranged

That's a wrap for today.