Monday, July 6, 2009 (DT 25865)

This puzzle was originally published Monday, March 2, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

After feeling pretty cocky about finishing a puzzle with no wrong solutions, I can always count on Big Dave to bring me down to earth with his assessment of the puzzle as "... [a] nice easy, straightforward puzzle ...". Although I correctly solved all the clues, I was at a bit of a loss for the wordplay on one of them.

Today's Glossary

Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle

gin (trap) - a wire noose laid as a snare or trap for catching game (entry 2, noun, defn. 1)

in-off - U.K. in snooker, a shot in which the ball hits another ball before falling into a pocket

off - cricket the side of a field towards which the batsman's feet are pointing, usually the bowler's left (noun, defn. 2)

specific - a drug that is used to treat one particular disease, condition, etc. (noun, defn. 2)

starting price (sp) - horse-racing the final odds that are offered on a horse just before the race begins

Today's Links

Characterising the blogs: AnswerBank is primarily a forum where users share solutions to specific clues and only infrequently is there any significant discussion regarding the puzzle. Cryptics.co.uk strives to provide a complete solution to the puzzle and fairly often will have a limited amount of discussion concerning the puzzle. Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog provides extensive hints, a full set of solutions, and detailed explanations of difficult solutions with ongoing discussion amongst regulars and visitors pertaining to the puzzle.

I found a couple of questions on AnswerBank discussing today's puzzle. They (together with the clues to which they relate) are:

• AnswerBank [DT 25865]-a: 27ac
• AnswerBank [DT 25865]-b: 2d

The Daily Telegraph chat blog at cryptics.co.uk [DT 25865] returns today for the start of a rather brief run and provides a pretty complete solution to today's puzzle (though certainly not up to the standard of Big Dave's site). More noteworthy than the solution, however, is the discussion regarding the perceived decline in quality of the DT Cryptic and an assessment of the DT Cryptic relative to other puzzles by one of the participants who is apparently himself a setter of cryptic crossword puzzles.

Big Dave's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25865].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

11ac Jack training for the 15? That's sudden! (6)

I figured out most of the wordplay, but missed the "Jack" → sailor → able bodied → AB bit. Now how unforgivable is it for a good Maritime lad like myself not to remember that "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor"?

6d Crown jewels (5)

I was not impressed with this clue but decided to reserve judgment thinking that I may have overlooked some nuance in the wordplay. I was glad to see that Big Dave panned it in his blog.

22d Sort of scoring shot in billiards or by batting cricket side (2-3)

This clue provides lots of rope for me to hang myself, dealing as it does with two pastimes the British hold dear. But as the song goes, "Fools rush in ...".

A "sort of scoring shot in billiards" is apparently an "in-off" as the object ball goes in the pocket off another ball. However, one would never know this from either Wiktionary or Chambers which focus solely on the situation where the cue ball goes in the pocket off another ball. This, of course, is not a scoring shot but a foul.

If a cricket team is "batting", it is "in". The clue is constructed in such a way as to lead one to believe that "cricket side" is referring to "cricket team". However, the reference is actually to the "off" side of the cricket pitch (field). In cricket, of course, players don't pitch - they bowl.

The word "by" (in addition to aiding the surface reading) serves as a positional indicator showing that the word substituted for "cricket side" is "by" (i.e., beside) the word substituted for "batting".

Signing off for today - Falcon