Introduction
Contrary to the degree of difficulty rating on Big Dave's site, I found this puzzle to be a bit on the harder side. But then again, it does have cricket references in it - though I managed to figure those out. I ended up still in the dark as to the wordplay on one clue and skeptical about my solution to another clue (which just happens to intersect the aforementioned clue).
Today's Glossary
Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle
form - Chiefly Brit. a bench (noun, defn. 11a)
form - slang a criminal record (noun, defn. 11)
gg - Brit. babytalk horse (appeared in a previous puzzle)
in - cricket batting (adverb, defn. 8)
NUM - abbrev. National Union of Mineworkers
SP - abbrev. starting price: the final odds at the start of a horse race
TA - abbrev. Territorial Army
Today's Links
I found four questions on AnswerBank discussing today's puzzle. They (together with the clues to which they relate) are:
- AnswerBank [DT 25868]-a: 6d
- AnswerBank [DT 25868]-b: 10ac, 4d, 5d, 6d, 7d
- AnswerBank [DT 25868]-c: 19ac, 27ac, 3d, 4d
- AnswerBank [DT 25868]-d: 17ac, 7d, 18d
Gazza's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25868].
Commentary on Today's Puzzle
24ac Gathered round to protect return of the rule of law (5)
Despite the solution being fairly obvious, the wordplay is not. I gathered that a reversal was involved (from the indicator "return") but did not recognize that it was a reversed hidden word clue (from the indicator "protect"). However, Gazza set me straight.
25d About to get morning paper (4)
I got "about" → RE and "morning" → AM. But I still had a couple of reservations about whether this was actually the correct solution.
Reservation #1: What is the role of "to get" in this clue? The phrase "to get" often serves as linking words between the two parts of a clue. In other cases, "gets" (in the sense of "captures") can be a containership indicator. But, obviously, neither is the case in this clue. Rather, it would appear that "to get" in this clue has the sense of "to have something added or attached". That is, "RE gets AM" suggests "RE has AM attached (to itself)".
Reservation #2: Is ream a synonym for paper? Ream is a unit of measurement for a quantity of paper. Does this mean that "cup" could mean "sugar" or "flour", "gallon" could mean "petrol" (gasoline)? Perhaps it is justified in this case, since paper seems to be the only commodity to which the unit ream can be applied.
Signing off for today - Falcon
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