Wednesday, August 12, 2009 (DT 25892)

This puzzle was originally published Thursday, April 2, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

I made excellent progress with this puzzle until I hit the lower left-hand corner. After what seemed like "endless" floundering, I finally discovered the key to the solution.

Today's Glossary

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

short - Brit. a strong alcoholic drink, especially spirits, served in small measures - in North American parlance, a shot (noun, defn. 1)

Today's Links

I found no questions on AnswerBank discussing today's puzzle.

Gazza's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25892].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

1ac Tennis shorts? (5,7)

I had to cogitate a long time to rationalize the wordplay in this clue. In the end, I concluded that the clue only works if one applies the broadest possible interpretation. If one attempts to analyze the wordplay too closely, it seems to totally break down.

According to various references, a short is a British colloquialism for "a drink of an alcoholic spirit" (Chambers), "a strong alcoholic drink, especially spirits, served in small measures" (Oxford), and "a small drink of straight whiskey; shot" (Infoplease).

The broad interpretation would appear to be that "a short" is merely a drink (the Chambers definition is closest to this), in which case the clue equates to "Tennis drinks?" and the solution MIXED DOUBLES could refer to either a sort of tennis match or a type of drink (a double martini, perhaps).

However, the definitions in references other than Chambers emphasize that a short is a small amount of straight spirits (what North Americans would call a shot). If one uses this definition, then a short fails to be a "mixed double" on two counts - it is neither mixed nor is it seemingly a double.

However, since the Brits appeared to express no qualms about this clue, I am undoubtedly missing something.

19d Lay out clues with endless care (7)

This clue probably gave me the most difficulty - and all because it took me forever to realize that "endless" called for both ends of "care" to be lopped off, not merely the back end.

Signing off for today - Falcon