Thursday, September 3, 2009 (DT 25911)

This puzzle was originally published Friday, April 24, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

I got off to a very good start on today's puzzle, solving two thirds of the clues without assistance. However, the final third of the clues required extensive use of the crossword solving aids in my Tool Chest. Taking pride in having figured out an obscure (to me) cricket reference, I was disappointed when I was forced to throw in the towel with one clue left unsolved - later finding out that I had been undone by a bit of British slang.

Today's Glossary

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

busy - slang a policeman, a detective

leg (also leg side) - cricket the side of the field that is to the left of a right-handed batsman or to the right of a left-handed batsman (noun, defn. 7)

on - cricket on the side of the field towards which the bat is facing, usually the batsman's left and the bowler's right (presumably, a right-handed batsman is assumed in this definition)

OS - Brit. (as a size of clothing) outsize (defn. 4)

rum - Brit. colloq. strange; odd; bizarre (entry 2)

U - abbrev. Universal: a film rating issued by the British Board of Film Classification indicating "all ages admitted", thus "allowing anyone to see" the film.

U - abbrev. upper class (English), thus superior

up - Brit. formal to or at university (adverb, defn. 9)

Today's Links

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

AnswerBank [DT 25911]-a: 20ac, 26ac, 22d

AnswerBank [DT 25911]-b: 20ac

AnswerBank seems to have made changes to their search engine, and I spent some time experimenting with it to figure out how it works. It would appear that the new engine treats commas as a distinct character whereas the old engine ignored them.

Libellule's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25911].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

5ac Interruption affected us badly, adult admitted (6)

In this clue, "badly" would seem to signal an anagram; however, there is no anagram present. My original reading of the clue was "affected us" being replaced by "HIT US" around (admitted) A (adult) to give HIATUS. That would seem to make "badly" a totally superfluous element in the clue. However, I presume the setter intended "affected us badly" to be replaced by "hit us", where "badly" signifies "negatively".

14ac Animal burrowed with leg at front of garden (6)

While it was not too difficult to determine the solution to this clue from the checking letters, understanding the wordplay was another matter. Suspecting that there might be a cricket reference here, I eventually tracked it down. Both "leg" and "on" are terms used to identify the side of a cricket field to the left of a right-handed batsman (and, presumably, to the right of a left-handed batsman).

20ac Busy person who manages to keep quiet (6)

This clue was my undoing. I had no idea that "busy" was slang for a policeman. The term does not appear in any of my regular reference sources, but I did find it in a dictionary of slang (see Today's Glossary). While this source does not identify it as a British term, a sidebar listing Slang Terms for the Police on the Cop Shows site says bizzies is a "Common Liverpool slang term for the police, it was invented as the police were always too 'busy' to help". I did feel somewhat better seeing that the Brits also appeared to have trouble with this slang term.

I did recognize that "quiet" indicated P (piano). However, I surmised that I was looking for a word meaning "busy" (but, of course, having a different meaning than the one that the setter had in mind) that was made up of a word meaning "person" around ("who manages to keep") P. In reality, I should have been looking for a word meaning "busy" that was made up of a word meaning "person who manages" around (to keep) P. The search was made more difficult by the fact that there were over 300 possible solutions based on the checking letters.

Signing off for today - Falcon