Tuesday, September 8, 2009 (DT 25914)

This puzzle was originally published Tuesday, April 28, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

I thought that today's puzzle was highly enjoyable with some quite clever clues. Despite that, it was still one of the easiest puzzles that we've seen in quite a while - and, for once, the Brits seem to agree with my assessment. I completed the puzzle in under an hour (which is very good by my standards) without the use of any puzzle solving aids. It did help somewhat that we had seen an element of one of the clues in yesterday's puzzle. I was left a bit puzzled by the wordplay in a couple of the clues, though.

Today's Glossary

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

draught - archaic a quantity of a liquid with medicinal properties (noun, defn. 3)

gate - Brit. confine (a pupil or student) to school or college (verb)

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

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 25914].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

11a Reportedly outstanding on distinct musical instrument (4,4)

This is one of the clues for which I had reservations about my understanding of the wordplay. It made be feel better to see Gazza say "I don’t think the two words sound very similar!". My rather feeble effort at an explanation had "reportedly outstanding" translating to "Youse sharp", spoken in an American mobster accent.

5d Soporific drug helps eating disorder (8,7)

DRAUGHT appeared in yesterday's puzzle with the same rather obscure meaning. In fact, if you check the link in Today's Glossary (which is the same link that I used yesterday), you will note that the example Oxford uses to illustrate the usage is "sleeping draught".

8d High-quality car on left turns on its side? (5,4)

This is the second clue for which I missed part of the wordplay. I failed to recognize that the "left" can mean "over". I looked for all sorts of connections, such as driving on the left, left-wing politics. And, of course, once I figured out that part of the solution was OVER, I just knew there had to be a cricket reference in there somewhere. Yet another example of overlooking the obvious in a quest for the obscure!

Signing off for today - Falcon