Wednesday, October 21, 2009 (DT 25947)

This puzzle was originally published Friday, June 5, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

I completed today's puzzle with a bit of effort, finding it to be slightly to the more difficult end of the scale. It contained three deletion-type clues (which often give me considerable difficulty), so I felt quite good about recognizing them and successfully solving them.

Today's Glossary

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

kinglet - a minor king

prang - Brit. a collision or crash (involving a motor vehicle or an aircraft)

RE - abbrev. Brit. Royal Engineers

spaghetti junction - a complicated or massively intertwined highway interchange that resembles a plate of spaghetti

Today's Links

Libellule's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25947].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

Today's puzzle contains three deletion-type clues (which, in my experience, occur fairly rarely in puzzles). This type of clue has often stumped me in the past, so I was quite pleased with myself at having solved them all.

21a A doubter, not quiet self-denying type (7)

A SCEPTIC (doubter) not (deletion indicator) P (quiet: piano, musical notation) gives ASCETIC (self-denying type).

24a Outside, stealing a kiss, going on for ages (7)

EXTERNAL (outside) stealing (deletion indicator) X (a kiss) gives ETERNAL (going on for ages).

2d A provider of accommodation - not house, a workshop (7)

My solution was:

A HOTELIER (provider of accommodation) not (deletion indicator) HO (house) gives ATELIER (a workshop).

However, Libellule provides an even more elegant take on this clue:

HOTELIER (a provider of accommodation) not HO, A (delete HO and replace it with A) gives ATELIER (workshop).

8d What a sucker may need (8,5)

The first thing to pop into my head on reading this clue was "pruning shears", but I quickly realized that the distribution of letters is wrong - (7,6) rather than (8,5).

Signing off for today - Falcon