Monday, November 9, 2009 (DT 25980)

This puzzle was originally published Tuesday, July 14, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

The puzzle today was surprisingly easy, given the fairly large number of British references. Granted, many of these have appeared frequently enough that they will be quite familiar to anyone who has been doing these puzzles for some time. Overall, I found the wordplay, despite being quite obvious, to be rather clever with the clues generally having a nice surface reading. I completed the puzzle in a very good time but with a couple of lingering question marks concerning the wordplay.

Today's Glossary

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

cap - (noun, defn. 8) someone chosen for a team representing a country (therefore, an "international")

duck - (noun, defn. 5) cricket a score of zero

Jacques Ibert - French composer

international - someone who takes part in, or has taken part in, a sports match or competition between two national teams

House of Lancaster - the English royal house that reigned from 1399 to 1461 (the red side in the War of the Roses)

OTT - over the top

TA - abbrev. Territorial Army: in the UK, a fully trained volunteer force intended to provide back-up to the regular army in cases of emergency

tile - a stiff hat or high silk hat

U - upper class (therefore, posh)

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

Today's Links

Gazza's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25980].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

5a Place to set free skunk (7)

Contrary to Gazza's assertion, polecat is not "the North American term for a skunk" but rather "a North American term for a skunk". I know that this term is used in at least some parts of the United States (how widely, I am unable to say) but I do not ever recall hearing it used in Canada. Here, a skunk is a skunk. I am primarily familiar with the term from American westerns of a generation ago (where "You low-down, ornery polecat!" was about as strong as the language got!).

11a Meat in oven's cooking (7)

No doubt Gazza's explanation corresponds to the setters intent. However, overlooking the obvious in search of the obscure, I arrived at the following rationale for the wordplay. I figured that "in oven's cooking" is equivalent to "in oven is on" and, therefore, VENISON is a hidden word as indicated by "in". While I found this two-stage (indirect) solution process to be a bit unusual, I have seen somewhat similar types of clue recently (perhaps in the London Sunday Times puzzles).

16a Bury at home against Exeter, losing first half (5)

The wordplay in this clue will be meaningful to those readers who recognize Bury and Exeter as football (soccer) clubs.

22a Put into employment, is seen in posh topper (7)

Until I read Gazza's review, I was puzzled as to how one got from "posh topper" to UTILE. Actually, it is not UTILE, but U plus TILE (and the answer should be clear from Today's Glossary).

26a Child, in transforming metal, is a budding scientist (9)

This is yet another case where I constructed a somewhat plausible (in other words, dubious) explanation that undoubtedly was not what the setter intended. I deciphered the first part, "Child, in transforming metal", in an identical manner to Gazza. However, I thought that the second part, "a budding scientist", might be equivalent to "a learner scientist" which would give A L (learner) CHEMIST (scientist). I must say that I was a bit leery of this explanation as it would be a rather strange construction for a clue - with both sides being cryptic. At least I can always count on Big Dave's site to set me straight.

28a Dish male teacher rejected - too much duck! (7)

I assumed that the "male" is OTTO and the "teacher" is SIR. With "rejected" being a reversal indicator, we get OTTOSIR reversed, or RISOTTO. But what about "too much duck"? I did recognize that "duck" could be O (a score of zero in cricket), but missed the fact that "too much" is "over the top" or OTT. The wordplay thus becomes SIR (male teacher) - which is reversed (rejected) to RIS - followed by OTT (too much) followed by O (duck). Once again, Gazza to the rescue.

3d Stupid fool's after credit (5)

For me, "stupid" is a new meaning for "crass" - although it is in the dictionary. Up until now, I had only been familiar with the meaning "unrefined" - which one can be without necessarily being stupid.

Signing off for today - Falcon