Thursday, November 19, 2009 (DT 25989)

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

Introduction

It was quite a difficult puzzle today, especially for those not familiar with the myriad (5a) British terms and expressions it contained. Upon completion, I was left wondering about the wordplay in 18d.

Today's Glossary

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

A-level - Brit. The later of two standardized tests in a secondary school subject, used as a qualification for entrance into a university

barney - Brit. a noisy quarrel

chronic - Brit. very bad (e.g., "The film was chronic.")

con - (entry 2) to read over and learn by heart

Ernesto "Che" Guevara - Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary

jotter - Brit. a small notebook

M - abbrev. cricket maiden (or, more formally, maiden over): an over (a series of six balls bowled by the same bowler from the same end of the pitch) from which no runs are scored

OM - abbrev. Brit. (Member of the) Order of Merit

pins - (noun, defn. 10) legs

postcode - Brit. a group of letters and numbers added to a postal address to assist the sorting of mail (known in Canada as a postal code and in the US as a ZIP code)

public school - Brit. a private fee-paying secondary school (known in North America as a private school)

Radley College - an English public school in Radley, Oxfordshire, England

S - (entry 2, defn. 2) abbrev. saint

Today's Links

Libellule's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25989].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

18d Like a flat perhaps with nurse, awfully neat inside (8)

The wordplay is TEND (nurse) containing (with ... inside) an anagram (awfully) of NEAT (i.e., ANTE) to give the solution TENANTED. However, sometimes one can't seem to see the obvious - or, as my mother used to say, "If it were any plainer, it would jump up and bite you". While I saw that there must be an anagram of "neat" in the solution, there are several possible sets of letters that could qualify. For nurse, I was looking for RN, but failing that I settled for N. That left TED unaccounted for, and despite the teeth marks on my leg, I still could not see where it fit in. After discovering the solution on Big Dave's blog, I now have self-imposed kick marks to go with the bites.

30a Boy gets led astray inside public school (6)

Don't be led astray thinking that the public school must be the virtually ubiquitous Eton, for today it is not. There is a fair amount of discussion on Big Dave's blog regarding the "fairness" of this clue, with one writer commenting "Sadly for the people living in other countries they haven’t [lived near Oxford for a while and knew 30a existed], and the Telegraph is read all over the world!" However, speaking for myself, Radley was the least of my problems, as I was able to identify it with merely two or three clicks of the mouse. Far more difficult, were Briticisms like jotter, barney, and most especially chronic.

Signing off for today - Falcon