Tuesday, November 3, 2009 (DT 25975)

This puzzle was originally published Wednesday, July 8, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

Unlike my experience with yesterday's puzzle, today I was able to work out most of the solutions from the wordplay. However, I found a lot of the clues to be rather uninspired. On that point, I seem to be in agreement with Big Dave. My progress was only slightly impeded by a couple of clues which sent me down dead end passages.

Today's Glossary

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

Seve Ballesteros - Spanish professional golfer

sailer - a vessel, especially one equipped with sails, with specified sailing characteristics

sus - to discover by investigation

Victoria and Albert Museum - "the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design", located in London, England

Today's Links

Big Dave's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25975].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

2d Responsible for one in laboratory initially losing Ecstasy (6)

This is one clue that initially misled me - but not for too long. I thought "laboratory initially" might signify the first letter of "laboratory" and "losing Ecstasy" might be a direction to delete the letter "e". Neither of these ideas proved to be correct.

17d One who criticizes girl, heading off to uproot roses (8)

I couldn't help but notice that when this girl loses her head, she may become a piece of ...

23d From Spain, dial another country (5)

Yet another blind alley. I fruitlessly spent a bit of time trying to find a country that is an anagram of E (the International Vehicle Registration Code for Spain) plus DIAL (or a synonym of dial, such as call or ring).

Signing off for today - Falcon