Tuesday, January 12, 2010 (DT 26042)

This puzzle was originally published Thursday, September 24, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

The difficulty gauge came to rest a bit short of midpoint today. There was some nice wordplay in this puzzle, and not too many Briticisms. Of those that were present, I had encountered several in previous puzzles (and, more importantly yet, I remembered having seen them before).

While we are on the subject of memory, it seems my memory failed me in regard to a comment that I made in my blog last Friday, when I stated that British ski jumper Eddie the Eagle finished last in his event at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. According to a recent article in the National Post, he actually placed 58th out of 59 competitors, defeating a French athlete who crashed and broke his leg.

Today's Glossary

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

gite - noun a small furnished holiday house in France

prom - noun informal 1 Brit. short for promenade (in sense 1: a paved public walk, especially one along a seafront)

spiv - noun Brit. informal a flashily dressed man who makes a living by disreputable dealings

wide - adjective 10 slang lax in morals

Today's Links

Libellule's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 26042].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

17d Slowed down for facility west of Dover - no longer available (5,3)

The solution is:

EASED OFF (slowed down) /for\ EASE (facility) D {west (leftmost letter) of Dover} OFF (no longer available)

I did wonder for a moment, given that this is a down clue, could/should the indication be "north of Dover"? Certainly, if one focuses on the way the clue is printed (which is probably the clearest option), then the word "Dover" runs west to east (and D is the westernmost letter). On the other hand, if one were to focus on how the word "Dover" would be written in the grid, it would be north to south. However, I don't recall ever having seen the latter phrasing in this type of clue.

Definitely, if the indication were providing instructions on how to place the letters in the grid, the clue would differ depending on whether it were a down or an across clue. For instance, consider a charade type clue producing the result D + OVER (DOVER). An across clue would be worded in a manner that is equivalent to "D west of OVER", while a down clue would be "D north of OVER".

Signing off for today - Falcon