Wednesday, February 17, 2010 (DT 26073)

This puzzle was originally published Friday, October 30, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

I finished almost the entire puzzle while sitting in the waiting room at the garage waiting for my brakes to be serviced. I enjoyed the puzzle - I certainly didn't enjoy the bill for the brake job.

Today's Glossary

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

Vince Cable - British politician, prominent member of the Liberal Democrats party

chop-chop - adverb & exclamation quickly.

Devon - a county in South West England.

Liberal Democrats (often shortened to Lib Dems) - a centrist to centre-left social liberal political party in the United Kingdom, formed in 1988 by a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party

Labour - a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom

supremo - noun Brit. informal 1 a person in overall charge. 2 a person with great authority or skill in a certain area.

turn tail - PHRASES informal turn round and run away.

Today's Links
Gazza's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 26073].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

19a Lovely party limited by a half-hearted host with no manners (8)

While I saw the overall structure of the clue and got the solution from a combination of the definition and checking letters, the wordplay eluded me. I did recognize that "party" indicated DO, but I failed to detect that "host" meant "a large number of people" rather than the host of a party.

24a Performance with story that must be listened to? Run away (4,4)

Although I have always heard this expression as "Turn tail and run" (implying that "turn tail" might mean simply to turn one's back), both Oxford and Chambers clearly show "turn tail" meaning "run away".

8d Verdict that's right for Conservative brings jeers (8)

I thought that the wording of this clue was ambiguous enough that it could go either way, DERISION or DECISION. Does the clue mean "Start with a word meaning verdict (DECISION) and substitute R (right) for C (Conservative) to get a word meaning jeers (DERISION) as a solution? Or, does it mean "The solution is a word meaning verdict (DECISION) in which if R (right) were to be substituted for C (Conservative) would produce a word meaning jeers (DERISION)? It turns out that the former is the case.

15d Bit of ship to buckle on trips at sea (8)

My first thought was that a bow is not the same thing as a buckle (although they may both be used to hold clothing on one's person). Then I realized that bow and buckle are being used in the sense of to bend.

Signing off for today - Falcon