Wednesday, February 3, 2010 (DT 26061)

This puzzle was originally published Friday, October 16, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

Conquering this puzzle proved to be quite satisfying, perhaps due to the fact that the solution did not come quickly or without effort. It was yet another puzzle where I found it hard to find a starting point. I thought that maybe I might have found it a bit on the hard side due to the number of Briticisms present. However, I note that Gazza gave it four stars for difficulty - as well as giving it four stars for enjoyment. I have to admit that I finished still scratching my head about the wordplay for a few clues.

Today's Glossary

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

ACAS - abbreviation (in the UK) Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service.

CERN - noun acronym (Physics / Atomic Physics) Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire; an organization of European states with a centre in Geneva for research in high-energy particle physics, now called the European Laboratory for Particle Physics

deanery - [Collins English Dictionary] noun 2. (Christianity / Ecclesiastical Terms) the group of parishes presided over by a rural dean

rural dean - [Collins English Dictionary] noun (Christianity / Ecclesiastical Terms) Chiefly Brit a clergyman having authority over a group of parishes

Hampstead - (Placename) a residential district in N London: part of the Greater London borough of Camden since 1965; nearby is Hampstead Heath, a popular recreation area

honesty - noun 2 a plant with purple or white flowers and round, flat, translucent seed pods; so named from its seed pods, translucency symbolizing lack of deceit.

André Maginot - French politician who as minister of war (1922-1924 and 1929-1932) proposed a line of fortification, called the Maginot Line, along France's border with Germany. Thought to be impregnable, the line was bypassed and later captured by the Germans (1940)

MB - abbreviation 1 Bachelor of Medicine. Latin Medicinae Baccalaureus.

minicab - noun Brit. a car that is available for hire as a taxi but can only be ordered in advance.

RA - abbreviation 1 (in the UK) Royal Academician or Royal Academy.

U - abbreviation Upper Class (as applied to language)

up - adverb 9 formal to or at university • up at Oxford.

Today's Links

Gazza's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 26061].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

1a Negotiators faced with ruin - they're shaken (7)

I kicked myself for not getting the wordplay here, as ACAS is right there for the looking in Oxford. I got hung-up thinking that ACA was some sort of professional society (Association of Chartered Accountants, perhaps). Why I might think accountants would be negotiators, I have no idea.

26a Ray may be sought in this room (3,6)

This was actually the first clue to be solved. While my first attempt, SUN PARLOR, turned out to be a little too formal, I definitely had the right idea. Once I had found the solution to the intersecting clue 23d, I was able to identify the desired room.

28a Unstable baby with aim to get round edge of table (7)

Try as I might, I was not able to get my head around the complete wordplay here. It turns out that my aim was firmly fixed on the leading edge of table when I should have been focusing on the trailing edge. Here aim means try as in its first instance on the sign that one often sees posted in the "Gents" - WE AIM TO PLEASE; YOU AIM TOO, PLEASE.

1d Vehicle doctor keeps at home, one vehicle not right (7)

I'm not sure that an MB (Medicinae Baccalaureus or Bachelor of Medicine) degree even exists in Canada. However, judging from its frequent appearance, it certainly exists in cryptic crossword land. From my personal experience, Canadian medical students generally take a pre-med course at the undergraduate level, usually graduating with a B.Sc., before going on to med school for their MD. But I could be wrong.

2d Toy, not the first to be put in sack (5)

I got that toy meant trifle (as to toy with one's affections), but I did not twig to the fact that sack (to plunder, pillage and destroy a town) means the same as rifle (search through something hurriedly to find or steal something) - or, if not an exact match, it is at least a fairly close facsimile. The solution is formed by deleting the T from TRIFLE (with the deletion indicated by "not the first to be put in"). I got misled by erroneously thinking that the deletion instruction was merely "not the first" and therefore was left looking for a word meaning "to be put in sack" (rather than just "sack") as the definition.

17d Stops talking about bashes at Oxford? (5,2)

Despite having encountered this meaning for lam in at least one previous puzzle, I failed to recognize that about=C (circa) and bashes=LAMS. Although this definition is found in American dictionaries, I think lam is more apt to mean "to flee, especially from the police" on this side of the Atlantic.

Signing off for today - Falcon