Monday, August 2, 2010 (DT 26225)

This puzzle, created by Ray T, was originally published in The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Introduction

This puzzle would have been published in the U.K. during the height of the 2010 election campaign. It has a number of political references, including one to Conservative leader David Cameron who was shortly to become Prime Minister (is clue 23a a prediction of this result?). There are also references to Labour and Conservative - but none that I could see to the Liberal Democrats. Somewhat akin to the way that politicians on the left wing of the Conservative Party in Canada are described as "red Tories", the more liberal-minded members of the British Conservative Party are called "wets". Since David Cameron is apparently a self-described "liberal Conservative", is clue 8d a reference to him - and yet another hint at the outcome of the election?

Today's Glossary

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

Used in Clues:

(David) Cameron - Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Sunday Express - a British tabloid newspaper, the Sunday edition of the Daily Express

Used in Solutions:

airline - noun 2 (usually air line) a pipe supplying air

ben¹ - noun Scottish (especially in place names) a high mountain or mountain peak: Ben Nevis

fete - noun British a public function, typically held outdoors and organized to raise funds for a charity, including entertainment and the sale of goods and refreshments: a church fete

Today's Links

Gazza's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26225].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

12a Truth, really, about sex (6)

It is a euphemism for sex, as in "I walked in on them unannounced, and caught them doing it".

19d Returning clear fault for game (6)

The definition is "game" with the solution being TENNIS. In the wordplay, "returning" is a reversal indicator and the fodder is "clear" = NET and "fault" = SIN. Since explicit instructions are not provided in the clue, the trick here is to figure out how the reversal indicator operates on the fodder. Does it apply only to the first element (NET) or to both elements (NET and SIN)? If the latter case, does it operate on them as a combined unit or act on each element individually? The answer is that it does operate on both elements but acts on each element individually, so that we have TEN (a reversal of NET) + NIS (a reversal of SIN). If the reversal indicator had operated on the combined unit, we would get NISTEN (a reversal of NET + SIN).

Signing off for today - Falcon