Monday, August 23, 2010 (DT 26246)

This puzzle, by Giovanni, was originally published in The Daily Telegraph on Friday, May 21, 2010

Introduction

I found today's puzzle to be a bit easier than those of the last few days. Gazza seems to agree, having awarded it 2.5 stars for difficulty.

Today's Glossary

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

Used in Clues:

century - noun 3 cricket a score of 100 runs made by a batsman in a single innings.

duck¹ - noun 5 cricket a batsman's score of zero.

Used in Solutions:

Hull - informal name for a city in Yorkshire, England which is formally called Kingston upon Hull.

plater - noun 3 horse-racing a horse entered for a minor race, especially a selling race.

RE - abbreviation religious education.

shaw² - noun archaic, chiefly Scottish a small group of trees; a thicket.

steam radio - chiefly UK informal radio, as opposed to television; a radio set, especially an old fashioned one; a radio broadcast.

topping - adjective British informal, dated excellent: that really is a topping dress.

Today's Links

Gazza's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26246].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

15a Slower way to Scotland? (4,4)

This cryptic definition refers to the traditional Scottish song The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond, in which the chorus goes as follows:

O ye’ll tak’ the high road and I’ll tak’ the low road

And I’ll be in Scotland afore ye

For me and my true love will ne-er meet again

On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomon'.

29a The wireless? Ma adores it, when bustling about (5,5)

Steam radio is a British name for radio which seemingly came into use in the 1950s as television made its appearance. The idea behind the phrase is that radio would be obsoleted by television in the same way that steam engines were replaced by diesel locomotives. Today, apparently, some commentators in the U.K. refer in a similar manner to steam television which they see being superseded by programming broadcast over the Internet. For a more complete discussion, see the entry on steam radio at World Wide Words.

8d He is ardent? Dismay changes that (10)

British puzzles, unlike their American counterparts, sometimes embed definitions in the middle of the clue. That is the case here, where the definition is "dismay" and the solution is DISHEARTEN. The wordplay is an anagram (changes) of HE IS ARDENT. Actually, the anagram indicator would seem to operate directly on the pronoun "that" which of course stands for HE IS ARDENT in the cryptic reading. Thus, we would seem to have an indirect anagram, if such a term exists (and, if not, I guess I've just invented it).

25d Bats getting a century, a half-century and two ducks possibly (4)

The surface reading is about cricket, where a century is "a score of 100 runs made by a batsman in a single innings" and a half-century is naturally half of that. On the other hand, a duck is "a batsman's score of zero".

In the cryptic analysis, one must substitute the Roman numeral C (one hundred) for "century", L (fifty) for "half-century", and O for each of the "two ducks". Thus we have an anagram (possibly) of L + C + O + O which gives us LOCO (bats).

Signing off for today - Falcon