Introduction
With two clues remaining to be solved, I flipped open my Tool Chest. That helped with one of them, but I caved in and sought guidance from Gazza on the other.
Today's Glossary
Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle
Used in Clues:
fiddle - noun 2 informal , chiefly British an act of defrauding, cheating, or falsifying: a major mortgage fiddle.
no trumps - noun Bridge a situation in which no suit is designated as trumps.
Sunday Express - a British tabloid newspaper, the Sunday version of the Daily Express.
Used in Solutions:
B2 - abbreviation 2 music bass.
Brimstone - a butterfly in the genus Gonepterux.
NT - abbreviation Bridge no trump(s).
rissole - noun British a compressed mixture of meat and spices, coated in breadcrumbs and fried.
st - abbreviation stone (in weight).
- stone - noun 4 (plural same) British a unit of weight equal to 14 lb (6.35 kg): I weighed 10 stone.
treen - adjective chiefly archaic wooden: a treen snuffbox.
Today's Links
Gazza's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26249].
Commentary on Today's Puzzle
1a Fine strip by bird? Trollop! (8)
Even with all the checking letters, I could not find the solution without a bit of help from my Tool Chest. In large part, my difficulty was due to having (wrongly) convinced myself that the solution must end in TART.
9a Raise and support bust again (8)
This clue has nothing to do with brassieres. The solution might well lead to time spent in jail.
16a Describing female with pride? (7)
If this clue had been merely "Female with pride" then my initial attempt of LIONESS might have been correct. However, that one extra word ("describing") found in the clue changes the solution - as I discovered when 8d wouldn't fit.
25a Turning out to be a real complex (9)
The wordplay is an anagram of TO BE A REAL. However, is "turning out" the definition and "complex" the anagram indicator, or vice versa? I was initially leaning the wrong way. I hope you fared better.
30a Bottom of the French class (8)
In 5a, "of French" indicates the French word meaning "of" and, in 23d, "the French" denotes the French word meaning "the". Consequently, "the French" in this clue must adhere to the same pattern, n'est-ce pas? Or maybe not!
4d Start to roast one's fish croquette (7)
In Britain, a rissole may be a croquette but that is apparently not necessarily the case in other parts of the world, at least according to recipetips.com.
17d Groups with bass fiddles (8)
Even my Tool Chest let me down here - or, maybe, I just didn't try hard enough. Perhaps, I can blame my failure on the word "fiddle" being used with a British connotation. In North America, one may fiddle with the books but here I think the crime committed would be called a fraud and not a fiddle.
21d Potential trouble and strife? (7)
This clue is definitely my favourite today. It took a long time for the penny to drop, but it certainly brought a broad smile to my lips when it finally did. Being able to solve this clue was even more of an achievement, in my view, in that I was labouring under the additional handicap of not being aware of the Cockney rhyming slang expression on which the clue is based.
Signing off for today - Falcon
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.