Monday, December 20, 2010 (DT 26347)

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26347
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Thursday, September 16, 2010
Setter Unknown
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26347]
Big Dave's Review Written By Big Dave
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - **	Enjoyment - **
Falcon's Performance *****

Introduction

My Tool Chest stayed on the shelf today, as I solved the puzzle without the assistance of my electronic aids. I did have to make a couple of educated guesses about meanings I had not encountered before and a couple of other clues exercised my brain a bit in figuring out the wordplay.

Today's Glossary

Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle

Appearing in Clues:

NHS - abbreviation (in the UK) National Health Service, a system of national medical care paid for mainly by taxation and started by the Labour government in 1948.

Appearing in Solutions:

bail² - noun 1 (usually bails) Cricket either of the two crosspieces bridging the stumps, which the bowler and fielders try to dislodge with the ball to get the batsman out.

baggage - [Collins English Dictionary] noun 3. Informal, old-fashioned a. a pert young woman; b. an immoral woman or prostitute.

River Dee - a river in North Wales and Cheshire, England or - if you choose - any of several other rivers known by this name found in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia.

GE - International Vehicle Registration code Georgia [the European country, formerly part of the Soviet Union, not the American state]

Na - symbol Chemistry sodium.

ringlet - noun 3 a circular pattern or formation, especially a fairy-ring.

fairy ring - noun a ring of darker grass marking the outer edge of an underground growth of fungi, traditionally attributed to the dancing of fairies.
[It is interesting to observe that Chambers is not consistent in its spelling of 'fairy-ring'/'fairy ring']

soilage - [Collins English Dictionary] noun green fodder, esp when freshly cut and fed to livestock in a confined area.

[Note: This definition is also found in the American Heritage Dictionary (at the same link as the definition above), but is not to be found at either Oxford Dictionaries Online or Search Chambers]

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

This commentary should be read in conjunction with the review at Big Dave's Crossword Blog, to which a link is provided in the table above.

22a Seat in Diana's vehicle (5)

It took a bit of cogitation (a word that CrypticSue likes to employ) before I could justify the wordplay in this clue. The secret is to keep in mind that 's can play any one of three different roles - it can denote the possessive form of a noun, it can be a contraction for 'is', or it can be a contraction for 'has'. In the current clue, it is serving in the latter role. The word 'has' can signify 'attached to' (e.g., the house has a porch), and therefore it is frequently used in this sense as a charade indicator. Thus the definition is "seat" for which the solution is DIVAN. The wordplay is a charade of DI (Diana) + (has) VAN (vehicle).

By the way, I wonder if Big Dave's pictorial for this clue is intended to do double duty by serving as an illustration for 19a as well.

28a Checks siblings about moving ahead (7)

I have thoughts similar to those of Big Dave about this clue - which generated by far the most discussion on Big Dave's site 'today'.

2d Component widely used once for insurance (9,6)

The surface reading would suggest that we might be looking for a type of insurance that is no longer available. However, I could find no evidence that endowment policies are obsolete. Therefore, if this is a semi & lit. (semi all-in-one) as Big Dave identifies it to be, it would seem that it might be one with a rather inaccurate definition. If not a semi & lit., then the definition is presumably "insurance" with the solution being ENDOWMENT POLICY. The wordplay is an anagram of COMPONENT WIDELY for which the anagrind (anagram indicator) must - by a process of elimination - be "used once". The word "for" would be a link word between the wordplay and the definition. As Big Dave remarks "it seems that anything will suffice as an anagram indicator these days!".

5d I tut about charge for lessons (7)

Once again Big Dave has preempted my thought - surely an ion is a charged particle, not a charge in itself.

7d Soldiers arresting meek people who do not use the NHS (7,8)

The definition is "people who do not use the NHS (National Health Service)" for which the solution is PRIVATE PATIENTS. The wordplay is PRIVATES (soldiers) containing (arresting) PATIENT (meek). My initial difficulty in trying to interpret the wordplay arose from trying to substitute the plural noun PATIENTS for "meek people" (which fails to work on several points) rather than the adjective "PATIENT" for "meek".

Signing off for today - Falcon