Monday, February 28, 2011 (DT 26410)

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26410
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, November 29, 2010
Setter Rufus
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26410]
Big Dave's Review Written By Libellule
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - **	Enjoyment - ***
Falcon's Performance ┌────┬────┬────┬────┐ ████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┘
Notes The National Post has skipped DT 26409 which was published in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, November 27, 2010

Introduction

I found that the clues today covered a broad range of level of difficulty. My Tool Chest let me down, failing to offer up the drill instruction at 29a as a possible solution. It also took me a long time to decipher 28a.

Today's Glossary

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

[Items marked with an asterisk are from a Cumulative Glossary of entries appearing, since the beginning of this year, in either this blog or its companion blog, the Ottawa Citizen Cryptic Crossword Forum.]

Appearing in Clues:

The meanings listed in this section may reflect how the word is used in the surface reading of the clue. Of course, that meaning may be contributing to the misdirection that the setter is attempting to create.

lbw - abbreviation Cricket leg before wicket

leg before wicket - (also leg before)(abbreviation: lbw) adverb & adjective Cricket (of a batsman) adjudged by the umpire to be out through obstructing the ball with the leg (or other part of the body) rather than the bat, when the ball would otherwise have hit the wicket

Appearing in Solutions:

*(River) Cam - a tributary of the River Great Ouse in the east of England

Campari - noun trademark a pinkish aperitif flavoured with bitters

deposit account - noun British a bank account that pays interest and is usually not able to be drawn on without notice or loss of interest

*eleven - cardinal number [6^th entry] a sports team of eleven players: at cricket I played in the first eleven

H² - symbol the chemical element hydrogen

Lab. - abbreviation British (following a politician's name) Labour, noun 2  [treated as singular or plural] the Labour Party: [as modifier] the Labour leader

Liberal - noun [2^nd entry] a supporter or member of a Liberal Party, especially (in the UK) a Liberal Democrat

*RA - abbreviation [3^rd entry] (in the UK) Royal Academician, a member of the Royal Academy, an organization dedicated to the cultivation of painting, sculpture, and architecture in Britain

Right dress - Drill command used in the British armed forces. At this command, individuals in a marching formation except those on the extreme right side turn their heads to the right and raise their right arms parallel to the ground in order to get the proper distance from each other. Individuals at the extreme right, apart from the individual at the front (the right marker), raise their right arms straight out in front of them

spin bowler - noun Cricket an expert at bowling with spin

Appearing on Big Dave's Blog

pants - plural noun 3 British informal rubbish; nonsense: he thought we were going to be absolute pants

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.

28a   One doesn't have to have it (4)

I thought the solution might be NICE (nice to have, but not absolutely necessary). However, the solution to 13d proved that idea to be incorrect. While it seemed that the solution must be NEED, I couldn't really comprehend the wordplay as it seems to me that a "need" is something that you have to have (as opposed to something that you would merely like to have). Even after reading Libellule's hint, I still could not see the logic of the clue. Eventually (in the midst of writing this piece), the penny dropped.

The whole solution serves as a cryptic definition with "it" functioning as a placeholder for the solution. The clue is telling us that when "one doesn't have" (i.e., when one is lacking something), they have "it" (namely, NEED). This is a case where one needs to (at least mentally) to insert some punctuation (to flag a pause) and some emphasis. Think of the clue as reading "One doesn't have, to have it" or with a bit more manipulation "One [who] doesn't have, has it".

I would say that the clue is a merely a cryptic definition (as opposed to an & lit or semi & lit.) as there does not appear to be a second reading of the clue possible. The misdirection in the clue that makes it cryptic is that one's natural inclination is to read "have to have" in such a way as to make the meaning of the clue seem to be 'one doesn't need it'.

29a   Correct attire for drill instruction (5,5)

Someone with military training would undoubtedly have an edge in getting the solution to this clue. The candidate solutions identified by a couple of my electronic tools did not include the correct solution. Of the two choices that I was offered, RIGHT CROSS clearly seemed a better choice than RIGHT PRISM. However, I was to find out from Libellule that neither of these is the correct choice.

2d   Hydrogen air-locks (4)

This clue was overwhelmingly panned at Big Dave's site, with one observer calling it "pants". This is a British expression meaning 'rubbish or nonsense'. Apparently it can mean 'rubbish' in both the literal and figurative senses, as one writer cites a priceless example of usage by her daughter “Mum, I need some new bras – all mine are pants!!”.

4d   Going fast or simply standing (7)

Think of "standing" in the sense of 'standing for election'.

12d   Entranced over spring-time? Just the reverse! (10)

My initial thought was that this may be what I think of as a 'recipe-type' clue, with the wordplay being interpreted as "over spring, time" which is equivalent to "time over spring" or SPELL (time) + BOUND (spring). However, as this interpretation leaves much of the clue unused, it is obviously incorrect.

The correct interpretation is that "over" is playing the role of a link word between the definition (entranced) and the wordplay. Had the wordplay been been simply "spring-time", we would have had BOUND (spring) + SPELL (time). However, the phrase "Just the reverse!" directs us to do the opposite, which gives us SPELL (time) + BOUND (spring).

We get the same result - at the expense of a rather more verbose clue.

14d   He is the cause of many a bad thing (5)

Although I recognized that the solution is Flip Wilson's favourite scapegoat, I overlooked the charade in the wordplay. However, Libellule belatedly points it out in his review.

26d   Rome day that is endless (4)

As Libellule says, the solution "is also the 15th March in the Roman calendar". One might add (as Libellule actually does in response to a comment) that it is also the 15th of May, July, and October, and the 13th of other months.

Signing off for today - Falcon