Monday, June 27, 2011 - DT 26517

Puzzle at a Glance

Daily Telegraph Puzzle Number DT 26517
Publication Date in The Daily Telegraph Monday, April 4, 2011
Setter Rufus
Link to Full Review Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26517]
Big Dave's Review Written By Libellule
Big Dave's Rating
Difficulty - ★★	Enjoyment - ★★★
Falcon's Performance ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - unsolved or incorrect prior to visiting Big Dave's blog █ - reviewed by Falcon for Big Dave's blog
Notes This puzzle appears on the Monday Diversions page of the Saturday, June 25, 2011 edition of the National Post The National Post has skipped DT 26516 which was published in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, April 2, 2011

Introduction

We have the typical very enjoyable offering today from Rufus - with some deceptively misleading clues. For instance, I was sure that the phrase "In the main ..." at 11a indicated that the clue had a nautical flavour. The diabolical Rufus further ensures that we fall into this trap through his previous clue at 10a.  I had to smile at my folly when I finally got the solution.

Furthermore, at 15d, I made the same error as a number of the Brits by thinking that "popular" was part of the wordplay rather than the definition. This was compounded by failing to understand "batting order" - missing the cricket reference. In baseball, with which I am more familiar, it is more common to refer to the batting team as 'up' rather than 'in'.

National Post Summer Publication Schedule

Again this summer, the National Post will not produce a printed edition on Monday - beginning today and extending through Labour Day. Today's puzzle appears in the Weekend Post section of the Saturday, June 25 edition of the National Post (on page WP13 of the printed edition distributed in Ottawa and on page WP16 of the Digital Edition). Tomorrow we will discover whether there is a Digital Edition produced and, if so, whether the puzzle will be repeated in it.

Today's Glossary

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

[An asterisk beside an entry merely indicates that it has been taken it from a Cumulative Glossary of entries which have previously appeared, in either this blog or its companion blog, the Ottawa Citizen Cryptic Crossword Forum.]

Appearing in Clues:

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.

banker - cryptic crossword convention river (i.e., something which has banks)

*form - noun 6 chiefly British a class or year in a school, usually given a specifying number: the fifth form.

Appearing in Solutions:

in - adverb 4 [predicative] Cricket batting: which side is in?

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.

4d   Damp course laid across another sort of course (5,4)

A "course" may be 'the channel of a river, etc.'. Therefore a "damp course" could refer to a WATER JUMP on a steeplechase course (another sort of course).

13d   In speech, commend senior citizen - of London, say? (4,5)

This clue would almost seem to defy categorization. Then again, who says that every clue must fit neatly into some framework of pigeon holes. We should probably regard the set of categories as a tool developed by observers to organize their observations rather than as a building code for compilers.

In any event, the clue has a homophone element which relies on the soft British R, meaning that 'Lord' is pronounced as 'laud'. Thus the wordplay is LORD {sounds like (in speech) LAUD (commends)} + MAYOR (senior citizen: i.e., the citizen elected to run a town or city). I would think that the definition must be supplied by the phrase "of London, say" (London apparently has a Lord Mayor, rather than a mere Mayor). "Senior citizen" would then seem to be doing double duty, cluing MAYOR in the wordplay and (in combination with "of London, say") providing the definition for LORD MAYOR. But then again, it would not be a surprise to be informed that I have it all wrong!

Signing off for today - Falcon