Sunday, June 21, 2009 (ST 4328)

Today's puzzle was originally published in The Sunday London Times on May 10, 2009

Links to Solutions

A full review for today's puzzle is available at Times for the Times.

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

Some of the clues in today's puzzle were, shall I say, thought provoking. If I were in a less charitable mood, I might use synonyms such as questionable and irritating. I found it gratifying, in a number of cases, to see that my opinions on several clues aligned with those of talbinho in his Times for the Times blog.

Perhaps my views were soured by getting the solutions for a couple of clues incorrect.

1ac Recollect entire chain of succession (11)

I have absolutely no problem with this clue - I just think it is worthy of comment. The wordplay suggests that if a set of letters were collected once to form ENTIRE CHAIN, the same set of letters could be collected again (re-collected) in a different order to form another word.

13ac Dial and ring about a false notion (5)

Since IDOLA is the plural of IDOLUM or IDOLON, the clue should have read (IMHO):

13ac Dial and ring about false notions (5)

18ac Choosing to cut off electric halfway through - leading to chaos (8)

Due to a couple of faulty choices - thinking that "choosing" was a verb, rather than a noun; and missing the substitution of "into" for "leading to" - I ended up with ELECTING as a solution (one, of course, for which I could not fully reconcile the wordplay). This error was also directly responsible for my getting 17d incorrect.

20ac Gemstones military commander set off to obtain (6)

I am not sure whether the anagram indicator is intended to be the phrase "off to obtain" or whether the phrase "to obtain" is merely padding to improve the surface reading. I am sure that I have often seen "off" used on its own as an anagram indicator. Certainly, with a modified construction, such as:

Military commander set off to obtain gemstones (6)

the phrase "to obtain" would be quite logical as linking words.

28ac The blue-blooded, overbearing actor is star (11)

Like talbinho, I am mystified by the use of "overbearing" as an anagram indicator.

17d The pools could have formed in them (8)

Not only did I miss the anagram, but due to the error discussed at 18ac, the only possible solution appeared to be ANTHILLS (of course, as with 18ac, the wordplay being irreconcilable).

19d Vehicle surfaces carrying king, the Queen and follower (7)

I initially thought that the solution to this clue might be TRAILER, where I was relying on the following substitutions: "king" → R (rex), "the Queen" → ER, "vehicle" → TRAILER, and "follower" → TAIL. Of course, I had no explanation for the wordplay and the situation was further complicated by the fact that "follower" might also mean TRAILER. Furthermore, this wrong turn imposed an obstacle to solving 26ac. Luckily, I did eventually find the correct solution for 26ac which, in turn, put me back on TRACK for this clue as well.

21d Allure leading girl to love in France (7)

Since no objections were raised on Times for the Times, I presume that the subsitution of "l'amour" for "love" is within the bounds of cryptic license, despite a precise translation of "l'amour" being "the love".

Welcome to summer and Happy Father's Day to all fellow Dads - Falcon