Sunday, July 5, 2009 (ST 4330)

This puzzle was originally published in The Sunday London Times on May 24, 2009

Introduction

I'm afraid that I am running a bit behind in updating my blog this week.

I managed to complete this week's puzzle successfully, although I did have concerns regarding the wordplay on a couple of solutions. However, my solving time was nowhere even close to that of talbinho (author of the Times for the Times blog) - who seems to measure performance in minutes while I measure mine in hours.

I have recently discovered that this puzzle appears in the Vancouver Sun on the Saturday prior to its appearance in the Ottawa Citizen. I also noted that the Sun doesn't publish the solution grid until the following week, unlike the Citizen which publishes the solution grid in the same edition as the puzzle. No doubt, this explains interest in my blog from the West Coast. Although I have not checked the other Canwest papers across Canada, I would not be surprised to learn that the puzzle also appears in some of them.

Links to solutions:

For a review of today's puzzle, see Times for the Times [ST 4330].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

27ac Trio's occupation, in book-craft (5,3,2,1,4)

Having figured out most of the solution fairly quickly (THREE MEN IN A ?O?T), it was not too difficult to find the title of the book referred to by the clue. I must say, though, that this was one of those cases where I was left with a distinct feeling of having overlooked some nuance in the wordplay. When Times for the Times did not provide any evidence of this, merely referring to the clue as a cryptic definition, I concluded that I probably had a pretty good grasp of the wordplay after all - with "trio" referring to "THREE MEN", "occupation" suggesting both that they are occupying a boat ("craft") as well as the fact that "bookcraft" (authorship) is an occupation, and - of course - the solution being the title of a book.

16d Cash left aboard at return of oil spill (9)

There appeared to be a clear consensus at Times for the Times that there is misprint in this clue - that "cash" should have been "case". Ironically, this fact did not appreciably slow me down as I merely attributed the unusual meaning for "portfolio" to being just another quirky British expression with which I am unfamiliar!

23d Current resting place (3)

The solution clearly appeared to be ROOST, but, for the life of me, I could not figure out the connection with "current" until I read the review at Times for the Times. Of course, I then discovered that the answer appears in at least two dictionaries - Chambers and Wiktionary.

Signing off for this week - Falcon