Sunday, August 23, 2009 (ST 4337)

This puzzle was originally published in The Sunday London Times on July 12, 2009

Introduction

I found this to be an extremely difficult puzzle. I almost threw in the towel several times, but persevered and, in the end, completed it successfully (albeit after spending most of the morning and nearly all the afternoon working on it). Therefore, it gave me a great deal of satisfaction to see on Times for the Times that even the Brits found it quite difficult.

The difficulty of the puzzle was further exacerbated by the fact that there were errors in two of the clues. I would undoubtedly have saved myself considerable time and effort if I had only remembered that these, in fact, had been identified in comments to last week's puzzle on Times for the Times. But, like talbinho, this fact slipped my mind and I ended up having to discover the errors for myself.

Writers on Times for the Times were scathing in their assessments of not only the errors in this puzzle, but of the quality of this particular puzzle, in general. I have commented in the past about the syndicated British puzzles being published in Canada (weeks or months after their publication in the UK) replete with their original errors. It is surprising that the British papers have so little pride in their product that they don't bother to correct these errors when they syndicate the puzzles. Or, perhaps, they just want to provide the colonies with a true British experience!

Links to Solutions

A review of today's puzzle by talbinho can be found at Times for the Times [ST 4337].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

11ac Went by car, right to the end - southeastern limit for vehicles (5)

The "logic" of this clue is that "went by car" is DROVE and by moving R (right) to the end, produces DOVER - presumably the most southeastern point to which vehicles can travel in England. If one were in the mood to quibble (and this puzzle certainly does its best to create such a mood), one might argue that Chunnel trains are vehicles and they certainly travel beyond Dover.

14ac Wild boar blocking friend by curved path (8)

This is the first of the two clues containing an error. The correct clue would be:

14ac Wild boar blocking friend by a curved path (8)

19ac There's not any grass for sniffing (6)

Here "grass" (verb, defn. 3) is British slang for "inform" (as to the police).

20ac Volatile liquid's excellent accompaniment for gin (8)

I will continue to maintain that my initial answer of SCHNAPPS would be a much more appropriate (and tastier) choice.

22ac Play down silly dope's fault - not acceptable for the top people (4-5)

In this clue, "acceptable for the top people" is a reference to U (English) or English usage acceptable to the Upper Class. Therefore, we get "dope's fault - not U" being "dope's falt" which is an anagram of SOFT-PEDAL (as flagged by the anagram indicator silly).

3d Otherworldly type isn't for following Society (5)

I eventually found out that the solution ain't ALIEN.

8d Avoid possibility of loose tile and settle down domestically (4, 2, 3, 4)

This is the second clue with an error. In this case, it is the enumeration that is incorrect. The clue should read:

8d Avoid possibility of loose tile and settle down domestically (4, 2, 4, 3)

In this clue, by the way, "tile" (noun, defn. 6) is an informal term for a hat.

Signing off for this week - Falcon