Sunday, January 3, 2010 (ST 4356)

This puzzle was originally published in The Sunday London Times on November 22, 2009

Introduction

This puzzle has some mischievously wicked clues as well as a couple that are downright cruel. I hope that the fact that I managed to solve the former but failed to decipher the latter hasn't adversely coloured my opinion. I don't think so, as my thoughts seems to align fairly well with those of the Brits writing at Times for the Times.

Today's Glossary

Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle

(House of) Lords - the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Strand - historic street in London, England

TA - abbreviation Territorial Army: noun (in the UK) a fully trained volunteer force intended to provide back-up to the regular army in cases of emergency

Links to Solutions

A review of today's puzzle by talbinho can be found at Times for the Times [ST 4356].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

5a Churchman the French turn to (6)

This clue incorporates the rather fiendish device of placing the link between the definition and the wordplay smack dab in the middle of a word. It will help if you read the clue as:

Church /\ man the French turn to (6)

where the symbol "/\" represents the link (or fulcrum) between the two parts of the clue.

18a Strand's basic accommodation? (4,8)

While knowing that The Strand is an historic street in London, England (the hub of Victorian theatre and nightlife) is crucial to following the surface reading, this knowledge may actually impede one in decoding the cryptic meaning.

23a Marxist accepts useless product (5)

This is the first of the cruel clues to which I made reference in my introduction. I failed to find the correct solution here, partly because of problems with the wording of this clue and partly because I arrived at a wrong solution for 19d. In his blog at Times for the Times, talbinho suggests that there is an error in this clue as published, and that it should have read:

Marxist accepts useless produce (5)

which might have helped a tad to find the fruit which is the solution to this clue.

25a Explosive device left behind and belonging to me (8)

Here, the components of the charade type wordplay are L (left) + AND + MINE (belonging to me), producing the solution LANDMINE.

Note that talbinho questions the purpose of the word "behind" in the clue ("why 'behind'?"). I presumed that we are meant to read the clue as if it were written "explosive device left, behind and belonging to me" with behind playing a role analogous to its use in the following example that I have cooked up, "We found ourselves trapped; in front the raging sea, minefields right and left, behind the rapidly advancing army."

By interpreting the wordplay in this fashion, we get L (left) behind which is AND + MINE.

26a Remove top of hamper with added force to get sandwich filling (6)

You would be well advised to avoid biting into this sandwich, which could consist of a rubber or cork sheet between a couple of metal engine components.

8d Could playing golf lead to this fine finish? (4,4)

I found the order of the words in this solution to be reversed - an observation supported by Times for the Times.

11d Do soldiers on exercise following wrong side have to stick with it? (8,4)

Although talbinho seems to think "the clue doesn't make much sense", I am not sure that I concur. The surface reading of the clue could be referring to soldiers engaged in war games (on exercise) who have been assigned to track down an enemy unit. However, should they discover that they have been following another unit from their own team rather than the enemy, do they continue (stick with it) or quit. And of course, "stick with it" is also a cryptic reference to the solution.

15d For example, part played by many on dole being reviewed (4,5)

Often the word many (or an equivalent expression, such as large number) will need to be replaced by a large Roman numeral - such as L (fifty), C (hundred), D (five hundred) or M (thousand). In this case, the correct choice is M.

19d A driver of seventeen? (6)

This is the second cruel clue. I got the wrong solution here, which also impacted my ability to solve 23a. I thought a driver of seventeen (years of age) might be a NOVICE. Another possibility that I had in the back of my mind was MOTIVE (a different kind of driver). Neither one, of course, is correct.

Here, "seventeen" is a cross-reference to clue number 17 (i.e., 17d) for which the solution is AIRLINES. Therefore, the first step in solving this clue is to substitute the solution to 17d into this clue; viz., "A driver of airlines?". This could mean "A driver owned by airlines". A driver can be an engine, and airlines do own engines (as well as the rest of the plane). While it seems that the solution can be rationalized, methinks it involves more than a reasonable level of hand-waving to explain.

20d Woodland in autumn before storm damage (6)

The solution hiding in this clue might be more visible if one first clears the autumn damage deadwood.

Signing off for this week - Falcon