Sunday, February 7, 2010 (ST 4362)

This puzzle was originally published in The Sunday London Times on January 3, 2010

Introduction

Solving today's puzzle definitely involved a bit of work - and the task was made no less difficult by an error in one of the clues.

Today's Error

This puzzle contains a serious error in the numeration indicator of clue 8d - one that originally appeared in the puzzle when it was published in the U.K. and which has not been corrected in the syndicated version of the puzzle. The correct clue is:

8d Surprised as I am to say this, not once did I excel (4,1,5,3)

In addition to being discussed in the comments to today's puzzle on Times for the Times, this error was also mentioned in a comment on the blog dealing with last week's puzzle. This would be explained by the fact that the Times for the Times review only appears one week after the puzzle is published in the U.K.

Today's Glossary

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

Epsom - a town in Surrey, England which is the site of the Epsom Downs Racecourse

MB - abbreviation 1 Bachelor of Medicine. Latin Medicinae Baccalaureus.

ulster - noun a man’s long, loose overcoat of rough cloth (ORIGIN from Ulster in Ireland, where it was originally sold).

Links to Solutions

A review of today's puzzle by talbinho can be found at Times for the Times [ST 4362].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

1a Setting to delight certain animal welfare groups (3,3,2,5)

It seemed that the solution had to be RED SKY AT NIGHT, but the wordplay appeared to make no sense. However, it seems that the old weather forecasting adage, known in North America as "Red sky at night, sailor's delight; Red sky at morning, sailors take warning." is somewhat different in the U.K. where it would be "Red sky at night, shepherd's delight; ...".

Thus "setting" refers to the setting sun and "animal welfare groups" to shepherds.

Perhaps if we were to agree that the clue refers to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, both versions of the saying might be accommodated.

In his review, talbinho points out an apparent misalignment of singular and plural elements between the clue and the saying.

12a Insect left flower (5)

Old hands will readily recognize that in cryptic crossword land a flower is usually not a plant, but rather something that flows (i.e., a river).

19a Italian source of exotic vine on English church (6)

It may only be a personal idiosyncrasy, but I was bothered for the longest time about why VENICE would be called an Italian source. After much contemplation, I concluded that since one definition of source is "a place, person, or thing from which something originates" that source basically means place (although it carries additional shades of meaning that improve the surface reading over what it would have been had the word place been used instead).

24a English town, of course (5)

I initially found myself at the wrong track, in Ascot. Fortunately, it did not take very long to discover my error and move on to EPSOM.

4d Giving up, having lied badly during first year of power (8)

The definition is YIELDING (giving up) and the wordplay is IELD {anagram of (badly) LIED} contained in (during) Y (first year; i.e., first letter of the word year) ING (of power?).

In his review, talbinho suggests that "of power" equates to "in government", with the final bit of the wordplay therefore being IN G (government). Not a very satisfying explanation, but the best that we have.

A visitor to Times for the Times writes "I parsed this as Y(ear) IN G(as in G-force, hence power)". This explanation is weak on two counts. First, no rationale is provided for going from "of" to IN. Second, power and force are not at all the same thing (power being force times velocity). However, experience has taught us not to expect scientific precision in these puzzles.

Signing off for this week - Falcon