Sunday, March 21, 2010

Sunday, March 21, 2010 (ST 4368)

This puzzle was originally published in The Sunday London Times on February 14, 2010

Introduction

For the most part, today's puzzle was fairly straightforward. However, one clue seems to have left most observers confounded.

Links to Solutions

A review of today's puzzle by talbinho can be found at Times for the Times [ST 4368].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

6a Awesome female banker (6)

Here we see a device often found in cryptic crossword puzzles, where "banker" is used to mean "something that has banks" or, in other words, a river. Other common examples of such crosswordese include "flower" (something that flows, which again translates to a river) and "number" (something that numbs, which could be ether or some other anesthetic).

10a Hangs out with mates (10)

This is a double definition having the solution ASSOCIATES. The first definition (hangs out with) is a verb and the second (mates) is a noun. In Britain, your mate is not your spouse but your buddy. When talbinho comments "not much difference in the two definitions used here; one is just a nounal form of the other", I presume he is merely referring to the fact that mates are just people you hang out with.

25a This form of transport arrived at school carrying student (5,5)

My first attempt here was MODEL TRAIN, where form = MODE, school = TRAIN and student = L (learner). While I was generally on the right track with this line of thinking, this idea got derailed when I discovered that it created an impasse at 22d.

27a Small girl and boy sharing one bottle (4)

There appears to be no consensus on the wordplay in this clue. The definition is clearly "bottle" and the solution is VIAL. In his review talbinho says "VI (= 'small girl') + AL (= '[small] boy') - not sure what 'sharing one' adds to this clue. Originally I was expecting the two names to overlap by one letter and 'share' an 'I' or 'A', but that's not the case unless I've missed something". My own interpretation was that "small girl" could be VAL (short for Valerie), and VAL could also be a boy's name (e.g., American actor Val Kilmer). Then, if "sharing" is taken as a container/contents indicator we would have VAL containing (sharing) I (one). One week ago, a Canadian visitor to Times for the Times (perhaps a reader of the Toronto Star which publishes this puzzle a week ahead of the Citizen) also made a similar suggestion.

Signing off for this week - Falcon
Posted by at
Labels: , , , ,

2 comments:

  1. xwd_fiendMarch 23, 2010 at 5:32 AM

    6A banker: as far as I can tell, a river does not "bank" unless I've missed a verb definition of "bank". A river is a banker because it has banks, in the style of four-poster, double-decker and so on. If you look up -er in a dictionary, you'll find a range of meanings for it, including this, "does the verb as an action" as in "flower", and "comes from" as in Londoner and New Yorker. Most of the ones used in cryptic crosswords follow the same pattern as "flower", but "banker" is a conspicuous exception. Other uses of alternative -er meanings in cryptic clues are as rare as hen's teeth, even though there seem to be opportunities for some fiendish deception with the other meanings.

    I'm not convinced by the V(I)AL wordplay for 27 as "sharing" doesn't work as a containment indicator for me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. FalconMarch 24, 2010 at 1:48 PM

    Hi Peter,

    I admit that my attempt to explain 27a was pretty dubious. On further reflection, I have concluded that the setter may have been trying to get across the idea of the bottle (VIAL) being split equally (shared) with one half going to VI (the small girl) and the other half to AL (the boy). This would be much like a mother telling her children to share the candy (i.e., to divide it equally among themselves).

    Falcon

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)