Sunday, July 25, 2010 (ST 4386)

This puzzle was originally published in The Sunday London Times on June 20, 2010

Introduction

This puzzle was perhaps a bit easier than usual for a Sunday London Times puzzle.

For reader's who may be interested, I have recently posted a more complete review of ST 4384 which was published in the Ottawa Citizen on July 11, 2010.

Today's Errors

14a Missing, inclined to be forgetful (6,6)

What seems to be missing in this clue is a recognition that the solution contains a hyphen - a fact that both the setter and editor appear to have forgotten (but not missed by the ever sharp-eyed talbinho). The clue should therefore read:

• 14a Missing, inclined to be forgetful (6-6)

Today's Glossary

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

Appearing in Solutions

OB - abbreviation 1 old boy, Brit a former male pupil of a school.

RA - abbreviation 4 Royal Artillery.

RN - abbreviation 1 Royal Navy.

try - noun 2 rugby the act of carrying the ball over the opponent's goal line and touching it down on the ground, scoring three points in Rugby League or five in Rugby Union and entitling the scoring side to attempt a conversion.

Links to Solutions

A review of today's puzzle by talbinho can be found at Times for the Times [ST 4386].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

12a Exercise, two ways to put one in danger (5)

I missed part of the wordplay here. The definition is "danger" with the solution being PERIL. The correct wordplay is {PE (exercise; i.e., physical education) + RL (two ways; i.e., right and left, as there are generally two ways one may go - right or left)} containing (to put ... in) I (one).

I was attempting to read "exercise, two ways" as indicating two expressions meaning exercise. Clearly, on would be PE and the second would need to be RL - but the only meaning that I could find which was even remotely plausible was rugby league.

26a Odd formation - to force quarter back tricks (6)

In his review, talbinho suggests that this clue is a "nod to American football". However, if that were the intent, the spelling should have been quarterback - a single word rather than two words as shown in the clue.

Although I was able to obtain the correct solution from the definition and checking letters, and could see some of the wordplay, the remainder of the wordplay was a mystery.

The definition is "tricks" having the solution DODGES. The wordplay is DOD [an anagram (formation) of ODD] + G (force) + ES [reversal (back) of SE (southeast; i.e., quarter)]. It was the latter bit that I failed to recognize.

The use of G to mean force is seen frequently in crossword puzzles and comes from the concept of g-force in physics.

Signing off for this week - Falcon