Introduction
I found this puzzle to be extremely difficult - and not made any easier by the errors in the clues. In addition to the two errors that I have listed, I found the clue at 14a to be suspect (although no complaint was lodged on Times for the Times regarding this latter clue).
Today's Errata
There are errors in at least two clues in today's puzzle.
26a Vagrants seen in brief I ignored (7)
This clue should have read:
- 26a Vagrants seen in briefs I ignored (7)
This clue should have read:
- 4d Moved suddenly close to bus - crash (6)
Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle
Appearing in Clues
cooker - noun 2 British informal an apple or other fruit that is more suitable for cooking than for eating raw
daily - noun informal 2 (also daily help) British dated a woman who is employed to clean someone else's house each day
Appearing in Solutions
bottle - noun 2 British informal the courage or confidence needed to do something difficult or dangerous: I lost my bottle completely and ran
dosser - noun British informal derogatory
- 1 a person who sleeps rough; a tramp
- 2 an idle person
- (in soccer) a goal scored when a player inadvertently strikes or deflects the ball into their own team's goal
- British informal an act that unintentionally harms one's own interests: government scores own goal by assisting organized crime in London
- verb crash (a motor vehicle or aircraft)
- noun a crash involving a motor vehicle or aircraft
Ross - an area of northern Scotland
Links to Solutions
A review of today's puzzle by 7dpenguin can be found at Times for the Times [ST 4397].
Signing off for this week - Falcon
It almost stops being fun when it gets to a combination of obscurity and error like this one did. In addition to everything you've already covered off, in 5D I finally had to look up the context of "Swede", which at least defined itself as a variety of rutabaga but in the same clue, I still haven't figured out how to connect "crop" to "group". I also find myself at a loss about how to make "bus" = "s" in the already mis-tensed 4D clue. And while I suppose a number of "dossiers" could make up a "brief", I'm afraid I'm with those in the "error" camp on 26A. Meantime, I can only echo my earlier gripe about my being a non-Brit and the resulting never-heard-it-before-itis that afflicts me with the definitions of "bottle" (18A), "own goal" (10A), the already-referenced "dosser" (26A) and "cooker" as used in 17D. (Note re my first sentence: I stand by "almost". 80% fun is still a pretty high enjoyment ratio and the added enjoyment of reading your commentary helps offset the 20% snarling I do.)
ReplyDeleteHi Mike,
ReplyDeleteI am pleased to read that you enjoy the blog.
I agree with you insofar as the errors go. As for the Briticisms, for me they just add an additional level of challenge in solving the puzzle. After all, I think it might get a bit boring if the puzzle only included words with which one were already familiar. In including the Glossary in my blog, my objective is to attempt to put North Americans on more of an equal footing with the Brits for whom these expressions would presumably be second nature.
As for crop, Oxford defines it as "noun 2 a group or amount of related people or things appearing or occurring at one time: the current crop of politicians".
In 4d, the definition is "move suddenly" and the wordplay is S (close to bus; i.e., the last - or closing - letter in the word "bus") + PRANG (crash; prang being British slang for crash) producing the solution SPRANG.
Falcon
Well now of course I'm forced to adjust from a whine to admiring the subtlety in "close to bus".
ReplyDelete:-)