Sunday, November 28, 2010 (ST 4404)

The Sunday London Times Puzzle Number ST 4404
Publication Date in The Sunday London Times Sunday, October 24, 2010
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4404]
Times for the Times Review Written By Talbinho

Introduction

Most of this puzzle is not too difficult, although there are a few clues that are certainly a severe challenge. A couple of clues (9a and 25a) did raise questions in my mind, and I note that these same clues are also the subject of observations of a similar nature by Talbinho.

Today's Errata

3d Backs 75% (13)

Chambers, Collins and Oxford all show the solution as being hyphenated, which would make the numeration (5-8):

• 3d Backs 75% (5-8)

Today's Glossary

Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle

Appearing in Clues

back - noun 3 a player in a team game who plays in a defensive position behind the forwards

Appearing in Solutions

aplitic - adjective of or related to aplite, a fine-grained, light-colored granitic rock consisting primarily of orthoclase and quartz

armband - [Collins English Dictionary] noun 2. an inflatable buoyancy aid, worn on the upper arm of a person learning to swim

bye ¹ - noun 3. Cricket a run scored off a ball not struck by the batsman: allotted to the team as an extra and not to the individual batsman

il - Italian the

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

tessera - [Collins English Dictionary] noun 2. a die, tally, etc., used in classical times, made of bone or wood

three-quarter - noun rugby any of the four players positioned between the full back and the scrum half and stand-off half

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

This commentary should be read in conjunction with the full review at Times for the Times, to which a link is provided in the table above.

12a Old German construction site abandoned after union resolution? (3,6,4)

Talbinho laments "not sure what's cryptic about this". I think that we are expected to be misdirected into reading "union resolution" as a formal proposal put forward by a labour movement rather than a reference to German unity. However, Talbinho is not terribly unreasonable in his gripe, as this trap is hardly very effective.

2d High shot on broken rest could find this on the table (7)

The surface reading alludes to the game of billiards, although the solution is not something that one would normally expect to find on a billiards table - unless you happen to recall the Clampetts' "fancy eating table" from the 1960s TV series The Beverly Hillbillies.

3d Backs 75% (13)

Although the total number of players on a team - as well as the names of the positions - differs between Rugby Union and Rugby League, there are seven backs in each game. These comprise two half backs (or, alternatively, half-backs or halfbacks) or equivalent, four three-quarters, and one fullback. In the charts below, the three-quarters are the wings and centres.

Rugby League positions
8 Prop 9 Hooker 10 Prop 11 Second row 12 Second row 13 Loose forward / Lock 7 Scrum half / Halfback 6 Stand-off / Five-eighth 4 Left centre 3 Right centre 5 Left wing 2 Right wing 1 Fullback

18d Novel heroine takes time to die (7)

There is a great deal of discussion on Times for the Times about the acceptability of the word tessera meaning die (singular of dice). However, this meaning does appear in Collins English Dictionary. Of course, since it apparently cannot be found in Chambers, it obviously is not acceptable.

22d Come to accept ruin at some point, unfortunately (5)

Talbinho interprets this clue as a charade, one element of which is an anagram, [i.e., {(RUIN)* + E}] and comments "strangely worded with the anagram word ('ruin') and anagram indicator ('unfortunately') split by other wordplay". However, if one interprets the clue as an anagram of a charade [i.e., {RUIN + E}*], the anagram indicator is no longer isolated from the fodder.

Signing off for this week - Falcon

Sunday, November 21, 2010 (ST 4403)

The Sunday London Times Puzzle Number ST 4403
Publication Date in The Sunday London Times Sunday, October 17, 2010
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4403]
Times for the Times Review Written By Talbinho

Introduction

Although I successfully completed the puzzle, I did not fully comprehend the wordplay in a couple of the clues. For example, I didn't twig to the fact that "on" means RE in 9a and the wordplay in 14d was a bit unclear (and now that I understand it, I don't necessarily like it all that much). As for the bizarre clue 20d, Talbinho has said it all.

Today's Glossary

Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle

Appearing in Solutions

boomer - noun informal Australian a large male kangaroo

bouncy castle - noun British a large inflatable structure, typically in the form of a stylized castle or other building, on which children can jump and play

chop-chop - adverb & exclamation quickly; quick: ‘Two pints, chop-chop,’ Jimmy called

if.... - a 1968 British feature film by director Lindsay Anderson satirising English public school life.

nutter - noun British informal a mad or eccentric person

Penny Black - noun the first adhesive postage stamp, issued in Britain in 1840; an imperforate stamp bearing the profile of Queen Victoria on a dark background

squaddie - noun British informal a private soldier

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

6d A second 60s cult movie is highly unlikely (2,2)

Thankfully, the clue was easy to decipher - even without having heard of if...., a 1968 British film. While the film is not on a list of The Top 50 Cult Movies that I managed to uncover, Wikipedia says of it "if... won the Grand Prix at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival. In 2004, the magazine Total Film named it the sixteenth greatest British film of all time."

14d Female student gets support when without means to send a letter (5,5)

Having (at one point in my life) been an avid stamp collector, I was quite familiar with a Penny Black (not that I ever personally possessed one).

Nevertheless, in today's clue, the wordplay does not completely resonate with me. Working from Talbinho's explanation, the wordplay would seem to be PENNY (female) + {L (student) contained in (gets ... when without) BACK (support}. The word 'gets' is sometimes used as a container indicator (as in BACK gets L = BLACK) and sometimes as a charade indicator (as in B gets LACK = BLACK). However, neither of these is the case here. In this clue, the word 'gets' appears to work in conjunction with 'when outside' to signify an "inverse" container operation.

Nevertheless, I find the wordplay to be awkward. To my mind, the cryptic reading would be improved (but perhaps not the surface reading) if the word "when" were to be eliminated.

Signing off for this week - Falcon

Sunday, November 14, 2010 (ST 4402)

The Sunday London Times Puzzle Number ST 4402
Publication Date in The Sunday London Times Sunday, October 10, 2010
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4402]
Times for the Times Review Written By talbinho

Introduction

This puzzle has some very difficult wordplay. In fact, in more than a few instances, I first found the solution and then reverse engineered the wordplay.

Today's Errata

The review at Times for the Times incorrectly shows the date of publication in the U.K. as September 10 rather than October 10.

There is likely an error in the clue at 13d. However, I have charitably chosen to treat it as very clever wordplay (see Commentary on Today's Puzzle).

Today's Glossary

Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle

Appearing in Clues

box - (in phrase box the compass) chiefly Nautical 1 recite the compass points in correct order

gin ² - noun 3 (also gin trap) a trap for catching birds or small mammals

traveller - noun (usually Traveller) British a Gypsy or other nomadic person

Appearing in Solutions

angelica - noun

• a tall aromatic plant of the parsley family, with large leaves and yellowish-green flowers. It is used in cooking and herbal medicine
• the candied stalk of angelica, used in confectionery and cake decoration

creeper - noun 3 informal (creepers) short for brothel creepers: plural noun, informal soft-soled suede shoes

L ² - abbreviation 2 learner driver [and, by extension, student]

mayblossom - one of the common names for Crataegus monogyna, or Common Hawthorn, a species of hawthorn native to Europe, northwest Africa and western Asia. Other common names include may, maythorn, quickthorn, whitethorn, motherdie, and haw.

plumbago - noun 1. any plumbaginaceous plant of the genus Plumbago, of warm regions, having clusters of blue, white, or red flowers; also called leadwort

terai - noun 1 a wide-brimmed felt hat, typically with a double crown , worn chiefly by travellers in subtropical regions

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

This commentary should be read in conjunction with talbinho's review at Times for the Times, to which a link is provided in the table above.

1a Rambler has just one shoe (7)

Another name for a rambler (rose) is CREEPER, which is also a British term for a soft-soled suede shoe. As it is actually a shortened form of brothel creeper, the origin of the term would likely be intriguing. Unfortunately, Oxford Dictionaries online fails to provide this information - so we must use our imagination.

5a Changes of menu are good for a girl (7)

As talbinho points out in his review, the word "good" is superfluous to the cryptic reading - thrown in merely to smooth the surface reading.

11a Primate on English isle a Neanderthal type? (3-3)

Sometimes 'ignorance is bliss'. Not realising that "the Isle of Man isn't even part of the UK, let alone England", I was unhindered by geographical reality and easily solved this clue.

19a Odd end, as internal piping leads to lines of pillars (10)

To translate the surface reading into the cryptic reading, one often has to discard the existing punctuation - and sometimes insert additional (or alternative) punctuation. Such is the case here where the cryptic reading of the clue could be stated as, "Odd end as; internal piping leads to /\ lines of pillars". Here the fulcrum symbol ("/\") is used to delineate the boundary between the wordplay and the definition. Thus the first part of the wordplay is an anagram (odd) of END AS and the second part is COLON (internal piping; i.e., part of the large intestine) is placed before (leads to). When these two pieces of wordplay are combined, the result is COLONNADES (COLON|NADES*). I like to think of this type of clue as being like an instruction manual or recipe book, where we have:

• Step1: Odd end as [start with an anagram (odd) of END AS];
• Step 2: internal piping leads to [then place COLON (internal piping) in front (leads to)];
• Result: lines of pillars [to get the result COLONADES]

22a Douglas chap, perhaps, seen to drag two poles to his home? (8)

I learned a lot about the Isle of Man today, discovering from talbinho that Douglas is the capital of the Isle of Man. I had presumed that the reference was to the town in Scotland.

23a Fellow caught one short of a century, agitated (6)

The surface reading refers to cricket, where it is seemingly fairly common for a batsman to score one hundred runs (known a a century) before being out. Thus the clue describes a situation where a batsman (fellow) being upset when he is caught out (i.e., the ball he hits is caught by a fielder) after scoring 99 runs - one short of a century. I didn't see the Roman numeral (IC = 99) until after I had solved the clue, having reasoned instead that "short of" means "just before" so "one short of a century" would be "I before C (hundred)".

28a Bearskins, it's said they favour? (7)

This cryptic definition (signalled by the question mark) brought a smile once the answer was exposed.

29a Whale of a weight, Manx cat carried (7)

The definition is "whale" and the solution is GRAMPUS. The wordplay is GRAM (a weight) + (carried) PUS (Manx cat). A Manx cat is tailless, so we have PUSS (cat) without its final letter (tailless). The word "carried" is used as a charade indicator, perhaps in the sense "to have (something) on the surface or skin; bear: e.g., carries scars from acne". Since "carry" can mean 'to support', this construct would have worked really well in a down clue.

13d Everyone can sew badly, making these excuses (10)

The definition is "these excuses" indicating that the solution is a particular type of excuses, namely ALLOWANCES. The wordplay is ALL (everyone) + O + an anagram (badly) of CAN SEW. In cryptic crossword puzzles, the letter O is often clued by terms such as 'nothing', 'love' (a score of zero in tennis), or 'duck' (a batsman's score of naught in cricket). Today's setter seems to have taken this idea to the absolute extreme, and literally included nothing in the clue to represent the letter O.

17d Girl decorating some cakes (8)

I zeroed in on the wrong girl here, thinking it might be Angelina, figuring that the wordplay might be either:

• INA (girl) on (decorating) ANGEL (some [type of] cake); or
• LINA (girl) on (decorating) ANGE (some cake; i..e., ANGEL without its final letter).

Instead, the girl is ANGELICA, which is also the candied stalk of the angelica plant used in cake decorating.

24d There's a lot in gin for the traveller (5)

A "gin" is a type of trap. Terms such as "a large number", "many", and - in this case - "a lot" often signify a large Roman numeral. Today's puzzle is brought to us by the the number M. Thus, the wordplay translates as "There is M (a lot) in TRAP (gin)". In Britain, a Gypsy, hobo or TRAMP is called a traveller.

Signing off for this week - Falcon

Sunday, November 7, 2010 (ST 4401)

The Sunday London Times Puzzle Number ST 4401
Publication Date in The Sunday London Times Sunday, October 3, 2010
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4401]
Times for the Times Review Written By talbinho

Introduction

Today the Citizen presents a fairly gentle piece from The Sunday London Times, one that provides a nice re-entry into the world of cryptic crosswords after my recent hiatus from them during my tour of Italy. There are no glaring errors in this puzzle - a welcome change from the last few puzzles before I left. As usual, there are a few Briticisms and archaic expressions in the puzzle. I learned a new musical term at 17d (as well as a new slang term for a toilet at 9a).

Today's Glossary

Selected abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions appearing in today's puzzle

Appearing in Clues

bog - noun 2 (the bog) British informal the toilet

marge ¹ - noun British informal margarine

Appearing in Solutions

cantabile - Music adverb & adjective in a smooth singing style; noun a cantabile passage or movement: the allegro also begins with a beautiful cantabile

(Clément Philibert) Léo Delibes (1836-91) - French composer, noted particularly for his ballets Coppélia (1870) and Sylvia (1876), and the opera Lakmé (1883). [Collins English Dictionary]

loo ¹ - noun 2 British informal a toilet

p - abbreviation piano, Music adverb & adjective (especially as a direction) soft or softly; noun a passage performed or marked to be performed softly

RA - abbreviation (in the UK) Royal Academician, a member of the Royal Academy of Arts

Royal Academy of Arts (also Royal Academy) - an institution established in London in 1768, whose purpose was to cultivate painting, sculpture, and architecture in Britain. Sir Joshua Reynolds was its first president and he instituted a highly influential series of annual lectures

withal - adverb archaic all the same; nevertheless (used when adding something that contrasts with a previous comment): she gave him a grateful smile, but rueful withal

Signing off for this week - Falcon