Sunday, April 3, 2011 (ST 4422)

Puzzle at a Glance
Puzzle Number in The Sunday Times ST 4422
Date of Publication in The Sunday Times Sunday, February 27, 2011
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4422]
Times for the Times Review Written By Dave Perry
Date of Publication in the Toronto Star Saturday, March 26, 2011

Introduction

For a while, I was beginning to feel that I would not be able to complete this puzzle. However, with extensive assistance from my electronic friends I was able to prevail in the end. As usual, there are several British references in the puzzle - with at least one or two of them being quite obscure.

Today's Glossary

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

[An asterisk beside an entry merely indicates that it has been taken it from a Cumulative Glossary of entries which have previously appeared, in either this blog or its companion blog, the National Post Cryptic Crossword Forum.]

Appearing in Clues

Meanings listed in this section may reflect how the word is used in the surface reading of the clue. Of course, that meaning may be contributing to the misdirection that the setter is attempting to create.

daily - noun informal 2 (also daily help) British dated a woman who is employed to clean someone else's house each day

jolly - [Collins English Dictionary] noun 3. Brit slang a Royal Marine

Royal Marines - a British armed service (part of the Royal Navy) founded in 1664, trained for service at sea, or on land under specific circumstances

Appearing in Solutions

accelerando - Music adverb & adjective (especially as a direction) with a gradual increase of speed

• noun an accelerando passage

ASBO - noun British a court order which can be obtained by local authorities in order to restrict the behaviour of a person likely to cause harm or distress to the public [Origin: abbreviation of antisocial behaviour order]

char² - British informal a charwoman

*local - noun British informal a pub convenient to a person's home: a pint in the local

pants - plural noun 3 British informal rubbish; nonsense: he thought we were going to be absolute pants

RM - abbreviation [3^rd entry] (in the UK) Royal Marines

Royal Marines - a British armed service (part of the Royal Navy) founded in 1664, trained for service at sea, or on land under specific circumstances

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.

17d   Who may be working in Dover and Tees? (9)

Most people will likely recognize Dover, a port on the English channel - renowned for its white chalk cliffs. Tees, on the other hand, may be a less familiar British port - in fact, it may well not exist. There is, however, a River Tees in northern England.

22d   What's quickly seen in recurrent spare capacity (5)

In my case, the solution was not seen very quickly at all. However, I did eventually detect it lurking there reversed (as indicated by "recurrent") in the clue.

Signing off for this week - Falcon