Sunday, May 29, 2011 (ST 4430)

Puzzle at a Glance
Puzzle Number in The Sunday Times ST 4430
Date of Publication in The Sunday Times Sunday, April 24, 2011
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4430]
Times for the Times Review Written By Dave Perry
Date of Publication in the Toronto Star Saturday, May 21, 2011

Introduction

I found today's puzzle to be very difficult, although I did persevere and eventually I succeeded in completing it. However, my newspaper was covered with question marks where I was not able to fully decipher the clues. In many cases, I was able to see part of the wordplay but could not formulate the complete picture. Among the bits of wordplay that I missed were getting to the French word for friend via Cockney rhyming slang in 12a, the "drama queen's last part" in 11a, and the invented definition for "polish" at 6d. I note that there is more than the normal chatter on Times for the Times concerning this puzzle. It seems that the Brits found several of the clues to be more than a little contentious.

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.

aluminium - British name for the chemical element known in North America as aluminum.

arcade - noun 1 [a] a covered passage with arches along one or both sides. [b] a covered walk with shops along one or both sides.

Armagnac - a type of brandy traditionally made in Aquitaine in SW France.

The Scotland Office - a United Kingdom government department headed by the Secretary of State for Scotland and responsible for Scottish affairs. It is distinct entity within the Ministry of Justice.

Appearing in Solutions

Al - symbol the chemical element aluminium [North American aluminum].

As - symbol the chemical element arsenic.

carry-on - noun [usually in singular] British informal [a] a display of excitement or fuss over an unimportant matter: I never saw such a carry-on! [b] (also carryings-on) questionable behaviour, typically involving sexual impropriety: the sort of carry-on that goes on behind the chintz curtains of suburbia

grenadine² - noun dress fabric of loosely woven silk or silk and wool.

Horatio Nelson - Viscount Nelson, Duke of Bronte (1758–1805), British admiral. Nelson became a national hero as a result of his victories at sea in the Napoleonic Wars, especially the Battle of Trafalgar, in which he was mortally wounded.

No² - noun variant spelling of Noh, traditional Japanese masked drama with dance and song, evolved from Shinto rites.

Perrier (also Perrier water) - noun trademark an effervescent natural mineral water sold as a drink.[origin: from the name of a spring at Vergèze, France, from which this water comes]

po - noun British informal a chamber pot. [Note: despite Oxford's designation of this as a British term, Dave Perry claims it to be Australian.]

Bertrand Russell - 3rd Earl Russell (1872–1970), British philosopher, mathematician, and social reformer; full name Bertrand Arthur William Russell. In Principia Mathematica (1910–13) he and A. N. Whitehead attempted to express all of mathematics in formal logic terms . He expounded logical atomism in Our Knowledge of the External World (1914) and neutral monism in The Analysis of Mind (1921). A conscientious objector during the First World War, he also campaigned for women's suffrage and against nuclear arms. Nobel Prize for Literature (1950).

tapster - noun archaic a person who draws and serves alcoholic drinks at a bar.

taster - noun 2 British a small quantity or brief experience of something, intended as a sample: the song is a taster for the band's new LP

tat² - noun British informal tasteless or shoddy clothes, jewellery, or ornaments: the place was decorated with all manner of gaudy tat

ute - noun Australian /NZ informal a utility vehicle; a pickup.

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.

5a   As the chemist sees it? (7)

As it stands, the surface reading of this clue sounds incomplete to my ear. For it to make sense to me, the clue would need to read either "As as the chemist sees it?" or "As seen by the chemist."

26a   Philosopher's trick to pen school lines (7)

The setter clearly intends for us to use S as an abbreviation for "school". However, I failed to find this meaning given in any of several dictionaries that I consulted including the "big red Chambers" (The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition).

27a   See cod I battered with it! (7)

It took me awhile to fully comprehend the subtleties of this clue - and although it is a bit difficult to explain clearly., I will do my best.

The word "it" is a pronoun standing in for "see" and serves as part of the anagrist (anagram fodder). As Dave Perry expresses it, "'See' is doing double duty here as the definition and part of the anagrist, but it's clearly indicated so that's fine." The definition is the explicit "See" at the beginning of the clue for which the solution is DIOCESE (see, meaning "the place in which a cathedral church stands, identified as the seat of authority of a bishop or archbishop"). The wordplay is an anagram (battered) of COD I SEE. Note that the wordplay uses the implicit SEE represented by the pronoun "it", in which the sense of the clue is "COD I mixed with (battered with) SEE" ("it" having been replaced by SEE).

2d   Basic part of electric heater's aluminium (9)

If I had parsed this clue correctly I would not have had a question mark beside it. The definition is "basic" for which the solution is ELEMENTAL. The wordplay is ELEMENT (part of electric heater) + ('s; i.e., has) AL ([chemical symbol for] aluminium [or aluminum, if you prefer]).

6d   Polish device for carrying the sick? (9)

Here "a polish device" mischievously means "a device constructed from poles". This is in the same vein as a river being described in a cryptic crossword clue as a "flower" (something which flows) or a "banker" (something which has banks).

My initial thought was that the connection between 'stretch' and "polish" might have something to do with 'stretching the truth'. I even discovered the following definition:

• stretcher - noun 5 archaic , informal an exaggeration or lie.

I eventually had to abandon this line of thinking as I could not construct a plausible explanation based on it.

My next discovery (via an internet search) was that there is a substance used for treating leather shoes to stretch them (appropriately called a 'stretcher') which is sometimes added to shoe polish so that shoes can be both stretched and polished in a single application. Oh, what hoops setters sometimes have us jumping through!

16d   It's a pleasure to see absence of rubbish at the arcade - no hint of muck (3,2,3)

The definition is "it's a pleasure" for which the solution is NOT AT ALL. The wordplay is NO TAT (absence of rubbish; 'tat' being British slang for tasteless or shoddy goods) + (at) mALL {MALL (the arcade) with the first letter deleted (no hint of muck; i.e., no first letter of Muck)}. I infer that the term "arcade" would be commonly understood in Britain to mean a 'shopping arcade' whereas in North American we would probably be a bit more likely to use the full name (in order to distinguish it from merely a covered walkway or some other type of arcade, such as an amusement arcade).

Signing off for this week - Falcon

Sunday, May 22, 2011 (ST 4429)

Puzzle at a Glance
Puzzle Number in The Sunday Times ST 4429
Date of Publication in The Sunday Times Sunday, April 17, 2011
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4429]
Times for the Times Review Written By Dave Perry
Date of Publication in the Toronto Star Saturday, May 14, 2011

Introduction

Today, the setter gives us a bit of potty training. Although I completed the puzzle fairly rapidly, I did have a few points that I needed to check at Times for the Times. From Dave Perry's review, I discovered that I had missed a key element of the wordplay in 1a (the need to split Luther from King) and had a mistake at 10a (having entered SCATTERING instead of SMATTERING - thereby making the wordplay incomprehensible). I must say that I do not see in what sense "races" qualifies as an anagram indicator at 4d. However it may well be valid, as Dave Perry - although mentioning that he initially "failed to see 'races' as an anagrind" - doesn't object to its use.

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.

hack (someone) off - phrase informal annoy or infuriate (someone): it really hacks me off when they whine about what a poor job we're doing

hare and hounds - noun a game, especially a paperchase, in which a group of people chase another person or group across the countryside.

Appearing in Solutions

aller - verb French to go

gin² - noun 3 (also gin trap) a trap for catching birds or small mammals.

paperchase - noun 1 British a cross-country race in which the runners follow a trail marked by torn-up paper. [Note: Oxford and Chambers disagree on the spelling, with Oxford stipulating paperchase while Chambers opts for paper chase.]

*read - verb 5 chiefly British study (an academic subject) at a university: I'm reading English at Cambridge; [no object] he went to Manchester to read for a BA in Economics.

wee² - informal, chiefly British noun [usually in singular][a] an act of urinating. [b] urine. verb urinate.

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   One trap in test of derivation (8)

Knowing that a gin is a type of "trap" and that an oral is a kind of "test" allowed me to solve this clue from the wordplay alone. However, I do not understand the definition where "of derivation" would appear to be intended to mean ORIGINAL. To my mind, an original might be a "source of derivation". Perhaps there is something missing in the clue - or in my understanding.

7d   Close finish (9)

Like Dave Perry, my first thought was that the two definitions here are essentially the same. However, perhaps the setter intended "finish" to mean "kill, destroy, or comprehensively defeat" - which might satisfy those who adhere to the seemingly widely-held belief that there is a convention stating that the two definitions in a double definition clue must be different (a proposition which Peter Biddlecombe, puzzles editor for The Sunday Times, questions in a comment on Times for the Times).

Signing off for this week - Falcon

Sunday, May 15, 2011 (ST 4428)

Puzzle at a Glance
Puzzle Number in The Sunday Times ST 4428
Date of Publication in The Sunday Times Sunday, April 10, 2011
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4428]
Times for the Times Review Written By Dave Perry
Date of Publication in the Toronto Star Saturday, May 7, 2011

Introduction

I needed lots of electronic assistance on this puzzle (seemingly unlike the Brits who seemed to have found it relatively easy). I did spend an inordinate amount of time sorting out the Tibetan cattle from the Burmese people. Not to mention the silly error I made on 8d down, somehow thinking that the numeration was (4,9) rather than (9,4) - causing one of the more straight-forward clues in the puzzle to be the last to be solved.

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 Solutions

animadversion - noun

• [mass noun] formal criticism or censure: her animadversion against science
• [count noun] a comment or remark, especially a critical one.

Capri - an island off the west coast of Italy, south of Naples.

*(River) Dee - a 70-mile (110 km) long river in the United Kingdom that travels through Wales and England and also forms part of the border between the two countries (also any of several other rivers of that name in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia)

en famille - adverb with one's family, or as a family: when they went out en famille, Steven always drove [origin: French, literally 'in family']

HE - abbreviation high explosive

hieratic - adjective [1^st entry] of or concerning priests: he raised both his arms in a hieratic gesture

mat - US spelling of matte

*matt (also matte or US mat) - adjective (of a surface or colour) dull and flat ; without a shine: prints are available on matt or glossy paper; a matt black

*MB - abbreviation Bachelor of Medicine [from Latin Medicinae Baccalaureus], the professional degree held by medical practitioners in Britain [equivalent to a North American MD (Medical Doctor, from Latin Medicinae Doctor]

nim - noun a game in which two players alternately take one or more objects from one of a number of heaps, each trying to take , or to compel the other to take , the last remaining object.

nisei - noun North American an American or Canadian whose parents were immigrants from Japan. [origin:(1940s) from Japanese, literally 'second generation']

piñon (also pinyon or piñon pine) - noun a small pine tree with edible seeds, native to Mexico and the south-western US. Pinus cemebroides, family Pinaceae

quid¹ - noun British informal one pound sterling: we paid him four hundred quid

*RA - abbreviation [3^rd entry] (in the UK) Royal Academician, a member of the Royal Academy

Royal Academy of the Arts (also Royal Academy) - an institution established in London in 1768, whose purpose was to cultivate painting, sculpture, and architecture in Britain.

SS² - the Nazi special police force. Founded in 1925 by Hitler as a personal bodyguard, the SS provided security forces (including the Gestapo) and administered the concentration camps. [origin: abbreviation of German Schutzstaffel 'defence squadron']

Streatham - a district in South London, England, located in the London Borough of Lambeth.

The Life of Timon of Athens - a play by William Shakespeare about the fortunes of an Athenian named Timon (and probably influenced by the philosopher of the same name, as well), generally regarded as one of his most obscure and difficult works.

zo - noun a Tibetan breed of cattle, developed by crossing the yak with common cattle

Zoroaster - (circa 628 - circa 551 bc ), Persian prophet and founder of Zoroastrianism; Avestan name Zarathustra. Little is known of his life , but traditionally he was born in Persia and began to preach the tenets of what was later called Zoroastrianism after receiving a vision from Ahura Mazda.

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.

22a   Prophet who cooks beef in Tibet? (9)

The solution that we are looking for is ZOROASTER (a 6^th century bc Persian prophet). The wordplay requires us to split the solution (2, 7) to get the phrase 'zo roaster' which could describe someone who cooks beef from zos (Tibetan cattle).

Having initially missed this wordplay, and following the lead of Dave Perry, I embarked on quite another line of research. I was set on the proper course by Peter Biddlecombe (puzzles editor for The Sunday Times) writing on Times for the Times.

Here is my initial attempt at explaining the wordplay which was built around a different meaning of Zo:

• Zo (also spelled Zou) - a people forming an indigenous community living along the frontier of India and Burma [who, for a brief period in antiquity, apparently resided in Tibet].

The wordplay requires us to split the solution (2, 7) to get the phrase 'Zo roaster' which could mean a member of the Zo people whose profession is roasting (cooking beef).

I could find no evidence that the Zo currently live in Tibet. According to Wikipedia, the Zo are a people who presently inhabit an area straddling the border of India and Burma. They "probably once inhabited the T’ao valley of Kansu province in north-west China. Because of frequent Chinese incursions, the Zomis [Zo people] might have moved to the north east of Tibet around 200 BC. In order to avoid them [the Chinese or Tibetans?], the Zomis traveled across ridges and forests and move[d] further south. The journey probably took hundreds of years and eventually landed in Upper Burma."

Signing off for this week - Falcon

Sunday, May 8, 2011 (ST 4427)

Puzzle at a Glance
Puzzle Number in The Sunday Times ST 4427
Date of Publication in The Sunday Times Sunday, April 3, 2011
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4427]
Times for the Times Review Written By Dave Perry
Date of Publication in the Toronto Star Saturday, April 30, 2011

Introduction

It was a fairly challenging workout today. I certainly needed lots and lots of help from my Tool Chest to complete today's puzzle.

Dave Perry comments "I would have expected to see the enumeration for 19 to be (10,10) and omitted entirely from 10a, rather than enumerating them separately". The numeration that he complains about may have been specific to the online version of the puzzle in Britain or it may have been corrected prior to syndication, since the clue is published in the Ottawa Citizen with precisely the numeration that he "would have expected to see".

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.

whinge - British informal verb complain persistently and in a peevish or irritating way: stop whingeing and get on with it! [North American whine (although the word whine seems to be used in the U.K. as well)]

Appearing in Solutions

André-Marie Ampère (1775 – 1836) - French physicist and mathematician who is generally regarded as one of the main discoverers of electromagnetism. The SI unit of measurement of electric current, the ampere, is named after him.

compound¹ - verb 3 [2^nd entry] settle (a debt or other matter) in exchange for money or other consideration: he compounded the case with the defendant for a cash payment

*flog - verb 2 British informal sell or offer for sale: he made a fortune flogging beads to hippies

H² - abbreviation henry, noun Physics the SI unit of inductance, equal to an electromotive force of one volt in a closed circuit with a uniform rate of change of current of one ampere per second.

Sir Andrew Motion - English poet, novelist and biographer, who presided as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2009.

Pistol - a character in the play Henry V written by William Shakespeare.

roe deer (alternative of roe²) - noun a small Eurasian deer which lacks a visible tail and has a reddish summer coat that turns greyish in winter. Genus Capreolus, family Cervidae: two species, in particular the European roe deer (C. capreolus)

sim - noun informal a video game that simulates an activity such as flying an aircraft or playing a sport.

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.

4d   Jot last bit of recipe on posh writing material - we hear it'll have many uses in the kitchen (5,6)

This must be the clue to which Dave Perry is referring in his observation concerning "a dubious homophone" - although he misidentifies the clue as 16. The definition is "it'll have many uses in the kitchen" which denotes WHITE PEPPER. The wordplay is WHIT (jot) + E {last bit [i.e., letter] of (recip)E} + PEPPER {sounds like (we hear) PAPER (writing material) when spoken in an upper class British (posh) accent}. Remember that both 'pepper' and 'paper' would undoubtedly be pronounced with a 'soft' R in Britain - quite unlike the 'hard' North American R.

At Times for the Times, jackkt argues "that pepper has only one use in the kitchen, namely to add the flavour of pepper." However, I would suggest that "it'll have many uses in the kitchen" could be interpreted as 'it will be used frequently in the kitchen' rather than 'for many purposes'.

7d   Business with loads of money settles a debt (9)

I failed to see a bit of the wordplay here until I read Dave Perry's review. However, I will offer a variation on his solution. The definition is "settles a debt" for which the solution is COMPOUNDS. The wordplay is CO (firm; i.e., abbreviation for company) + (with) M (loads of; M being the Roman numeral for one thousand) + POUNDS (money).

Does M stand for 'thousand' or 'million'? Dave Perry suggests the latter. However, a cryptic crossword device that I have seen many times is to use phrases such as "a large number", "a great many", "a large amount", "a great deal of", etc. to clue any large Roman numeral - either L (fifty), C (one hundred), D (five hundred), or M (one thousand). It seems to me that the phrase "loads of" certainly fits this mould.

Signing off for this week - Falcon

Sunday, May 1, 2011 (ST 4426)

Puzzle at a Glance
Puzzle Number in The Sunday Times ST 4426
Date of Publication in The Sunday Times Sunday, March 27, 2011
Setter Tim Moorey
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4426]
Times for the Times Review Written By Dave Perry
Date of Publication in the Toronto Star Saturday, April 23, 2011

Introduction

The Ottawa Citizen has goofed big time today - reprinting last week's puzzle (but this week's solution). Thankfully, the Vancouver Sun was not so careless and has printed the correct puzzle, which I have reproduced below. Should you prefer, you can also download a PDF version from here.

Update: The Ottawa Citizen has published the missing puzzle (ST 4426) on Page B5 of its edition of Tuesday, May 3, 2011, together with a number of other Sunday puzzles that had suffered the same fate. It seems that an entire page of puzzles from the previous week's edition of the paper was reprinted in this last Sunday's paper.

Apparently, the Citizen is not alone in making mistakes. In a quick visit to Times for the Times to get the link to use in the table above, I noticed that Dave Perry writes in his review "This was certainly much harder than previous offerings. It also sees an unwelcome return of the mistakes that the ST was well-known for, but had been hitherto absent since the change in editor. There is one definite mistake, but I have queries against three or four others so there may be more."

I did not read the entire review [before writing this initial posting], not wanting to spoil my experience of solving the puzzle. However, it would appear that one should set aside more time than normal for this one - and be prepared for a surprise or two.

I'm off now to solve the puzzle. I'll be back later with my review.

I'm back. 

It seems that a couple of the errors to which Dave Perry refers in his review appeared only in the online version of the puzzle in the U.K. but were corrected in the print edition of the puzzle, as well as in the syndicated version (a pleasant change!). As for several other of his complaints, I would tend to dismiss them as largely non-issues. However, there is one major issue that carried through to the syndicated puzzle - the missing byline of the setter (see Today's Errata below). And there was at least one Briticism that appears to have baffled even the Brits!

Today's Errata

1d   See me in hot seat now and again (2,5)

Like Dave Perry and some of the other Brits, I managed to solve this clue despite missing a crucial piece of information - the name of the setter. The word "me" in the clue refers to the compiler of the puzzle, Tim Moorey. It seems that starting with this puzzle, The Sunday Times has instituted the practice of publishing the name of the setter for each puzzle. However, this was done only in the printed version of the paper and not on the paper's websites - nor does it appear in the syndicated version of the puzzle.

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.

fellow - noun 3 [2^nd entry] British an incorporated senior member of a college: a tutorial fellow.

Mary Jane - noun 2 informal marijuana.

outfitter - noun 1 British dated a shop selling men's clothing. 2 North American a shop selling equipment, typically for outdoor pursuits: a canoe outfitter.

Appearing in Solutions

A - [The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition] abbreviation adult, formerly used to designate a motion picture at a showing of which any child under 14 should be accompanied by an adult, superseded by PG.

alcopop - noun British informal a ready-mixed drink that resembles a soft drink but contains alcohol.

Ards - the name of several different historical territorial divisions all located on the Ards Peninsula in modern-day County Down, Northern Ireland.

bags - noun 3 British dated loose-fitting trousers.

*don¹ - noun 1 British a university teacher, especially a senior member of a college at Oxford or Cambridge.

F (2) - abbreviation 12. following (page)

Le Mans - a city in France, which has been host to the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car race since 1923.

leman - noun archaic a lover or sweetheart; an illicit lover, especially a mistress.

*M² - abbreviation 10 British Motorway, followed by a number, as in M1.

Majorca (or Mallorca) - an island located in the Mediterranean Sea, one of the Balearic Islands. Like the other Balearic Islands of Ibiza, Formentera and Minorca, the island is a highly popular holiday destination, particularly for tourists from Germany, the United Kingdom and to a lesser extent, Ireland.

p - [Collins English Dictionary] symbol 2. Music piano: an instruction to play quietly, an abbreviation of piano² music adverb softly [or quietly]. adjective soft [or quiet].

*P² - abbreviation (on road signs and street plans) parking.

parget - noun another term for pargeting, plaster or mortar applied over part of a building, typically with an ornamental pattern.

ragbag - noun [3^rd entry] British informal a woman dressed in an untidy way.

recto - noun a right-hand page of an open book, or the front of a loose document.  Contrasted with verso.

s - abbreviation [4^th entry] singular.

shaman - noun a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of good and evil spirits, especially among some peoples of northern Asia and North America. Typically such people enter a trance state during a ritual, and practise divination and healing.

spotted dick - noun British a suet pudding containing currants [... and not a venereal disease!]

step-ins - noun 1 a pair of step-in shoes; slip-ons. 2 dated, chiefly North American a pair of women's briefs. [I think North Americans would be more likely to use the term slip-ons for shoes; the term step-ins might conjure images of ladies' underwear for North Americans of a certain generation.]

step-in - adjective [attributive] denoting a garment or pair of shoes that is put on by being stepped into and has no need for fastenings.

*sup¹ - noun

• a sip of liquid: he took another sup of wine
• Northern English & Irish alcoholic drink

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.

1a   Father finally found local bar ending drink favoured by youngsters (7)

The definition is "drink favoured by youngsters" for which the solution is ALCOPOP (in the U.K., a soft drink containing alcohol). The wordplay is POP (father) following (finally) an anagram (found) of LOCA {LOCAL with the final letter deleted (bar ending)}. Although I failed to discern the anagram indicator in the clue, Dave Perry points out that it is "found". Although Dave Perry questions "found" as an anagram indicator, I think it is quite appropriate when used in the sense of to "make (an article) by melting and moulding metal".

11a   Suspect Times is often right to cover case of absent member of Government (8,2,5)

The puzzle appeared on The Sunday Times website missing the word "is" (part of the anagrist, or fodder for the anagram). The puzzle was correct in the printed edition of The Sunday Times and in syndication.

21a   Business partnership involving Mary Jane? (5,10)

This is another clue that Dave Perry and others questioned on the basis that there is no wordplay to clue "enterprise". However, I fail to see why it does not work perfectly well as a cryptic definition.

25a   Craft minus aft, fellow lost? Could be result of this (7)

I missed the wordplay here, initially falling for the trap that "craft minus aft" would be CR. Even when I had found the correct solution, I was not able to decipher the wordplay.

Some of the Brits thought that it was bad taste to publish this clue only two weeks following the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. As Peter Biddlecombe (the puzzles editor at The Sunday Times) points out, "[b]ecause the setters work weeks or months ahead of time, it's pretty difficult to avoid this kind of thing".

6d   Rock fans nod assent (9)

I fail to see the justification for using "fans" as an anagram indicator. Fan means to "spread out or cause to spread out into a semicircular shape" as a card player might do with their hand. However, as I see it, the word means simply to spread out without rearranging, and therefore seems not to meet the requirements of an anagram indicator.

16d   Marshals with slices of bread and drink (6,2)

The definition is "marshals" for which the solution is ROUNDS UP. The wordplay is ROUND (slices of bread) + SUP (drink). Judging by the discussion on Times for the Times, the Brits are of the opinion that the British expression "round" refers to a single slice of bread and therefore the clue (which says "slices of bread") must be incorrect.

I checked the definition in several British dictionaries:

• Search Chambers (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary): noun 3 a single slice of bread. 4 a sandwich, or two or more sandwiches, made from two slices of bread.
• Encarta UK: noun 17 slice of bread: a slice of bread or toast, or a sandwich made from two slices of bread
• Oxford Online: noun 6 British a slice of bread: two rounds of toast; the quantity of sandwiches made from two slices of bread.
• Collins English Dictionary (TheFreeDictionary.com): 15 (Cookery) a single slice of bread or toast or two slices making a single serving of sandwiches.

The latter definition (from Collins) would seem to indicate that a round is only the two slices of bread used to make a sandwich and not the completed sandwich itself. However, I also note that Collins seems to stand alone in giving this shade of meaning to the word. Moreover, I certainly do not intend to take issue with the Brits on the nuances of their language.

20d   Tight corset shown in pages of book (6)

I initially also questioned the use of "tight" as an anagram indicator. However, one meaning of tight given by Oxford Dictionaries Online is "(of a written work or form) concise, condensed, or well structured: a tight argument", which would seem to be acceptable.

22d   Turn bit of gold into this (5)

This is another case where the clue was incorrect on The Sunday Times website but correct in the printed edition and in syndication. As discussed at Times for the Times, the version that appeared on the web site read:

• Turn bit of gold into old cast and you could get this (5)

Signing off for this week - Falcon