Sunday, July 3, 2011 - ST 4435

Puzzle at a Glance
Puzzle Number in The Sunday Times ST 4435
Date of Publication in The Sunday Times Sunday, May 29, 2011
Link to Full Review Times for the Times [ST 4435]
Times for the Times Review Written By Dave Perry
Date of Publication in the Toronto Star Saturday, June 26, 2011

Introduction

I would think that this is by far the most difficult puzzle we have seen in a long time. I can usually complete a puzzle with help from a range of puzzle solving aids. However, not today - I threw in the towel with three clues remaining unsolved and sought guidance from Dave Perry's review at Times for the Times. It was somewhat of a relief to find that he also found the puzzle to be much more difficult than usual. The clues that I had difficulty with were interlinked in the northwest quadrant - 1a, 1d, and 3d. I also had a couple instances where I had written in a solution but did not understand the wordplay. One of these instances was 20d, while the other was 16d where I had made the same error as Dave Perry.

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.

premiership - noun 2 (the Premiership) the top division of professional soccer in England.

presenter - noun British a person who introduces and appears in a television or radio programme.

Appearing in Solutions

autocar - noun archaic a motor vehicle.

[be] set fair - phrase British (of the weather) be fine and likely to stay fine for a time.

grab bag - noun North American [a] a lucky dip [see below] in which wrapped items are chosen by people at random. [b] an assortment of items in a sealed bag which one buys or is given without knowing what the contents are.

lucky dip - noun British [a] a game in which small prizes are concealed in a container and chosen at random by participants. [b] a process of choosing or deciding something purely at random.

hetaera - noun a courtesan or mistress, especially an educated one in ancient Greece.

pot¹ - verb 3 Billiards & Snooker strike (a ball) into a pocket: he failed to pot a red at close range

potty² - adjective informal, chiefly British 1 [a] mad; crazy: he's driving me potty [b] [predicative] extremely enthusiastic about or fond of someone or something: she's potty about you

Spur - a player on the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club

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   Presenter's screen captures hit from the east (7)

I must admit that I fell for the misdirection in this clue. In Britain, "a person who introduces and appears in a television or radio programme" is known as a presenter. But that is not the meaning - at least in the cryptic reading - in this clue. Here presenter means a person who gives something - for example, perhaps a benefactor who gives a valuable piece of art to a museum (i.e., a DONATOR). Furthermore, screen is not a television screen as the surface reading might infer. Rather, it is a DOOR - presumably short for screen door. Finally, "hit from the east" indicates a reversal (from the east) of TAN (hit).

1d   Damper device - put in pocket (7)

Even though DASHPOT was included in a list of words that match the checking letters, I failed to recognize it as the solution. A dashpot is a device for damping vibrations in which a vibrating part is attached to a piston moving in a liquid-filled cylinder. The wordplay is DASH (-) + POT (put in pocket). I failed to realize that the punctuation formed part of the wordplay and I also missed the billiards reference.

15d   A softened composition? No good for one such (5-4)

Dave Perry comments in his review "I'm not sure this really works as a semi-&lit. Being stone-deaf doesn't really have anything to do with being hard." However, a "softened [musical] composition" would be played less loudly (not less hard), and this would definitely not benefit one who is STONE DEAF. [I note that a visitor to Times for the Times has left a similar comment].

20d   With which some can become so entangled (6)

The definition is "entangled" for which the solution is MESHED. The wordplay indicates that we must identify a means of converting "some" into "so". Well, "some" with 'me shed' would produce "so".

Signing off for this week - Falcon