Like Take=R, it’s common enough in crosswords that the indirectness can hardly be deemed to be unfair.

e.g. Novice driver = learner and L is short for learner
take = recipe and R is short for recipe (here we are more likely to balk at its obscurity rather than its indirectness)

I think the problem is that we accept these as they have become common crossword cliches whereas the sinister one isn’t (or at least not yet).

Just in terms of directions, point can mean any of NSEW, direction can mean any of those plus LR and nobody says a thing. As a one letter indicator, sinister has only one meaning and is therefore better as it is more accurate.

And what about a word like boy? That can be any of many boys names, or not even a name at all but a synonym like lad. That can be infuriatingly obscure as to which to choose if you have no cross checks.

But sinister has one and only one single letter meaning, and that is somehow worse than others which have many? Even as a possible synonym it is no worse than boy or girl etc.

There are also presumably some short memories out there because I’m damn sure I’ve seen this usage several times and not heard a single comment before.

Tee hee, how droll. Derek the famous defender of setters! LOL!

Thanks for the information.

I did alright on this despite not getting to it until I was on my way home from work rather late … and was much too tired to venture onto the site.

And I agree with your comment on insolvent, I thought is was a stretch, but knew it was the correct answer… and at the time really didn’t care too much.

I would agree with most of the above-mentioned criticisms of this puzzle. However, while sinister=L is indirect, there are degrees of indirectness and that’s definitely at the easier end of the scale, so I have no objection to it myself. To be honest, debtor=insolvent is the only one I really objected to. The other complaints are very minor niggles.

However, I still think clueing “sinister” for the letter L is not kosher or halal