Friday, September 25, 2009 (DT 25927)

This puzzle was originally published Wednesday, May 13, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

Once again, I managed to get down to two clues remaining unsolved before being forced to dig into the Tool Chest. I finished with one wrong answer.

Today's Glossary

Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle

Boris Johnson - mayor of London, England and, seemingly, a bicycle enthusiast

programme - Brit. program

Today's Links

Big Dave's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25927].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

12a Regular supporter of Boris Johnson? (4)

The checking letters limit the solution to the pattern "?I?E". However, this really isn't very limiting as Chambers WordWizard provides 133 possible matches to this pattern. I had several theories, amongst them AIDE. Or, perhaps he has a talent for gambling and is supported by DICE, or has mobster connections and is supported by VICE, or has a drinking problem and is supported by WINE, or is supported by a rich WIFE. Finally, I settled on R (regular) plus ITE (supporter) to give RITE (which turned out to be anything but right).

22a Cost of zero fare? (10)

Having mistakenly put FREEZE for 20d seriously held me up on solving this clue. With this error in place, a search for words matching the checking letters returned no candidates. By removing checking letters one at a time and repeating the search, I found the correct solution for this clue and also discovered that my initial attempt at an answer for 20d was incorrect.

Signing off for today - Falcon