Friday, January 8, 2010 (DT 26040)

This puzzle was originally published Tuesday, September 22, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

I found it to be a moderately easy puzzle today - with a few Briticisms probably making it a bit trickier for North Americans than it would have been for the Brits.

As an aside, it is interesting to note that British ski jumper Michael "Eddie the Eagle" Edwards took part yesterday in the Olympic Torch Relay. While I am sure that few have any idea who won the ski jump medals in 1988 at the Calgary Winter Olympic Games, Eddie (despite finishing last) is still fondly remembered in Canada.

Today's Glossary

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

Arundel - a town in West Sussex, England

conker - noun Brit. 1 the hard shiny dark brown nut of a horse chestnut tree

endorsement - noun 2 (in the UK) a note on a driving licence recording the penalty points incurred for a driving offence

peaky - adjective pale from illness or fatigue

pork pie - Cockney rhyming slang for lie (untruth)

Today's Links

Gazza's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 26040].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

23a Grand course mostly, site of disturbance? (9)

I was a bit shaken up to discover that Aintree did not factor into this clue.

24a Reach top beside yard looking off colour (5)

While peaky is a new term to me, it is obviously a close variant of peaked (sense 2: pale and drawn in appearance so as to suggest illness or stress; wan and sickly) - a term with which I am quite familiar.

Signing off for today - Falcon