Thursday, January 21, 2010 (DT 26051)

This puzzle was originally published Monday, October 5, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

The National Post has skipped DT 26050 which was published on Saturday, October 3, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

As is typical of "Monday" puzzles (the day on which it appeared in the U.K.), today's offering was not very difficult. I did, nevertheless, find solving it to be quite an enjoyable exercise. However, I prematurely indulged in a bit of self-congratulatory celebrations only to find out from Big Dave that my solution for one clue was incorrect.

Today's Glossary

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

centre-forward - noun sport in some field games: a the position in the centre of the front line; b a player in this position, usually a striker

gawp - verb Brit. informal stare openly in a stupid or rude manner

jar - noun 2 Brit. informal a glass of beer

jolly - [The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48, entry 3] noun Sailor's slang A marine in the English navy

Royal Marines (abbreviation RM) - marine corp and amphibious infantry component of the United Kingdom Naval Service

Saint George - patron saint of England whose emblem, the Cross of Saint George, is a red cross on a white background

Today's Links

Big Dave's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 26051].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

10a Inspired aim maybe to drink tea out about four (11)

In this clue, the phrase "to drink" would seem to indicate a verb, so I thought that in Britain the word gin might be a verb. However, my research failed to support that theory, so I guess the word "to" is just an extra bit of padding in the clue. The solution is:

IMAGINATIVE (inspired) /\ IMA {anagram of (maybe) AIM} [to] GIN (drink) ATE {anagram of (out) TEA} containing (about) IV (Roman numeral for four)

11a Watch open-mouthed as centre forward moves into space (4)

The first word to come to mind, GAPE, turned out to be incorrect. I eventually settled on the seemingly less suitable term GASP - which I subsequently discovered to be wrong (from Big Dave's review).

The reasoning that led me astray is that a centre forward (Oxford) [or centre-forward (Chambers)] on a football (soccer) team is a striker (noun 2 football a player who has an attacking role) which I thought might possibly be abbreviated S (e.g., on the sports pages).

By the way, the Wikipedia article on this subject would seem to be internally inconsistent (both in spelling and content) stating at one point "Coaches typically field one striker who plays in an advanced position (the centre forward) ..." and later "The striker however varies greatly from the centre-forward." I suppose that is the inevitable result of writing by committee.

4d They may be responsible for reports from the front (7)

This was one of the first clues "solved" today, and my initial choice, CANNONS, seemed to be confirmed by the checking letter provided by 10a. However, I was to eventually find that it is incorrect - but only after it had impeded me considerably in finding solutions to the remaining clues in the northwest quadrant.

Signing off for today - Falcon