Monday, February 1, 2010 (DT 26059)

This puzzle was originally published Wednesday, October 14, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

Although in retrospect today's puzzle doesn't seem to have been overly difficult, it did take me quite a while to find a starting point. After that, however, it was solved fairly readily - although my Tool Chest was definitely called into service early and frequently. I finished not completely understanding the wordplay for several clues - a matter that I was sure Big Dave and his cohorts would soon clear up. And they did for the most part. A couple of cases don't merit attention, as I simply overlooked some pretty obvious wordplay. A few others, however, are probably worthy of a comment.

Today's Glossary

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

Cavalier - noun 1 historical a supporter of King Charles I in the English Civil War.

Chester - county town of Cheshire, England

dormouse [Collins English Dictionary] - noun any small Old World rodent of the family Gliridae resembling a mouse with a furry tail.

scoff - verb informal, chiefly Brit. eat quickly and greedily.

Winchester - county town of Hampshire, England

yonks - plural noun Brit. informal a very long time.

Today's Links

Big Dave's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 26059].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

24a Foreign author describing English author (7)

Despite getting the correct solution through recognizing the pattern created by the checking letters, I initially failed to understand the wordplay in this clue. Here, describing is used in the sense of "tracing the form or outline of" and thus is being used as a container-type indicator and foreign is being employed as an anagram indicator. Therefore, the solution is:

THORAU {anagram (foreign) of AUTHOR} containing (describing) E (English) /\ THOREAU (author)

16d Ruses are shattering nerve (8)

Before reading Big Dave's review, I was uncertain as to why nerve would mean reassure; and, after reading his piece, I was none the wiser. This necessitated some further research which turned up the following:

nerve - verb (nerve oneself) brace oneself for a demanding situation.

which I presume is the explanation.

23d Lifeless boy band finds direction (4)

After floundering around aimlessly in the wordplay here, I decided to strike a path to the WEST (but hadn't a clue why). If, like me, you had never heard of the Irish pop group Westlife, you were probably floundering with me. Although this boy band claims to have enjoyed worldwide success, strangely worldwide apparently does not include North America (with only one record achieving any semblance of hit status, topping out at #20 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts).

Signing off for today - Falcon