Wednesday, June 2, 2010 (DT 26164)

This puzzle, set by Rufus, was originally published Monday, February 15, 2010 in The Daily Telegraph

The National Post has skipped DT 26163 which was published in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, February 13, 2010

Introduction

Being a "Monday" puzzle, it leaned a bit towards the less difficult end of the scale. I did manage to complete the puzzle unaided - but not without making a few educated guesses (and one or two not-so-educated ones) which fortuitously proved to be correct.

Today's Glossary

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

Used in Clues:

starting price - noun the final odds at the start of a horse race

Used in Solutions:

lag³ - noun Brit. informal a habitual convict

line-out - noun rugby union the way play restarts after the ball goes into touch, by the forwards of both teams forming two rows facing the touch-line and trying to catch or deflect the ball which is thrown in by someone from the team which did not cause the infringement

piano² - (abbreviation p) music adverb softly or adjective soft

scot - noun Money assessed or paid [see also Oxford entry for scot-free which explains "ORIGIN from obsolete scot ‘a tax’, from an Old Norse word meaning ‘a shot’"]

seven-a-side - a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players, instead of the usual 15, with shorter matches

SP - abbreviation starting price

tide rip - noun 1. (rare) A body of water made rough by the conflict of opposing tides or currents

veg - noun (pl. same) Brit. informal a vegetable or vegetables

Today's Links

Rishi's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26164].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

4d It results in a certain jumpiness among among rugby players (4-3)

A line-out in rugby union is "the way play restarts after the ball goes into touch, by the forwards of both teams forming two rows facing the touch-line and trying to catch or deflect the ball which is thrown in by someone from the team which did not cause the infringement". Libellule adds (in a comment at Big Dave's site), "At a line out, players jump, and then are lifted into the air to catch the ball".

26a Grouse meat (4)

This clue gave me an appetite for CRAB; however, I was to discover that our setter had decided to serve up quite a different dish.

Signing off for today - Falcon