Monday, July 5, 2010 (DT 26195)

This puzzle, set by Shamus, was originally published in The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Introduction

While Gazza awards this puzzle only two stars for difficulty, I found it to be a bit more challenging. While I completed almost the entire bottom half unaided, I needed considerable help from my Tool Chest to finish the upper half.

National Post Summer Publication Schedule

From now until September 4, the National Post will not publish a print edition on Monday. During this period, the Monday crossword will appear in the Saturday edition of the paper.

Today's Glossary

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

Used in Solutions:

alcopop - British informal a ready-mixed drink that resembles a soft drink but contains alcohol.

Chorley - a town in Lancashire, England.

it - Italian vermouth.

Luton - a town in Bedfordshire, England.

MOT -noun (also MOT test) (in the UK) a compulsory annual test for safety and exhaust emissions of motor vehicles of more than a specified age.

Poplar - an area of the East End of London.

RA - abbreviation 4 Royal Artillery.

trouser - verb [with object] British informal receive or take (something, especially money) for oneself; pocket: they claimed that he had trousered a £2 million advance. [Note: the equivalent North American expression would be pocketed.]

Today's Links

Gazza's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26195].

Gazza states in his review, "It does have rather a lot of place names (three in England and one in South America) which I know that some people won’t like – let us know what you think of all the place names ...". Personally, I don't mind place names, though many of them are of little help in solving a clue. It is often a case of either first finding the solution and then trying to reverse engineer the place name from the solution and clue or inventing place names (intuiting them, perhaps) and then checking one of my sources to determine whether such a place actually exists.

Signing off for today - Falcon