Introduction
As Gazza says in his review, "a typical Giovanni", which for me means a slow start as I search for an entry point, fairly steady progress through most of the puzzle, and a few clues remaining to the end that require intense concentration. Gazza awards this puzzle four stars for difficulty and it certainly deserves that rating, especially for those of us on this side of the pond, given the number of British references it contains (although not as many as we were confronted with yesterday).
Today's Glossary
Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle
Used in Clues:
RE - abbreviation religious education (as a school subject)
Used in Solutions:
charlie - noun 1 British informal a fool
E2 - abbreviation 4 Ecstasy [illicit drug]
Edgar the Ætheling (c.1051–c.1126) - last member of the Anglo-Saxon royal house of England [Note: Gazza identifies an earlier English king and also a Scottish king of the same name]
hock3 - noun British a dry white wine from the German Rhineland
Lester Piggott - a retired English professional jockey, considered to be the best of his generation and the greatest English flat jockey of all time
Leicester - a city in the East Midlands area of England; judging by its entry in Wikipedia, better known for motorcycle and bicycle racing than for horse racing
MB - abbreviation Bachelor of Medicine [from Latin Medicinae Baccalaureus] [Note: this is the degree typically held by British medical doctors]
PRO - abbreviation 2 Public Relations Officer
RE - abbreviation (in the UK) Royal Engineers, the field engineering and construction corps of the British army
recce - British
- noun informal term for reconnaissance
- verb informal term for reconnoitre
rough - noun 1 chiefly British a disreputable and violent person
roughcast - noun 1 a mixture of plaster and small stones used to cover the outside walls of buildings [a particular type of stucco]
seedy - adjective 2 dated unwell: she felt weak and seedy
trad - noun traditional jazz or folk music
well1 - adverb 2 [as submodifier] British informal very; extremely: he was well out of order
Wells - a small city in Somerset, England
Today's Links
Gazza's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26276].
Although fairly obvious from the context, the term porkies used by Gazza is a British expression meaning lies (untruths). It is an example of British rhyming slang (sometimes referred to as Cockney rhyming slang). Rhyming slang is formed by equating a word with a phrase in which the final word rhymes with the original word, then dropping the rhyming word. Thus lie rhymes with porky-pie, drop pie and, ergo, porky means lie.
Commentary on Today's Puzzle
13a Birds - gosh! - going over the Home Counties (5)
See Gazza's review and the ensuing comments for a discussion of the use of "going over" in this clue.
28a Undefined article included in the levy once (5)
In grammatical terms, the said "undefined article" is not an article at all, but rather a pronoun. When it is put in (included in) the defined article (i.e., the definite article actually appearing in the clue), the result is "one tenth of annual produce or earnings, formerly taken as a tax for the support of the Church and clergy".
5d Very small city film properly put together (4-3)
Gazza informs us that Wells is "the smallest city in England". As such, its name seems quite appropriate, being a charade of WELL (very) + S (small). This would appear to be a possible additional hint to the identity of the city.
18d Old jockey reportedly in city with race course (9)
There is a lot of British content in this clue. I found the city through matching the checking letters. I knew that the Brits pronounce Leicester as Le'ster, similar to the way Gloucester (which, in addition to being a city in Britain, also happens to be a major community within the City of Ottawa) is pronounced Glo'ster. This is a homophone (sounds like) clue as indicated by "reportedly", so I searched Wikipedia for a jockey named Lester. When I found none having that surname, I searched for one with a given name of Lester and came up with Lester Piggott - a famous British jockey. The final step was to confirm that Leicester has a race course (as you can see, this hint to the identity of the city didn't help me at all). I quickly scanned the Wikipedia article on Leicester, totally missing any reference to horse racing. I did see a fairly extensive description of motorcycle speedway and bicycle racing in Leicester. However, after seeing Gazza's reference to Leicester ("a city in the East Midlands with a racecourse") I revisited the Wikipedia article and - upon closer examination - found, not one, but two references to Leicester Racecourse. From these I learned only that:
- Leicester Racecourse is located to the south of the city in Oadby.
- There are also weekend [bus] services from ... Leicester Racecourse at Oadby (service 102).
Signing off for today - Falcon
Kinda random but my grandmother loved cross word puzzles. She would do them for hours.
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