Thursday, September 9, 2010 (DT 26262)

This puzzle, by Jay, was originally published in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Introduction

Today's puzzle was a bit of a challenge, although almost entirely devoid of Briticisms (aside from yet another appearance by the seemingly ubiquitous Royal Engineers). It took a while to discover a starting point; but, once one was found, steady progress was made through about half of the clues, at which point I hit a brick wall. However, with the aid of my trusty Tool Chest, I was able to complete the puzzle.

Today's Glossary

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

Used in Solutions:

barouche - noun historical a four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage with a collapsible hood over the rear half, a seat in front for the driver, and seats facing each other for the passengers

RE - abbreviation (in the UK) Royal Engineers, the field engineering and construction corps of the British army

Today's Links

Big Dave's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26262].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

5d Principal mostly applied to right winger that's grounded (4)

The definition is "winger that's grounded" which specifies that we are looking for a bird that cannot fly, in this case a RHEA. The wordplay is HEA {HEAD (principal) with the final letter deleted or, in other words, retaining all but the last letter (mostly)} following (applied to) R (right). As "applied to" means "on", I could not help but observe that if the setter had used "on" in this clue (ignoring the less elegant surface reading that would result), there would no doubt have been a hue and cry from some quarters that such a construction cannot be used in a down clue.

Signing off for today - Falcon