Saturday, February 18, 2012 - Winter Games

Introduction

In today's puzzle, Cox and Rathvon highlight a collection of sports that are carried out on snow or ice.













Solution to Today's Puzzle

Legend:	"*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed
	"( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted; "†" explicit in the clue

Across

1a   S|KI(I)NG - S (Savoy's first [letter]) + {KING (ruler) containing (taking in) I ([Roman numeral for] one)}

4a   BIATH*|L|ON - anagram (breaking) of HABIT + L (left) + ON (active)

9a   RO(PE T|O)W - {PET (favourite) + O (doughnut)} contained in (in) ROW (queue)

11a   TO(URIS)M - TOM ([male] turkey) containing (accepting) URIS (Exodus author [Leon Uris])

12a   DELHI~ - sounds like (audited) DELI (sandwich shop)

13a   SNOWBOARD* - anagram (converted) of WOOD BARNS

14a   CUR(L)ING - L (loss) contained in (taken by) CURING (fixing)

16a   DIE|GO - DIE (pass) + GO (move; as in a board game)

Diego Maradona^[7] is a retired Argentine football [soccer] player, and current manager of Al Wasl FC in Dubai. Generally considered to be the greatest football player of all time, he won the FIFA Player of the Century award by a wide margin, garnering 53.6% of the votes against 18.53% for Pelé.

18a   _RE|LIC_ - hidden in (found in) raRE LIChen

20a   SKA|TING - SKA (Jamaican music) + (and) TING (sound of a bell)

23a   BOBS|LEIGH - BOBS (goes up and down) + LEIGH ([English actress] Vivien [Leigh])

25a   FATSO* - anagram (silly) of A SOFT

27a   TOO|K ILL - TOO (as well) + KILL (wipe out)

28a   D(ERR)ICK - ERR (stray) contained in (inside) DICK (Richard)

29a   SKELETON* - anagram (turning) of KNEE LOST

30a   HO(C)KEY - C (centre) contained in (in) HOKEY (contrived)

Down

1d   ST|RIDE - ST (street) + (with) RIDE (kid; in the sense of tease)

2d   IMP|EL - IMP (rascal) + (with) EL (Spanish article; the Spanish word for 'the')

3d   NUTTIER* - anagram (messy) of TURN TIE

5d   INT(R)O - INTO (enthusiastic about) containing (spanning) R (river)

6d   T(HUM|B)ED - TED (†) containing (about) {HUM (buzz) + (and) B (bee)}

8d   {NAME-DROP}* - anagram (snarled) of PARDON ME

10d   WE|SKITS - WE (my group) + SKITS (sketches)

14d   CA(LA)BOOSE - CABOOSE (last car) containing (circling) LA (Los Angeles)

15d   GRAPHED~ - sounds like (by the sound of it) GRAFT (extortion)

17d   TRI(BUT)ES - TRIES (efforts) containing (including) BUT (save; as "all, save one, perished in the fire")

19d   COLLI(D)E - D (back [letter] of sleD) contained in (into) COLLIE (dog)

21d   INFER|NO< - INFER (gather) + reversal (returning) of ON (upon)

22d   DON|KEY - DON (crime boss) + KEY (cardinal; in the sense of important)

24d   _IG|LOO_ - hidden in (in) LeipzIG LOOted

26d   THIN|K - THIN (spare) + K ($1,000)

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
^[4]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)

Signing off for today - Falcon