Sunday, February 14, 2010 (ST 4363)

This puzzle was originally published in The Sunday London Times on January 10, 2010

Introduction

A few somewhat unusual clues today, which talbinho discusses quite extensively in his blog.

Today's Glossary

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

Admiralty Island - an island in the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska

mere - noun chiefly literary a lake or pond.

porridge - noun 2 Brit. informal time spent in prison.

R² - abbreviation 4 a Regina (Latin), Queen; b Rex (Latin), King.

Staffs. - abbreviation Staffordshire: county in the West Midlands region of England.

Stoke - may refer either to Stoke-on-Trent (a city in Staffordshire) or Stoke-upon-Trent (a town in Stoke-on-Trent)

Strine - noun informal Australian English or the Australian accent.

Links to Solutions

A review of today's puzzle by talbinho can be found at Times for the Times [ST 4363].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

21a Eleven sappers backed by a narrow margin (7)

Here "eleven" is a cross-reference to the solution to 11a (beat), thus one is intended to read the clue as "Beat sappers backed by a narrow margin".

22a American writer carrying Times around display (4)

The solution is EXPO, the definition is "display" and the wordplay gives us an anagram (around) of PXOE (or POXE) {POE (American writer) containing (carrying) X (times; i.e., multiplication sign)}

Signing off for this week - Falcon