This puzzle was originally published in The Sunday London Times on March 14, 2010
Introduction
A much less contentious puzzle today than last week's offering, although it did take a fair bit of effort to solve.
Today's Glossary
Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle
CID - abbreviation Criminal Investigation Department, the detective branch of the British police force
kedgeree - a primarily British dish principally served at breakfast
landlord - noun 2 a man who keeps lodgings, a boarding house, or (Brit.) a public house
licensee - noun the holder of a licence, especially to sell alcoholic drinks
rusk - noun a piece of bread which has been rebaked, or a hard dry biscuit resembling this, given as food to babies
Spithead - a location in Hampshire, England, notable as the customary site of the Fleet Review, a British tradition, where the monarch reviews the massed Royal Navy.
wicket - noun 1 Cricket each of the sets of three stumps with two bails across the top at either end of the pitch, defended by a batsman 2 a small door or gate, especially one beside or in a larger one
Links to Solutions
A review of today's puzzle by talbinho can be found at Times for the Times [ST 4372].
Commentary on Today's Puzzle
10a Iranian wounded by Ian's toes (8)
The Ossetians are members of the Iranian peoples who may also be refered to as Iranic peoples (to distinguish them from Iranians, who are citizens of Iran). As talbinho says, "'Iranian' [is] generally not used in this context to avoid confusion with citizens of Iran". However, our setter does not hesitate to exploit this ambiguity to create some quite purposeful misdirection.
21a Blair is upset about universe ending (6)
Here "about" is neither C, CA or RE and "universe ending" does not indicate the last letter of the word "universe". Rather, "ending" is the definition and we are looking for an anagram (is upset) of BLAIR containing (about) U (universe). While I could not find U as an abbreviation for universe in any dictionary that I consulted, I am sure that this remark will elicit a chorus from the other side of the Atlantic proclaiming that it can be found in the unabridged version of Chambers. I do know that U is an abbreviation for Universal in the British film categorization system.
4d G-men tackled Owen violently to get admission (15)
Has talbinho misread this clue, substituting Gwen, a Welsh maid, in place of G-men, American FBI agents? It would seem so. However, it does not seem to have interfered with his ability to find the correct solution - and no-one in the U.K. seems to have noticed.
On the other hand, perhaps Owen is the Welsh domestic and talbinho merely mistyped the commentary.
The definition is "admission" for which the solution is ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. The wordplay is an anagram (violently) of GMEN TACKLED OWEN.
7d European, ie, Brian Cross (7)
Who is Brian Cross? The setter may have supposed that this was a fictitious name. However, I did manage to find someone by that name - a rather obscure singer, I would guess (and maybe not even European) - but perhaps worth a listen.
Brian Cross
Brian | MySpace Video
Signing off for this week - Falcon
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