Clue of the Round: Round 7

DA’s Clue of the Round (7):

Avid fans of footy matches,

First knew me as trim catches.

Then consequently: 4A9.

Before rattles plagued my sign.

Nowadays, surprise-surprise,

I’m a union under foreign skies.

What am I?

[Don’t give it away in the comments…we’ll let you know next week]

Answer to Clue of the Round (7):

The answer lies in a certain Melbourne venue. At first Docklands (trim + catches) became Colonial (colon + A in IL), then Telstra (anagram of RATTLES) and lastly Etihad (Arabic for union).

David Astle is being held hostage in the dictionary. The only time he’s allowed out is to make the weekly DA crossword in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, and to keep his language games happening at www.davidastle.com (Okay, so SBS also grant him a day release for Letters & Numbers, but that’s under strict supervision, with an electronic bracelet as fallback.)

The website is called a carnival of wordplay and that’s about right. Every Tuesday a new Brainstorm gets uploaded – some bizarre word challenge for the growing band of regulars to tackle. Every week there’s a puzzle called Birdbrain, and every Monday a strange new word from the dictionary’s dusty corners. Last week was some fingernail condition called koilonychia, and next week could be hyperbaric. I mean, what does that mean, really?

Feel free to drop by any time. There’s plenty of distraction. Plenty of almanac scribes know the evil of the bloke, but it’s a contagious evil, and davidastle.com is where you can catch it. (And for those who can’t stand the site of those DA initials under a crossword, feel comforted to know that the poor wretch supports the Kangaroos, and we all know how well they’re travelling at the minute.)