No.10778, Tuesday 21 May 13, Sankalak

Sankalak as is his wont, opens with a puzzle that teases gently and taxes not. Liked BLEACHING POWDER, DESPOTIC, FRUGAL, TRAINING COLLEGE, THIN and TUNIC

ACROSS
1 Take care of the little one! (4-3) BABY-SIT (E)
5 Friend, fit and genial (7) AMIABLE (AMI + ABLE)
9 Big wonder, chapel treated with a whitener (9,6) BLEACHING, POWDER (BIG WONDER CHAPEL)*
10 The output of one like Sahir Ludhianvi (6) LYRICS (E)
11 The hour for sport — or to mess around with a weekly (4,4) PLAY, TIME (PLAY + TIME)
13 Store in-charge, with a trace of sadism, is tyrannical (8) DESPOTIC (DEPOT + IC outside S)
15 Songbird or cat? Songbird (6) TOMTIT (TOM + TIT)

18 “Hail to thee, __ Spirit” (Shelley) (6) BLITHE (GK)

Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!

Bird thou never wert,

That from Heaven, or near it,

Pourest thy full heart

In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.

19 One crazy about paan — or supari! (5,3) BETEL, NUT (BETEL + NUT)
22 The driving force of the success-hungry (8) AMBITION (CD)
24 Around university, French lass is careful with money (6) FRUGAL (FR + GAL outside U)
27 Where would be teachers are taught general logic in time somehow (8,7) TRAINING, COLLEGE (GENERAL LOGIN IN T)*
28 Knocks out journalist stuck in pipes (7) DEDUCTS (ED inside DUCTS)
29 Penny gets a revolutionary despatched, we hear (3,4) RED, CENT (RED + ~SENT)

DOWN
1 Black, sailor, felt great pity but chattered about it (7) BABBLED (B + AB + BLED)
2 The French in a pub are obscure to the view (5) BLEAR (LE inside BAR)
3 Coarse stuff for a conservative British advocate steeped in indolence (9) SACKCLOTH (A C KC inside SLOTH)

4 Slender object reduced at the tip (4) THIN (THINg)
5 Spiritual being, a German stateswoman (6) ANGELA (ANGEL + A)
6 Valuable tooth caught out of dubious victory (5) IVORY (VIctORY)*
7 Poor quality spice working in a cooling drink (9) BADMINTON (BAD + MINT + ON)
8 Such money means a promise of what is to come (7) EARNEST (E)
12 Vigour needed for victory over one maiden (3) VIM (V + I + M)
14 Simple craft for wily Basil on twisted road (9) SAILBOARD (BASIL ROAD)*

16 Done with and decided to be disallowed (9) OVERRULED (OVER + RULED)
17 Busy one associated with spelling (3) BEE (C&DD)
18 Leader of battalion endured being attacked (7) BLASTED (B + LASTED)
20 Every one included in trial for the most elevated (7) TALLEST (ALL inside TEST)
21 Limits // jumps (6) BOUNDS (DD)
23 A jacket cut in odd shape (5) TUNIC (CUT IN)*
25 These egrets going up escort other birds (5) GEESE (T<=)
26 Mark left by endless dread (4) SCAR (SCARe)

LINK TO SOLUTION

No.10777, Monday 20 May 13, Aspartame

Welcome, Aspartame,
That's a nice pen name,
Your crossword is quite clean and nice,
Sweet without sugar, but plenty of spice*,
Looking forward to plenty of the same.

* in the form of snake meat samosa filling, topless coiffeurs, scantily dressed bikers, ... and Chennai connections in 9a,10a, 22d !

Note: Small grid error: The square South of 14 should have been blocked.

ACROSS

1 Alumni throw thieves out of arts colleges where space is studied (13) OBSERVATORIES (OBS replacing CONS in CONSERVATORIES)

8 Wrongly encourage Greek character to go for a spin (4) ABET (BETA*)

9 Coiffeurs dance to a musical style (10) BARBERSHOP (BARBERS HOP)  Reminded me of the alleged metamorphosis of Hamilton Bridge in Chennai into Barbers bridge. Our friend Mr S Muthiah  once wrote on this in the Hindu

10 Bast, Ra, Tawaret and Seth to give grades (6) STRATA (T) Clever use of the Egyptian Pantheon (street in Chennai)

11 Make hoarders move when there’s no harm. That’s too much! (8) OVERDOSE (hOarDERSmOVE)*

12 Screen doc misuses causing a gradual increase in volume (9) CRESCENDO (SCREEN DOC)*

14 Open // discord (4) AJAR 2

15 “So, yeah” said the meal maker (4) SOYA (~SO YA) A hundred hunks can eat these chunks

16 Good man consumed cooked meat of snake in a vessel (5,4) STEAM BOAT (ST outside MEAT* BOA)

20 Party member who serves people? (8) POLITICO CD The q.m. from a sceptic ?

21 Measure // an association (6) LEAGUE 2 Lea, lea, lea onward ...

23 Forbearing sailor’s exercise is not right (10) ABSTAINING (AB STrAINING)

24 Pedagogy somewhat excited (4) AGOG (T) Goga Kapoor can see his name here, albeit backward

25 Shores kids play on? (7,6) ROCKING HORSES (SHORES*) My COD

DOWN

1 Our extremely rabid dog, for example, goes round and round (7) ORBITER (OuR BITER) 

2 Scripture made by saint with heart of nun and god (5) SUTRA (ST around nUn + RA)

3 It provides cover when detectives rise in anger (3,4) RIB CAGE (CBI< inside RAGE) Cage and CBI in same breath ! How topical !

4 What coiffeurs do topless can make one feel cold (3,12) AIR CONDITIONING (hAIR CONDITIONING)

5 Nothing needed to clear this exam (1-5) O LEVEL (CD), Nothing=zero=O

6 Such a crime cannot be committed in the open (6,3) INSIDE JOB (CD) Possibly the title of a book John Gunther would have written if he lived in biblical times

7 It’s said to bring forth a gentleman, get a patron (7) SPONSOR (~SPAWN SIR) As one can see in The Great Expectations, all benefactors may not be 'gentlemen'

13 City lists out devices those are literary in nature (9) STYLISTIC (CITY LISTS)*

15 Drool when crier gets a bit of lobster (7) SLOBBER (SOBBER around Lobster) Been seeing a lot of dribbling on the football field lately

17 Al Gore left dancing brisk ballet movements (7) ALLEGRO (AL GORE L)*

18 An oral exam relating to water (7) AQUEOUS Anno not clear (~ A QUIZ) See comments

19 Cycling endlessly having one piece of clothing (6) BIKINI (BIKINg 1)

22 Collect rotten samosas that are not big (5) AMASS (SAMosAS)*

LINK TO SOLUTION GRID