Monday 11 May 2009

No 9529, Monday, 11 May 09, Nita Jaggi

Somehow I feel Ms NJ's clues are getting vaguer day by day ...
ACROSS
7 - Plan an account for the dreamer (8) - {IDEA}{LIST}
9 - Talk one into becoming a robber (6) - P{I}RATE
11 - Moving around, the fish covers the round passage (9) - L{O}{ITER}ING
12 - Study without finishing the end (5) - C{LOSE}(-t) ?
13 - Makes milk into butter in the containers (6) - CH{URNS} Don't know how CH came
14 - Labourer covers the perch end of the bird (8) - P{H}EASANT Can you call a labourer a peasant or vice versa?
17 - Destroys the shoe over a prolonged period of time (9) - {SABOT}{AGES}
22 - Commences around U.P., where new business ventures are set (5,3) - START {UP}S
23 - Large moon with a retrograde orbit (6) - TRITON [CD]
25 - Gypsy woman has a number of connected series of links (5) - CHAIN ?
27 - Showing anger, the peacekeepers deserted the worker laid off from a job (9) - {RED}{UN}{D}{ANT}
28 - Mischievous child has an appearance that is not perfect (6) - {IMP}{AIR}
29 - Two-part divider? (8) - BISECTOR [CD]
DOWN
1 - Crosswind on the barricade of the floodgate (3,4) - AIR LOCK Totally misleading clue
2 - State of a patient admitted in the ICU (7) - SERIOUS [CD]
3 - Grandma’s pickle contains some jelly (5) - ASPIC [T]
4 - Zambia has an endless measure of this element (4) - {Z}{INC}(-h)
5 - Father has to work on the German domes (7) - {PA}{GO}{DAS }
6 - Directly under the hill to eat the top of the hamburger (7) - {BEN}{EAT}{H}
8 - Position I want for an individual to take for the surprise attack (3,2,4) - {LIE} {I}{N WA{I}T*}
10 - Clever Edward is on the upper part of the horse’s body (7) - {E}{GG}{HEAD}
15 - Lincoln has a Rolls Royce that can run to the east, deviating from the right way (9) - {ABE}{RR}{ANC*}{E}
16 - Introducer is always after the policeman of the company (7) - {CO}{MP}{ERE}
18 - One supposedly sensitive to supernatural forces (7) - PSYCHIC [CD]
19 - Henry has an airborne soldier taken up at the front of a palatial type-city (7) - {H}{ARAP<-}{PA}(-latial)
20 - First class officer comes up to the worker in a large city (7) - {A}{TL<-}{ANT}{A}
21 - Fitting garment for one caught in the tundra is amazing (7) - UN{I}TARD*
24 - Come in, it is the dam that burst first (5) - {ADM*}{IT}
26 - Wildcat going round the separated short fibres (4) - NOIL<-

4 comments:

  1. Col,
    Many clues have problems but even promising clues could have been improved with some thought.
    Take
    Come in, it is the dam that burst first (5)
    Here we have ADM (anag of 'dam', with a very apposite anagrind 'bursting') and IT (it) - these components indicated fairly well and in proper order unlike in some other instances, but the undoing of the clue is the def and the poor surface reading.
    If instead of 'come in', we have 'come clean', 'own up' or 'concede', the surface might improve vastly: it evokes a picture of someone being asked to grant that any fault on the speaker's part was because of the dam bursting first and not because of them.
    Some more time, some more thought, some more dictionary look-ups might improve many of these clues but as they are it leaves the solver with a certain sense of dissatisfaction.
    Clue-writing is more than the mechanics of wordplay: there msut be something of I know not what.

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  2. The clue, as written, appears to be invitation to the speaker to drown himself in the inundation from the just-burst dam. Maybe I am exaggerating all this, but the point is the sense of dissatisfaction that the clue leaves in the mind of perceptive solvers.

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  3. Chaturvasi,
    Well said, the clues of Ms NJ definitely leave much to be desired, it has put off Anokha to such an extent that she has started compiling her own CW's. I hope the gender is correctly guessed here if not then pardon me.

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  4. I feel the CWs of Gridman and Sankalak are presented nicely and it leaves and sense of satisfaction. After all the pleasure of solving crossword is improved only when setter takes makes it very interesting and inviting. NJ has definetely let us down.

    P. Ganesan

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