1 - In-flight publicity for an adventure (8) - {ESCAP{AD}E}
5 - A figure of the old boy, stretched (6) - {OB}{LONG}
10 - Paradise loses its second but is still a safe place (5) - H
11 - Privilege given to a Frenchman with his English (9) - {FRANC}{HIS}{E}
12 - Where does a charm lie woven in this fabric? (9) - CAMELHAIR*
14 - Guess! Henry replaced by Liberal for a meal (5) - (-h+l)LUNCH
16 - Indian head of state? (8) - GOVERNOR [E]
18 - Bridge partners confine catholic person, a composer (8) - {S{C}{HUMAN}N}
20 - Characteristic of new art covered by one who doesn't drink (5) - {T{RAI}T}
24 - African people who would proscribe labour body (5) - {BAN}{TU}
27 - Specify an eastern symbol in engagement (9) - {D{E}{SIGN}ATE}
28 - Essential drop of tincture in a bottle of medicine (5) - {VI{T}AL}
29 - The prize that may go to a criminal head (6) - REWARD [CD]
30 - Fish, one homeless, swallows gin cocktail (8) - {ST{ING*}RAY}
DOWN
1 - For a chela, it is somehow right (7) - ETHICAL*
2 - A brute caught greeting soldier (7) - {C}{AVE}{MAN}
4 - Fed up? Have a meal and win a victory (6) - {DEF<-}{EAT}
6 - Resist a staple cereal, get something nutritious (9) - {BUCK}{WHEAT}
8 - Even more worthy of admiration, like a part of Mumbai (7) - GREATER [DD]
9 - Group of three accommodated by Irishman, loyal citizen (7) - {PA{TRIO}T}
15 - Nilot, confused, leaves fictional DA some food (9) - HAMBURGER
17 - Animal disease that a worker takes time to get rid of (7) - {ANT}{HR}{AX} Poor clue in my view, most unlike Sankalak
18 - Bad ruse foiled by NCO (7) - SUBEDAR* A subedar is a JCO and not NCO
19 - Tool by which a worker was troubled (4,3) - {HAND} {SAW*}
21 - Flier finds a way to end stupor… (7) - {A}{VIA}{TO}{R}
22 - …completely, putting book in reckoning (7) - {T{OT}ALLY}
23 - When there is no sound, listen, however (6) - SILENT*
26 - Odd number, small, divisible by two! (5) - {S}{EVEN} Nice one in Kishore's style
Good morning everyone
ReplyDeleteESCAPADE, OBLONG, HAVEN, FRANCHISE, WAIST (~waste - a friend always complains about all food going to 'waist'), BANTU, DESIGNATE, VITAL, STINGRAY, ETHICAL, CAVEMAN, BUCKWHEAT, PATRIOT, SUBEDAR (good one - would not come to mind at once), AVIATOR, SEVEN (very nice!), SILENT, TOTALLY etc. were all well constructed.
CAMELHAIR, HAIR SHIRT - hair-raising!
16A - clever one. In India, the head of every state is the GOVERNOR, although in general terms and usage, a 'Head of State' would imply the President or Prime Minister of any given country.
29A - Nice play with criminal and reward. A REWARD may be set on the head of a criminal.
7D - Learnt a new meaning for PINION. Google search helped.
15D - HAMBURGER - put this in, based on guesswork and crossings. Will check the anno from the blog now.
Seeking others' opinion on these:
18A - CHU = church + MAN, why only Catholic? He could be from any of the other Christian denominations.
20A - A typo or an error here? TT = teetotaler = one who doesn't drink. The insertion, to make it TRAIT, should be a jumble of AIR and not ART.
4D - DEF<-EAT - One can either win, or achieve victory. Can victory be won? A synonym for DEFEAT could have been used as definition.
9D - A well-intended clue. But GREATER is a part of 'Greater Mumbai' and not a part of Mumbai itself. The clue leads only to the name of a suburb.
19D Hamilton Burger (-NILOT) was a DA in Perry Mason's books
ReplyDeleteMy doubt about 20A TRAIT cleared after reading the blog.
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteGood HAVENs, time to take up Gardenering, what with HAM(-ilton)-BURGER making an appearance. That is a (+L)(-h)UNCH that goes straight to the WAIST, in my OPINION, without considering the ETHICAL aspect of it. Coming across OBLONG after a long time. BUCK-WHEAT, FRANC-HIS-E and S-C-(HUMAN)-N were nice too. The GREATER A-VIA-TO-R in a CAMEL –HAIR-SUIT , of course, was Bigglesworth, not counting the Sopwith Camel.
I did come across the S-EVEN gag somewhere recently.
G-g-good luck to all in the nervous 9-9-90s.
I knew it had to do with Perry Mason, but could not remember the name of the DA and needed to look in Wiki
ReplyDelete18 Regarding Deepak's comment, it is a fact that a Subedar is a JCO. NCOs include Lance corporal (Lance naik), Corporal (Naik) and Sergeant (Havildar). JCOs were something peculiar to native branches of the British army, probably a 'desi' officer cadre, not 'Comissioned' in the usual sense and non non-comissioned too. The cadre called Junior Comissioned Officer included Naib Subedar, Subedar and Subedar Major.
ReplyDelete@Suresh : Nice detection with the burger.
ReplyDelete17 - Animal disease that a worker takes time to get rid of (7) - {ANT}{HR}{AX} Poor clue in my view, most unlike Sankalak
@Colonel : I'm afraid I don't see what the problem is. I don't know what Sankalak's style is, but this clue was well written I thought !
Some really nice clues.
ReplyDeleteLiked SILENT, VITAL, DEFEAT and SEVEN the best. Liked the use of "criminal head" to get REWARD
HAMBURGER and HAIR SHIRT eluded me for a long time. They were the last to fall in.
Not really happy with ANTHRAX (vague elements in the charade) and HAMBURGER (too obscure), FRANCHISE.
@Suresh: Great cracking with 15 down.
ReplyDeleteBhavan,
ReplyDeleteJust didn't like it, that's all. AX and 'to get rid of' didn't gel with me.
I too don't see any prob with ANTHRAX.
ReplyDeleteOf course, it uses three hackneyed (I wouldn't say vague) components.
The surface reading is good.
Some solvers seem to have reservations about the wordplay because it does not give 'hour' for HR and uses AX (v.) where they might expect AXE, the UK spelling with which we are all familiar.
I as a person on the other side of the fence (if you know what I mean!) think the clue writer, faced with a word with the letter X has come up with a neat clue.
Solvers are quite entitled to like and dislike clues.
ReplyDeleteThey can certainly have their preferences.
I judge a clue by the way it's tackled.
Here the clue-writer comes out quite well.
@Colonel, I understand. Ax(v) is as common as axe. Like CVasi mentioned, I was implying that the clue itself was well-formed.
ReplyDeleteI checked whether the word ANTHRAX was ever used bu Gridman.
ReplyDeleteThere's one instance in all of his 600+ crosswords:
Ah, rant about ten contracting a deadly disease (7)
Maybe I didn't like it as I couldn't frame a sentence with AX/AXE in place of 'to get rid of'. Though AX/AXE by itself does mean 'to get rid of'
ReplyDeleteBecause of some unpleasant words we had to ax --- from the blog
ReplyDeleteIs this ok Deepak
If we are to embark on a ICW trip today, there are two words that might be contenders.
ReplyDelete2D cartoon is hilarious
ReplyDeleteANTHRAX: I wouldn't say I disliked the clue. It's just that I wasn't entirely happy with it 'cause I couldn't make certain connections soon after finding the answer. It may be entirely my failing and may have nothing to do with the clue.
ReplyDelete30 - Fish, one homeless, swallows gin cocktail (8) - {ST{ING*}RAY
ReplyDeleteStingray figured in ET yesterday. The clue was:
22D Fools come back when poet produces something fishy (8)(STIN<-)(GRAY)
Anno: fools NITS (Nit is an insignificant person)
come back - Reversal Indicator <-
poet - GRAY
Defn: something fishy - STINGRAY
Suresh @ 9:09,
ReplyDeleteThanks, I take back my words on Anthrax.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
ReplyDeleteNo 9990, Wednesday 02 ? Nov 10, Sankalak
Thanks Sharvan,
ReplyDeleteTypo has since been corrected in the header.
Shravan,
ReplyDeleteSorry for having mis-spelt your name in my last post