Quite a few clues with good surfaces and cryptic elements 9A, 10A,13A, 22A, 26A, 2D, 6D,7D, 22D, 25D but I liked 28A the most. Also a rather high on E/CDs puzzle. Colonel might be glad it is not his turn :)
ACROSS
1 Await officer’s opening harangue — it may make you spit out (11) EXPECTORANT (EXPECT + O + RANT)
9 Petition on search (7) REQUEST (RE + QUEST)
10 Top gear the rain destroyed (7) HAIRNET (THE RAIN)*
11 Solve this and you’ve really dug! (3,2) ATE,UP (CD)
12 When you put this in, it’s done! (9) COMPLETED (CD) Done = completed, don't see what the first half is hinting at.
13 A Cockney drops it in speech (5) AITCH (E)
15 Accommodation model gent got redesigned (9) LODGEMENT (MODEL GENT)*
18 What bus conductors expect passengers to tender (5,4) EXACT,FARE (E)
21 The man pitches tar in central part (5) HEART (HE + TAR*)
22 Despot’s poor treatment grips part of media (9) OPPRESSOR (POOR* outside PRESS)
24 Encountered returning officer in city (5) METRO (MET + OR<=) Officer and OR?
26 Head of clan — he must be going to get butcher’s knife (7) CLEAVER (C + LEAVER)
27 Expel broker with hidden vessel (4,3) TURN,OUT (TOUT outside URN)
28 It illuminates acres spread over principally hazy land (11) SEARCHLIGHT (ACRES* + H + LIGHT)
DOWN
1 If you do, you become famous — not that you get another handle (4,1,4) EARN,A,NAME (CD)
2 Ill-feeling when game is not finished (5) PIQUE (PIQUEt)
3 Revolutionary’s posh! At variance, makes an unsporting verbal attack (5,4) CHEAP,SHOT (CHE + POST AT*)
4 The kind of illusion // that is of all one’s eye (7) OPTICAL (DD)
5 A mother locked up in a storage building is conscience-stricken (7) ASHAMED (A + MA<= inside SHED)
6 Curly figure writ roughly by learner (5) TWIRL (WRIT* + L)
7 Three articles by the scholar causes abhorrence (8) ANATHEMA (AN + A + THE + MA)
8 Boss to consider leaving out the unknown (4) STUD (STUDy)
14 Every other star’s more buxom — not one to tiptoe (8) TRAMPLER (sTar + AMPLER)
16 A helper madly embraces Gridman — it’s short-lived! (9) EPHEMERAL (A HELPER* outside ME)
17 A retaliator’s vengeful move (3,3,3) TIT,FOR,TAT (E)
19 Fool to exalt open kingdom of old (7) ASSYRIA (ASS + AIRY<=)
20 Having no regular course, the man goes round pest (7) ERRATIC (ERIC outside RAT)
22 Concerning church in olden days (4) ONCE (ON + CE)
23 Roofing features women announced (5) EAVES (~EVES)
25 Skimpy item — if royal gets into it, there will be a crowd (5) THONG (THrONG)
ACROSS
1 Await officer’s opening harangue — it may make you spit out (11) EXPECTORANT (EXPECT + O + RANT)
9 Petition on search (7) REQUEST (RE + QUEST)
10 Top gear the rain destroyed (7) HAIRNET (THE RAIN)*
12 When you put this in, it’s done! (9) COMPLETED (CD) Done = completed, don't see what the first half is hinting at.
13 A Cockney drops it in speech (5) AITCH (E)
15 Accommodation model gent got redesigned (9) LODGEMENT (MODEL GENT)*
18 What bus conductors expect passengers to tender (5,4) EXACT,FARE (E)
21 The man pitches tar in central part (5) HEART (HE + TAR*)
22 Despot’s poor treatment grips part of media (9) OPPRESSOR (POOR* outside PRESS)
24 Encountered returning officer in city (5) METRO (MET + OR<=) Officer and OR?
26 Head of clan — he must be going to get butcher’s knife (7) CLEAVER (C + LEAVER)
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28 It illuminates acres spread over principally hazy land (11) SEARCHLIGHT (ACRES* + H + LIGHT)
DOWN
1 If you do, you become famous — not that you get another handle (4,1,4) EARN,A,NAME (CD)
2 Ill-feeling when game is not finished (5) PIQUE (PIQUE
3 Revolutionary’s posh! At variance, makes an unsporting verbal attack (5,4) CHEAP,SHOT (CHE + POST AT*)
4 The kind of illusion // that is of all one’s eye (7) OPTICAL (DD)
6 Curly figure writ roughly by learner (5) TWIRL (WRIT* + L)
7 Three articles by the scholar causes abhorrence (8) ANATHEMA (AN + A + THE + MA)
8 Boss to consider leaving out the unknown (4) STUD (STUD
14 Every other star’s more buxom — not one to tiptoe (8) TRAMPLER (
16 A helper madly embraces Gridman — it’s short-lived! (9) EPHEMERAL (A HELPER* outside ME)
17 A retaliator’s vengeful move (3,3,3) TIT,FOR,TAT (E)
19 Fool to exalt open kingdom of old (7) ASSYRIA (ASS + AIRY<=)
20 Having no regular course, the man goes round pest (7) ERRATIC (ERIC outside RAT)
22 Concerning church in olden days (4) ONCE (ON + CE)
23 Roofing features women announced (5) EAVES (~EVES)
SOLUTION GRID
Hi folks
ReplyDeleteLovely crossword. Gridman is certainly a word wizard.
11A - A?E UP is the sole doubtful answer. Not clear about the anno for 28A SEARCHLIGHT.
Got many at first look - like AITCH, LODGEMENT, HEART, OPPRESSOR, METRO, CLEAVER, TURN OUT, OPTICAL, TWIRL, ANATHEMA, EPHEMERAL, ONCE, EAVES and some others.
Could cough up EXPECTORANT without much effort. Also liked REQUEST, HAIRNET, COMPLETED, EXACT FARE, EARN A NAME, PIQUE, CHEAP SHOT, STUD, TRAMPLER, TIT FOR TAT, ASSYRIA, ERRATIC and THONG.
En passant, wonder why the letter H - clearly defined as 'aitch', the eighth letter of the English alphabet in dictionaries - is referred to as 'Hetch' by many people in southern part of India. Perhaps to represent the 'h' in pronunciation?
Liked the optical illusion!!
ReplyDeleteBhavan, your graphic for 4D is optically mischievous! ;)
ReplyDeleteCol and I got the illusion together...
Delete+1
DeleteMischief is in the eyes of the beholder!
Deletepapa,... me no complete... many clues were illusions ... loved the few i found, optical included. it s raining in chennai. craving for hot chai and chilli bajjis, already,
ReplyDeletegood day all
Chilli bajji on a rainy day,wow! Good to go with a nice CW from Gridman.
Delete24 Encountered returning officer in city (5) METRO (MET + OR<=) Officer and OR?
ReplyDeleteEncountered MET + Returning Officer RO = (MET)(RO)
Can't find that reference anywhere. Is it a standard term?
Deleteother ranks ?
DeleteI solved ONCE three days in a row :-P
ReplyDeleteOnce more...
Delete....it is different.
DeleteMost enjoyable. No power due to our own (comparatively smaller cyclone)but a bit of solving power left. I could not understand 11A. Also, a doubt about 19D-is 'exalt' a reversal indicator?
ReplyDeleteI think R.O. for returning is a common acronym- I am not sure about its being CW dictionaries- you hear this frequently during elections.
exalt = raise.so I think it is ok for down clue
DeleteThank you. Thought so, but still had a doubt.
DeleteOne might easily 'cough up' the expectorant. But I liked it, probably the way a simple thing made to look complicated!
ReplyDelete11A Ate up ? Not sure if that is right and if so what is the anno?
ReplyDeleteDig in = eat heartily, so dug = ate up.
DeleteLike in 12A, I can't quite explain what the first part is implying.
Those two CDs are curveballs from Gridman!
When you put this in, it’s done!
DeleteWhen you put this in, - when you enter the solution word here on this slot
it’s - the light or the solution word is
done! - COMPLETED
I got 12A. What I did not get and still do not get is 11A
DeleteAte up means weird
Deleteeat up slang means enjoy enthusiastically which we do by solving crosswords :-P
Delete"Ate up" (lapped up) means "enthusiastically accepted" = dug, which I think means the same thing as "liked very much, went for, accepted".
ReplyDeleteWith the you've coming in front, might probably read better as 'dug in' or 'dug it'; the first would be literally eating it all up, while the second would be enthusiastically accepted.
DeleteAnyhow a very entertaining puzzle, oblique references being the order of the day
I know the meaning of 'ate up' CV, but how does it match the clue. I am quite clueless on this
DeleteMeaning I am not really enthused about solving this clue
DeleteRe the optical illusion.
ReplyDeleteSuppose I say I have 'bad eyes', what would you conclude?
No, it isn't what you're thinking, my friend.
Sorry, Suresh! 11a may not be one of G's best efforts!
ReplyDeleteAs I had said how 12a was supposed to work, I thought one might interpret 11a, the contiguous one, on similar lines.
Solve this and you’ve really dug!
Solve this - When once you have the answer for this
and - (link)
you’ve - (link)
really dug! - ATE UP
An occasional variation, an occasional letting down of the hair, an occasional aberration, if you want to take it taht way.
Actually it's a straightforward or synonymic clue but with some ornamentation.
No problem CV.
DeleteI kept viewing 'up' as a reversal indicator and was trying to find a word that matched and finally gave up.
I tend to agree with Bhavan-- to dig in is to -literally- dig into the food and I'd say, gorge , gobble up etc. Hence, to use DUG in isolation is a bit wierd- it could have been DUG IN to sound logical- but crypties are for Nuts who have to crack them , so we can pass this one for nonce !
ReplyDeleteAs for EAT UP-- I can only remember my wifey telling my little boy, when he was young,while feeding him:'' C'mon, EAT UP ! and don't keep tambaku in the mouth !!''
Can someone shed some light on 28A as to why "land" turned into "light" ?
ReplyDeleteas in' to settle '
Delete27 A - TURN OUT - i thought it denotes numbers, only. This meaning is new to me.
ReplyDeleteTURN OUT also means ones get-up. For example 'The cadets turn out at the parade was excellent'.
DeleteIt has various other meanings, like Getting out of bed, A place in the road for turning vehicles,
IN YESTERDAY'S CROSSIE, I'M TOTALLY DISAPPOINTED WITH THE ANNOTATIONS of the starred clues. The rst were OK. Actually, the Nota Bene on the top should have read: Starred clued are NJ-esque ! This is not cryptic crossword by any stretch of imagination, lateral thinking and even deductive logic. Gridman: Mna, you made me grit my teeth in anger for desecrating the sanctity of cryptic crosswords.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you say that the crossword was not cryptic? When as a definition it was specified that all the starred clues belonged to the same category, which in this case turned out to be clothing.
DeleteDeepak: Appreciate your comment but I feel that each clue must lead to a proper word or phrase parsed outNIghtcap, . Agreed, the theme is the common factor and once you get one word, others can be deduced, but not rationalized as to why it should be SO. For example, Ragtag, Blazer, Apron, Lorica, and Philibeg, do not make a clue with an answerto justify. Again, Angora is a word derived by repolacing L for R, being a SAn country. Another weak clue was ' Don't like to hold back Scot's outfit' to mean KILT. Definitely offbeat for even a seasoned solver. May be my crabbiness got the better of me due to my late night solving and the exacerbation of such poor compilation.
ReplyDeleteIt takes all kinds to be asolver and a critic, right?