ACROSS
1 Had an &lit falling in place (8) THAILAND*
9 Can spending time mostly reflecting in silence work for a metal artist! (8) TINSMITH {TIN}{S{
10 Cover story (6) SPREAD [DD]
12 Time in Romania with a wild woman (9) INAMORATA {INAMORA{T}A*}
13 Measure of fuel, after starting to run, consumed by a luxury car (5) RULER {R{
14 What tightrope walkers need to be (4-8) WELL-BALANCED [CD]
18 Herbal tea I brewed — it’s sipped to restore good health (12) REHABILITATE {REHABIL{IT}ATE*}
23 Done finally in 30 days without taking a risk (5) PERIL {
24 Suddenly, everyone agreed to support a conservative (3,2,4) ALL AT ONCE {ALL} {AT ON{C}E}
26 Techie falling short working on a programming language, gets frantic (6) HECTIC {TECHI
27 Song’s a hit with guys in Yale perhaps (8) HYMENEAL {H}{Y{MEN}EAL*}
28 Extremely tipsy and drunk, Chet goes in grumpy (6) TETCHY {T
29 Fictional guy, character needing no introduction — an ambitious one (2-6) GO-GETTER {GO-G}{
DOWN
1 Food bird nibbled (6) TITBIT {TIT}{BIT}
2 Recall an article in yearbook (6) ANNUAL {ANNU{A}L}
3 Beemer’s top end luxury car parked outside prison (5) LIMBO {LIM{B}O}
4 Catch and hop — that’s the game (3,4) NET BALL {NET} {BALL} Netball is one word
7 Sleuth and press following girl on the run (8) SHERLOCK {SHE}{R}{LOCK} Press and lock?
8 Adore old exotic city — a legendary one (2,6) EL DORADO*
11 Good story that doesn’t start to get crazy (4) GAGA {G}{
15 To elaborate, Vulcan comes back acting all stupid (9) EMBELLISH {EM<=}{BELLISH} Bellish not found in Chambers
16 Omit photograph — tactical court move (4,4) DROP SHOT {DROP} {SHOT}
17 It doesn’t leave one with much on top! (8) SHORTCUT [CD]
19 Large clumsy man, a chump (4) LOAF {L}{OAF}
20 Cry from a friend in hot water (5-2) TALLY-HO {T{ALLY}-HO*}
21 Overthrow an international organisation located around America (6) UNSEAT {UN}{SE{A}T}
22 Sound coming from vendor’s storage space (6) CELLAR (~seller)
25 Matter/mass inside you (5) THEME {THE{M}E}
Properly fooled by the '&lit' sign- probably the way the setter wanted me to ! Missed the wild woman too, though I knew the word. Good CW & enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteVery well constructed puzzle and great care taken with surfaces and cryptic instructions.
Delete15A : EMBELLISH {EM<=}{BELLISH} "Bellish" not found in OED too.
ReplyDeleteA nice crossy, no doubt.
17 It doesn’t leave one with much on top! (8) SHORTCUT [CD]
ReplyDeleteThe clue means 'hair cut short', I presume. But I don't find OED giving that meaning.
Short-cut is generally used to denote a shorter distance (hyphenated) whereas 'crew cut' is used to denote a short hair cut. But to my knowledge, neither is used as a single word.
ReplyDeleteBut what is the link btn a shorter distance and 'one is left with not much on his top(head)' ?
ReplyDeleteA short cut doesn't leave much on top of one's head
DeleteThank you, Sir. Then the enumeration should have been (5,3) instead of (8) !
DeleteHi All,
ReplyDeleteSorry, haven't looked into the enumeration part for some of the clues, for instance, NETBALL (7) and SHORT CUT (5,3). I generally write clues for whatever words the software throws at me and so hardly check the enumeration for clues written. Looks like I need to be carefuller before sending out my puzzles to the paper.
And BELLISH was shamelessly lifted from urbandictionary. Seemed like an easy word break up and went with it.
Yesterday, CHATURVASI had indicated, that, CHEATER is pronounced as CHEETAH by English, but, my dictionary does not say so. Which is correct?
ReplyDeleteIt is just a way of pronouncing. Englishmen do not pronounce the R in the end, but leave it hanging (If I may say so) and it sounds like cheetah. That is why CV made fun of Indian way of stressing the R. The way they say 'Sir' may be 'sah'.
DeleteEnjoyed cw today.But alas 29a failed me. I wrote as no letter.6,7d& 9a quite nice.In fine an engaging & entertaining one. All cryptic clues craftily vulcanised wordsmithy.
ReplyDeleteNice puzzle.
ReplyDelete12 Time in Romania with a wild woman (9) INAMORATA {INAMORA{T}A*}
Is just 'woman' sufficient to denote the answer? Isn't it to mean lover or GF?
7 Sleuth and press following girl on the run (8) SHERLOCK
ReplyDeleteConventionally woman : SHE or HER. Girl is G or Di.
Also is R = on the Run or just 'run' (without 'the') acceptable? Curious to know.
Congrats to Kishore being the winner of the Ouroboros prize puzzle (www.crossword.org.uk). Sorry to take up Vulcan's page to report this but didn't know a better way to communicate to this group. Fantastic Kishore, a lovely bday gift, and my belated greetings as well
ReplyDeleteCongrats, Kishore.
ReplyDeleteA forerunner to another laurel to come?
Thanks. It is the first time I participated. As usual, beginner's luck, which may fizzle out as it did on IXL ;-)
DeleteI am not sure of another laurel, but persons meeting me on 21st Dec., may remember another Hardy !
15^2 is planning a bash for the centenary
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fifteensquared.net/2013/11/20/sloggers-betters-and-other-cruciverbalists-centenary-convention/
Whereas their tabs on that page are "Setters" and "Bloggers", this bash is titled Sloggers and Betters. Interesting intersect with Sloggers and Bloggers.
To be honest. I called it after the UK S&B - though we might have had some meetings contemporaneously with or even earlier to the meetings in that country organised by the owner of a blog.
DeleteExcept that I expanded it to Sloggers (for setters who have to work) and Bloggers (solvers).
I still don't understand why they call it Sloggers and Betters. Are solvers more superior to setters?