Monday 13 October 2014

No.11213, Monday 13 Oct 2014, Spinner

A good variety of clues in this nice one from Spinner. Stumped by anno for 14d

Across
1 I clued about mathematician (6) EUCLID (I CLUED)*
4 A foul sport (8) HARDBALL (CD) HANDBALL (DD)  See comments. I first put in baseball and groped around till I got 6d
10 Fruit results in politician breaking into endless vomiting (7) PUMPKIN (MP in PUKINg)
11 Requests for hint in the middle of each crossword, essentially (7) PRAYERS (RAY in PER, S)
12 Dizzy? Crocin (T), a sedative! (8) NARCOTIC (CROCIN T A)*
13 Twist as white played with rook (6) WRITHE (WHITE* around R)
15 Primarily Neyartha’s a setter’s title (4)  NAME (N A ME)
16 Man takes groom with love at finale of gay marriage (9) MATRIMONY (TRIM O in MAN, Y)
20 Remove nuts in design completely (9) UNINSTALL ((NUTS IN)* ALL)
21 Complaint found in a nasty eye (4) STYE (T) Half a hole!
24 Team of stars is careless, happy on the outside (6) GALAXY (GAY around LAX)
26 As editor dances to rock... (8) ASTEROID (AS EDITOR*) solving this immediately after 24a, I thought a theme was in the offing
28 ....songs, men rub out last of headlines (7) NUMBERS ((MEN RUB)* S)
29 Work with power, energy, speed and before all, love (7) OPERATE (O before P E RATE)
30 First dozen followers are primarily fakes mobbing Twitter List (8) APOSTLES (A POSES outside T L)
31 Vessel covering is at unstable equilibrium (6) STASIS (SS around (IS AT)*)

Down
1 Champion played next Open (8) EXPONENT (NEXT OPEN)* Every exponent cannot be a champion ...
2 Shooters arrived with regular army soldiers (9) CAMERAMEN (CAME R A MEN)
3 Writers draw from this point made about Kaliyuga’s origin (6) INKPOT (POINT* around K)
5 Criminal takes hollow pass in European range (4) ALPS (AL PasS)
6 Graphs show rising relief by pulse spectrometer’s peak (8) DIAGRAMS (AID< GRAM S)  liked use of pulse=gram
7 Clever editor’s rise is inappropriate (5) ADEPT (ED< in APT)
8 Mirrors don’t display good girls (6) LASSES (gLASSES)
9 Bowling spin, I attack without having covers to Cook, for starters (9) ANTIPASTI (SPIN I ATTACK - CooK)*
14 Expert’s flight fails to take off in introductory essay (9) PROLUSION (PRO ???  Something to do with propulsion? (PRO eLUSION) See comments
17 Citizens charge into South African province with onset of skirmish (9) NATIONALS (ION in NATAL S)
18 Unlike 7, setter leaves experiment out (8) INEXPERT (EXPERIMENT - ME)*
19 Unnecessary taunts by principal secretary (8) NEEDLESS (NEEDLES S)
22 Old rooms, new architect's foundation plan (6) AGENDA (AGED around N A)
23 Setter’s money covers Spinner (6) CEMENT (CENT covers ME)
25 Member’s love is void (5) LIMBO (LIMB O)
27 A space between ‘seats’, not a space between ‘seas’ (4) ISLE (aISLE)

GRID


46 comments:

  1. Please refer to immediately preceding post for the latest CWE from CV

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kishore
      You mean 'succeeding'?

      Delete
    2. Maybe 'preceding by time' but 'succeeding by position on the website/page'.

      Delete
    3. The blog labels it as 'Older Post' at the bottom to this page

      Delete
  2. 4A - HANDBALL [DD]
    14A - {PRO}{(-e)LUSION}

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  3. Me ! 's cartoon may prompt one to go He ! He ! He !. But that would be a threesome ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think it's an excellent toon, in line with the charade in the clue.

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    2. But I've a small doubt reg toon. Why has "Me" chosen a Thunderbolt? Why not a Cupid's Arrow?! :)

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    3. Don't you think a lightning strike is more apt than just a puny arrow?

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    4. ...but lightning never strikes twice in the same place, Sir! :)

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    5. You've got a point there. Cupids arrow can strike any number of times more so in western countries!!

      Delete
  4. Spinner's woven nice clues overall woth an exercise in self promotion :)

    A doubt about this:
    26 As editor dances to rock... (8) ASTEROID. 'To' suggests a verb. Does it also signify 'leading to'? I am not sure it does.

    27 A space between ‘seats’, not a space between ‘seas’ (4) ISLES (aISLES)

    Probably it should have been "spaces" at both places in the clue.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 'woth' is to be read as 'with' in my first line.

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    2. 'spaces' does not work in the second part of the clue because of the 'a'.

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    3. Is an isle a space (land) in the seas or between the seas?
      - Doubt Dhanabalu

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    4. The answer is a 4 lettered word ISLE there is no need for the plural spaces

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    5. Space between seats is an 'aisle', spaces between seats would become 'aisles'

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    6. Just proves how blindly I followed the blog entries. I did enter ISLE while solving in the paper as such.

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    7. Recently I read an excellent comment about our saying 'bad' for 'mistake' when bad is an adj and not a noun.
      Don't remember where. Was it in Chetan Bhagat's Half Girlfriend?
      BTW, I enjoyed reading it, though I have never read any other book by this famous author. Including his first one, which was left back in my home by my son-in-law.
      I am not ashamed to say I took one week to read it. I always read any book in parts, savouring every line, pausing to think about what I have read, making marginal notes, etc.
      When I was reading it I thought this book could be made into a film - some comment I read somewhere criticised the author for having written the book with an eye on the celluloid world.
      Small, small observations about life in US were exactly the same that I made - or anyone would make - during the first visit to that country.

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    8. 'My bad' is american slang. We had discussed it some time ago with 'anyways'. I abhor both of them

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    9. +1 colonel, to loathing both those expressions

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    10. Picked it up when I was there ...

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    11. Kishore
      An innocent question
      Write
      Picked up during my sojourn in the US
      and please proceed to list
      Taxi
      Bag of mulch at Costco
      American expressions
      . . .
      . . .

      Delete
    12. I will list only one

      Mac and cheese
      - the sole resort of a vegitarian at many eateries, that too under the banner of a kiddie meal

      Delete
  5. While warbling out my approbation over the excellent surface reading of some of the clues here, I wish to make the following observation:
    We setters have been given specs. Don't they specify that brand names should be avoided in gridfills or in clue text.
    Then how can we bring ourselves to writing a clue like 12 ac?
    Another paper from the TH stable has a CWD dedicated to brand names; we could do without them.
    Also, if there are readers who take the statements in our clues seriously, I don't know what consequences that clue will bring in its wake (when they come to)!
    Any setter who has not received THC specs must ask the sub concerned for a copy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CV Crocin is not necessarily a brand name. See CROCIN

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    2. Even if Crocin is not branded, the setter's intention in this clue is clear. The reference is to the brand otherwise the (T) which I assume is for trademark makes no sense in the surface

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    3. True, he could have included that T in some other form as Crocin by itself is a natural carotenoid chemical compound

      Delete
    4. When doctors write T xxx, they mean Tablet xxx, as against syrup that may also be available.
      Trademark is generally indicated by TM.

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    5. The intention was to denote tablet by T. I had the chemical compound in mind, but the clue when read seems to indicate the brand. Point taken.

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    6. Also, CV sir's reference to people taking the stuff written in clues seriously reminds of an interesting incident from the recent past.

      In my last cryptic crossword for my college magazine, I had written 30 clues all of whose surfaces referred to some aspect of my college life (The buildings, the hangouts, the events, incidents etc.). I had made a cheeky reference to a recent heavy defeat of one of our sports teams by a long time rival. I had to face that entire team in my room after that, and I had my hands full explaining to them that crosswords need humour.

      Delete
  6. Madam
    Thanks very much.
    Please enter it as a Comment under the post BUNDOBUST which is the second post on this blog today - scroll down and you will see it.
    After entering it there, the entry here may be deleted.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Scrolling down when the comments section is open will not reveal the second post.

      Either click on 'Home' at the bottom, today, after which both posts will show up, comments section of CWE-2 BUNDOBUST can then be accessed.

      Or click on CWE-2 BUNDOBUST under the 'Blog Archive' on the left hand side panel in which case the relevant post will appear with the comments

      Delete
    2. Mrs PP, I have transferred your entry there and deleted it from here

      Delete
  7. Except CEMENT got all. Enjoyed solving the crossie. Thanks spinner!

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  8. PS
    The second post today can be seen by scrolling down only when the Comments sec is not expanded.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Setter’s money covers Spinner

    Hey, are you getting more than other setters?

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  10. Mirrors in 8D were from the the Cinderella story perhaps :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. 'Inappropriate' in the place of 'in appropriate' - is this in order? Is it allowed?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ram
      That's a good question.
      It is a wordplay which some newspapers allow and some don't.
      It is a wordplay that one likes and another does not.
      Take it or leave it.

      Delete
    2. If anyone has noticed, I have referred to this dilemma in 18D.

      Delete
  12. A brain teaser from Spinner! Enjoyed solving it but for CEMENT. My COD is 8D. Classy/Glassy LASSES!

    ReplyDelete

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