Friday 19 December 2014

No.11270, Friday 19 Dec 2014, xChequer


Devious as ever, but probably a wee bit easier than yesterday ;-) With xC, mere solving is but one step, the anno is a different ballgame altogether. 8d my COD

Across
7 Hands card with threat (6) MENACE (MEN ACE)
8 Cancelled plenty of shifts (8) OFFLOADS (OFF LOADS)
9 Chap mainly needed on machine breaking down (8) MECHANIC (Chap +MACHINE)* &LIT
10 Puts up with upright son (6) ERECTS (ERECT S)
11 Tough bow? Just the opposite (5) STERN (2) ref to bow of a ship
12 Paid for pleasure, ecstasy missing in the act (6) FUNDED (FUN DeED)
14 Resistance in essence comes to mere stonewalling, one at a time or in parallel (15) CORRESPONDINGLY (R in CORE(=essence) + POND= Mere stonewalling? in SINGLY=one at a time) See comments
17 Revolting act associated with a very old profession (6) AVOWAL (A V O LAW<)
18 Fancy display by an unknown entity (5) SHOWY (SHOW Y)
22 Condition requiring learner to wear scrubs (6) HEALTH (L in HEATH=scrubs)
23 Undecided hands overcome by inertia replaced (2,3,3) IN THE AIR (H in INERTIA*)
24 Inevitably execution has man getting axed (8) PERFORCE (PERFORmanCE)
25 Throw a fit to date man about town (6) SEETHE (SEE HE around T)
         Mohsin, couldn't help but remember you here ... ;-)
Down
1 School noticed holding record for cheating (9) DECEPTION (NOTICED* holding EP)
2 Marshal revealing gun to man pursued by Rangers (6) GATHER (GAT HE R)
3 Stands for instruments (5) MEANS (2)
4 Away at finish, journalist gets upset (8) OFFENDED (OFF END ED)
5 Model to wear clothes originally intended for a god (8) POSEIDON (POSE DON around Intended)
6 Notice to sit properly in passages for access (5) ADITS (AD SIT*)
8 Formerly used at the start in old novel, ancient poem (4,4,1,4) ONCE UPON A TIME (Used in Old (ANCIENT POEM)*)  phew!
13 Class in boxing with primarily young people in general going through a set of steps (9) FLYWEIGHT (Young WE (people in general) in FLIGHT=set of steps)
15 Touching upon each and every condition on earth in the practical world (4,4) REAL LIFE (RE ALL(each and every) IF(condition) Earth)
16 Extremely silly to keep mum if suffocating (8) SMOTHERY (MOTHER in SillY)
19 Paid careful attention to hours polling required (6) HEEDED (H nEEDED?) polling=cutting the horns/hair off.   Next time, I'm gonna ask my hairdresser to poll me. I hope he does not refer the dictionary and behead me! Watch this space!
20 Craft beer having distribution cap (5) BERET (BEER* T)
21 Band holds tickets initially in reserve (5) STASH (Tickets in SASH)

36 comments:

  1. 14 Resistance in essence comes to mere stonewalling, one at a time or in parallel (15) CORRESPONDINGLY (R in CORE(=essence) + POND=stonewalling? in SINGLY=one at a time)

    POND = MERE (lake)
    STONEWALLING: holding up

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  2. Knocked out cold. Patted myself for getting 8D & 16D. appreciated the construction of clues after reading the blog.

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  3. Naan intha aattathukku varalai. Ambeal.

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  4. Gentler one today. To me, yesterday was like playing quality fast bowling and today was like playing quality spin. Keep them coming xC

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  5. +1 for the tagline.
    Neat crossword

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  6. While in no way detracting from the merit of this crossword, may I raise a question:
    Take
    10 Puts up with upright son (6)
    No prob. with the clue as such.
    The WP is perfect.
    My question is: should the surface reading of a clue be realistic even as it is plausible?
    A father or a mother may put up with an errant son. Of an upright person, I guess they will be proud.
    Or is it that the parent here is a con who is sad his/her son is not?!
    What do you think?

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    Replies
    1. Maybe the parent is a con :)

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    2. I am of the opinion the surface reading should be realistic and plausible. In the present case your 'or' statement meets both conditions

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    3. I did think about that, but felt that would be nitpicking in an otherwise excellent puzzle. In fact I usually look for that first in a clue rather than the wordplay.

      I was also misled by the 'with' for a long time as it seems to suggest that one bears with the son, whereas the answer is builds, but 'with' as a connector is fair.

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    4. Parent may be sad that the son is too upright and not worldly wise

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    5. Plausible enough - uprightness might come in the way of personal relationships. Remembering examples from films: the upright father in Shakti and the upright hero in Satyakam did require their families to put up with them.

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  7. 11 Tough bow? Just the opposite (5) STERN (2) ref to bow of a ship

    Unable to understand the second half of the clue.

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    Replies
    1. Bow is front of a ship, stern the rear, just the opposite

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    2. I cannot explain how the thought came that bow was the rear part, while knowing that stern is one (and also that bow/ bows is the front. ).

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  8. Enjoyable puzzle. Especially liked 9A, 8D and 16D

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  9. Just noticed. I thought 17 ac would be A V O CAT* not avowal

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    Replies
    1. I too filled in AVOCAT, before I saw the blog. That's not listed in Chambers, which gives avocation.

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    2. Avocat is there in the freeonlinedictionary meaning Advocate

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    3. Though 'avocat consultant' is there in Chambers, avocat itself is not. Hence, I considered Avowal which also means profession, i.e. to profess

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    4. Wonder what the setter meant

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    5. Wait for BP. Else, the morrow will tell

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    6. The Kishores have it. Wasn't sure if Suresh was referring to the surface or the answer!

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    7. If you are talking of avocat, the answer, which I feel is more appropriate.

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  10. I had put in AVOCAT & that too after a long deliberation.

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  11. All the best to the finalists of the IXL 2014. Hope all you folks (including the audience) have a wonderful time.

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