Wednesday 11 February 2015

No 11315, Wednesday 11 Feb 2015, Neyartha


I amazed myself today by typing and solving Neyartha's 'water water everywhere' within half an hour!!

ACROSS
1   Ability to sit back when surrounded by a tarry concoction (8) ARTISTRY {AR{TIS<=}TRY*}
5   Pertaining to the blood vessels of a Roman goddess, we hear (6) VENOUS (~venus)
9   Dangerous matter involving horse retreating with a bad-tempered woman (9) TERMAGANT {TERMA{GAN<=}T*}
11 That group's impartial note has been replaced by an article (5) THEIR (+the-fa)THEIR
12 Treasury in trouble after king goes missing in a body of fresh and salt water (7) ESTUARY TrEASURY*
14 Teetotallers capture male doctor with nickel to prepare a pungent gas (7) AMMONIA {A{M}{MO}{NI}A}
15 Praise a type of whiskey and hard toffee (12) BUTTERSCOTCH {BUTTER}{SCOTCH}
17 Forces that may keep calm (12) PEACEKEEPING [CD]
20 Strange leaving New York to welcome the French tainted ... (7) UNCLEAN {UNC(+le)LEAN(-ny)}
22 ... by dirt particles surrounding the priest and a swordsman (7) DUELIST {DU{ELI}ST}
23 Greek letter found in the lathe tag (5) THETA [T]
24 What one might do to a list to make it difficult to get back the original order (9) RANDOMISE [CD]
26 Exercise for the novice returning with the Irish lads to get black teas (6) PEKOES {PE}KOES Anno pending (Addendum - (+pe - buc<=}PEKOES - See comments)
27 Revolutionary salesman and Ann met a westbound Greek character every year (3,5) PER ANNUM {PER<=} {ANN}{UM<=}

DOWN
1   Pan the musical for including a song of praise (6) ANTHEM [T]
2   Lazy Susan's phonograph component (9) TURNTABLE [DD]
3   Legs needed for adapting to a new situation? (3) SEA [CD]
4   Consider following Yankee with a lecturer outside to get a book of tables (5,8) READY RECKONER {READ{Y} {RECKON}ER}
6   Perform without preparation and expose timer malfunction (11) EXTEMPORISE*
7   Leaders of the original canoe expedition attempt navigation of a large body of water (5) OCEAN Acrostic
8   Ex follows Buddhist sacred writing and gets right to move up for an additional levy (6) SURTAX {SU(+r)RT(-r)A}{X}
10 Arranged decent scanner to show superiority (13) TRANSCENDENCE*
13 Bag of the diplomat on trial (7,4) ATTACHE CASE {ATTACHE} {CASE}
16 Reason to ignore note of credit (9) COGNITION reCOGNITION
18 Coach raising deposit results in a serious quarrel (4-2) BUST-UP {BUS}{T-UP<=}
19 Course of the waterway (6) STREAM [DD]
21 Groan heard in a small waterway (5) CREEK (~creak)
25 Eggs are elliptical, for the most part (3) OVA OVAl

GRID

29 comments:

  1. What happened to all commenters? washed away by Neyartha?
    Narrowly missed a samosa.
    Loved the clean 'Unclean' in 20A & the butterscotch. Thank you Neyartha.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Neither drowned nor washed away! Could manage to keep 75% of the body afloat!!

      Delete
  2. Anyone has any ideas on the anno for Pekoes?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fairly simple from Neyartha. I liked the surfaces in 15, 16, and 18, and especially liked the construction of the clue in 4d.

    I can't make out the annotation for PEKOES either - the PE is clear enough, but the rest is a haze. The closest I came was to "lift and separate" novice to get "no vice" and roughly equate that with OK, which is then reversed...ok, I'll get my coat! :)

    Thanks to Neyartha and DG.

    ReplyDelete
  4. An internet search threw up 'boyo byes' for Irish Lads

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's been ages since we've seen Neyartha in the comments section of the blog. Let's see if he will turn up today to clarify on Pekoes if none of us get it

    ReplyDelete
  6. 'irish Boys' seems to be a music group. But I am unable to connect that with the clue. Any of their songs?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Without proper anno for PEKOES, how can I claim samosas

    ReplyDelete
  8. Replies
    1. Good work, Ajeesh!

      That annotation makes the clue a bit iffy, though. How does "for [cub] returning with the [buckoes]" translate into removing cub from buckoes? It reads as if the "cub returning" has to be added to the "Irish lads" - all quite confusing for me!

      Delete
    2. If it is returning without Irish lads, that would leave out 'KOES'. 'For' itself is an intrusive connector in between the wordplay.

      Delete
    3. Here comes Late Latif! Good show, Ajeesh.

      Delete
  9. Filling in the blanks of Ajeesh- 'buckoes' for Irish lad as per
    http://www.thefreedictionary.com/buckoes

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paddy, being an Irishman, knows buckoes, I am sure!

      Delete
    2. Paddy may be an Irishman, but no lad!

      Delete
  10. Ram,
    Samosa are all yours! (thanks to Ajeesh)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Replies
    1. Good Homer.....for once, you gave opportunity to crack, to others, m'am.

      Delete
    2. Maybe this was one of her off-days! No offence, Ma'am. :)

      Delete
    3. Thanks Sandy, means a lot when it comes from you :-D

      Delete
  12. I received a call from someone that the British spelling is DUELLIST.
    It is surprising that no-one has commented on it here so far.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was thrown by the spelling for a bit, but a check revealed that the single-L version is acceptable too.

      Is there any norm around British/American spelling being used in Indian crosswords? I hesitated a bit over RANDOMISE, for instance, but then put down the British spelling as I am more comfortable with that. Since the relevant letter (s/z) was unchecked, it didn't matter (although it *would* have mattered had it been a competition, I guess!).

      Delete
    2. Abhay

      The UK sp is DUELLIST.

      Chambers, COD and other paper dictionaries have it.

      Duelist is US sp.

      Online checking is not always reliable in the sense we don't scroll down sufficiently and see.

      Visit

      http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/duel#duel

      and scroll down to see the Br spelling.

      Delete
    3. I did discover that the single-L was the American spelling - that's what I said above! I was asking about using British or American spelling as the norm.

      Delete
    4. Well, THC specs specify that the crosswords must use British spelling as we in India do that.

      In those rare cases where a US spelling is let into the grid, the clue must specify that the solver has to use the Am sp.

      Indeed such clues have appeared in THC occasionally.

      But I see no reason why US spelling should be used even in rare cases.

      Delete

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