Tuesday 31 March 2015

No 11356, Tuesday 31 Mar 2015, Skulldugger


Enjoyable one from Skulldugger.

ACROSS
5   Two-thirds of the dealers provide gripping gizmos (6) PLIERS supPLIERS
6   Sated artist consuming the last of the ouzo? This might go to his head (6) FEDORA {FED}{ouzO}{RA}
9   Provide evidence for being examined (6) ATTEST {AT}{TEST}
10 United in league, celebration turning bloody, Chelsea finally broke (8) FEDERATE {FE{DER<=}{c...eA}TE}
11 Got out article that Caesar sported? (4) TOGA {GOT*}{A}
12 Small house emits a tone that's eerie (10) MAISONETTE*
13 Feathered friend unusually genial at bedtime (11) NIGHTINGALE {NIGHT}{GENIAL*}
18 Unkempt furniture, old and rough without lacquer, for starters (10) BEDRAGGLED {BED}{RAGG{La...r}ED}
21 Page for important work, half-censored, read regularly (2-2) OP-ED {OPus}-{rEaD}
22 Furtively observe American girlfriend in childhood game (8) PEEKABOO {PEEK}{A}{BOO}
23 Publicly proclaim that king is surrounded by absolute beauty (6) PREACH {P{R}EACH}
24 Era not dedicated to shortwave broadcast on tube (2,4) TV SHOW SHOrTWaVe*
25 List to move on screen (6) SCROLL [DD]

DOWN
1   Well-read lot inebriated, irate, lost the plot (8) LITERATI {LIT}{IRATE*}
2   Ace abandoning A-team for now (3,3) PRO TEM {PRO} {TEaM}
3   Reckless revolutionary had no leg (8) HEADLONG*
4   Move freely through a series of lessons (6) COURSE [DD]
5   Poignancy in approach employed by Mavericks, say (6) PATHOS {PATH}{OS}
7   ...sharp as King Canute, in the end (6) ASTUTE {AS}{TUT}{c...tE}
8   Homicidal toff beheaded and mutilated by the powers that be (11) OFFICIALDOM {hOMICIDAL+tOFF}*
14 Intellectual baron gets into intoxicated disagreement (8) HIGHBROW {HIGH}{B}{ROW}
15 Seer finding love at end of meditation in spectator (6-2) LOOKER-ON {LOOKER}-{O}{m...oN}
16 Delaware folks that primarily make crackers (6) DEMENT {DE}{MEN}{That}
17 Lead instrument that's mightier than the épée? (6) PENCIL [CD]
19 Sharp like garden tool? (6) RAKISH [DD]
20 Portray in nude picture (6) DEPICT [T]

GRID

17 comments:

  1. I have a hat that goes to my head occasionally. I didn't it was a fedora.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My wife says it's not only hat that goes to my head. She refused to say what else.

      Delete
  2. Have you seen the following post made earlier in the day:

    http://thehinducrosswordcorner.blogspot.in/2015/03/chennai-crossie-open-iit-madras-18-apr.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Since it is just below this post everyone is bound to see it when they scroll down to the bottom of this post when they first log in to add a comment

      Delete
  3. True. But if someone doesn't scroll down enough, one might miss it. Hence I thought of providing the link to make a pointed reference to it. I realise it might be superfluous.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice one from Skulldugger. Tough going in South-West corner otherwise enjoyed solving it. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. 8 Homicidal toff beheaded and mutilated by the powers that be (11) OFFICIALDOM {hOMICIDAL+tOFF}*

    Beheading of letters involves here two words. Any limit? Can it be more than two?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shall we say all words before 'Beheaded', irrespective of nos.?

      Delete
    2. I used the letter count of the entry to tell me how many words needed to be "beheaded"! :) I agree with Padmanabhan here - the "beheaded" can be taken to apply to all the preceding words.

      Delete
    3. Thanks, Abhay! Shall follow your technique hereafter!! :)

      Delete
  6. How about

    Homicidal toff beheaded twice over and mutilated by the powers that be (11)

    Jus' kidding.

    ReplyDelete
  7. A few blanks (SW like MB), a few doubts on annotation, but still enjoyed the nice CW.
    Seer- I was bowled. Not a sage, but a looker- falls in the category of flower for a river.
    Also, long since I played Peekaboo with my grandson. Well, tha sums up the SW.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thoroughly enjoyed this - thank you, Skulldugger! Several remarkable clues in there - OFFICIALDOM, NIGHTINGALE, TOGA, PLIERS, to name a few.

    Thank you to DG for the blog, especially for the parsing of FEDERATE - I got the word from the checking letters and the approximate definition, but hadn't a clue about the wordplay till your annotation made it seem so obvious!

    I have doubts about two of the clues:
    - 10a: "United in league" suggests that the answer is in the past tense (FEDERATED). "Unite in league" would have been right, IMO.
    - 24a: Given that the letters of "era" don't appear in that order in "shortwave", shouldn't the removal indicator be accompanied by an anind?

    ReplyDelete
  9. I don't see a problem with definition in 10A... Federate is also an adjective...
    http://www.chambers.co.uk/search.php?query=Federate&title=21st\

    ReplyDelete

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