Wednesday 15 July 2015

No 11447, Wednesday 15 Jul 2015, xChequer


Ditto opening comments of yesterday.

ACROSS
7   3 trips to cover city inspection (6) SEARCH {SHARE}* around C 'C' for City?
8   High rates allowing fabrication of designer studios (8) ATELIERS {RATES}* around {LIE}
9   Leave friend cold on return? Nonsense (8) CLAPTRAP {C}{LAP}{TRAP}<=
10 Act by old, old man, Dingus (6) DOODAD {DO}{O}{DAD}
11 When position is a virtue (5) ASSET {AS}{SET}
12 New town in Iraq built with this money? (6) QINTAR {QI{N}{T}AR*} Bhargav must be having one of these?
14 Risk is ignored on straining cardiac limit, a grave sign perhaps (11,4) DIACRITICAL MARK {CARDIAC+LIMIT+A}* on {RisK}
17 Grant to stop endless killing (6) LETHAL {LET}{HALt}
18 Badly hurts mass objectives (5) MAIMS {M}{AIMS}
22 What in general comprises loathing (6) HATING [T]
23 Still one minute to get moving (8) IMMOBILE {1}{M}{MOBILE}
24 Beef from cow slaughter with millions left in agony (8) COMPLAIN {COw}{M}{P{L}AIN}
25 __________ is believing in a gnome? (6) SEEING [FITB/DD]

DOWN
1   Controversial article is down-to-earth (9) REALISTIC*
2   It's an old fashioned disease to complain about pressure (6) GRIPPE {GRI{P}PE}
3   Part of second race (5) SHARE {S}{HARE}
4   Bitter dispute to sell foreign tea bags back in court (8) VENDETTA {VEND}{ET{courT}A*}
5   Constant distribution of oil and pulses, a basic norm for mass representation (8) KILOGRAM {K}{OIL*}{GRAM}
6   Bit closed about crush (5) TREAD ? {T{RE}AD}
8   Ten runs in final impact represented a sound boost (13) AMPLIFICATION {10} in {FINAL+IMPACT}*
13 Folding seat hampers clutch (9) CRUMPLING {C{RUMP}LING}
15 One lifting hands in hope following appeal for organ (8) CALLIOPE {CALL}{1}{hOPE}
16 Complete bid, vast in retrospect (8) INTEGRAL {1 NT}{EGRAL<=}
19 Walked slowly, heading away from bet (6) AMBLED gAMBLED
20 Basic rule soon after century (5) CANON {C}{ANON}
21 Wrong a girl (5) AMISS {A}{MISS}

GRID

30 comments:

  1. 7 3 trips to cover city inspection (6) SEARCH {SHARE}* around C 'C' for City?

    Abbreviations for CITY = C, CT, CY

    ReplyDelete
  2. 25a __________ is believing in a gnome? (6)

    I believe xChequer is also hinting at the other meaning of 'gnome' (maxim), of which 'Seeing is believing' is an example.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought a gnome was a 'saying' ?

      If the first part is an FITB clue, I'm wondering how does the second part contribute to 'seeing'. Or may be should just read the whole thing as a single cryptic.

      Delete
    2. 'Seeing is believing' is a saying

      Delete
  3. 14Ac 'on' to be removed in anno. A on B = BA

    ReplyDelete
  4. Did much better than yesterday and enjoyed doing it today.
    A small doubt about 15D-
    'One lifting hands' is for removal of H. H for hand may be fine, but 'Hands'? Agreed this makes the surface reading good and plausible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think H for hands comes from the measure of horses. Not the H in LHS or RHS

      Delete
  5. 16 Complete bid, vast in retrospect (8) INTEGRAL {1 NT}{EGRAL<=}

    {1 NT} for please?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 'One No Trumps' represented as 1 NT in Bridge

      Delete
    2. It's a bid in the game of bridge.

      Delete
    3. Thanks ma'am. I know only one 'bridge' i.e. Basin Bridge in Chennai ;-)

      Delete
    4. Very interesting and probably the best game for deep thinking almost close to chess. Second in my list of hobbies is to read about Bridge- First? Of course CW.

      Delete
  6. Bhavan,
    Just googled it to find that it is nothing but what we call 'Jaan' in Tamil.According to an old tamil saying each man's height is eight times 'Jaan' by his own hand.

    ReplyDelete
  7. In today's Guardian crossword 26624 Clue 27a was numerically cryptic and I am glad I solved it.
    It is what is called a signature clue.
    That is, if it is seen in a crossword by another setter/amateur it will become suspect and raise doubts of plagiarism.
    Dear solvers, have you at any time identified such a signature clue in the work of any THC setter?
    Or, THC setters, are you proud of any such clue that you have written?

    ReplyDelete
  8. +1 for the preamble. Excellent clues for VENDETTA & COMPLAIN (esp 'slaughter' was misleading).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 'slaughter' makes for a great surface, unfortunately the cryptic grammar gets problematic with it.

      Since the wordplay follows 'from', the structure has to be something like 'cow, with slaughtered, ...'.

      Delete
  9. Lovely crossword. Brilliant and sneaky use of container/content and deletion indicators throughout.
    My only nit is with cluing IMMOBILE(still) as I+M+MOBILE(moving).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I too thought so initially. But given that Still is used in a different context in the surface/clue I thought it is fine.

      Delete
    2. I agree with Shrikanth. That was my thought too.
      The surface reading of the clue is so good that we can overlook the fact that a root word is used in wordplay.

      Delete
  10. I don't have a Qintar! I am more into Republic of India coins....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CGB, I couldn't quite get what made the boss relate you to Albania or its currency. Are you a numismatist? Just curious to know.

      Delete
    2. Yes he is and as stated he specialises in Indian coins

      Delete
  11. Missed out on all the action today.. & one of those hectic days where I couldnt solve due to work pressure...despite col putting the clues at 5:45 AM in the hub

    ReplyDelete

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