Tuesday 12 April 2016

No 11674, Tuesday 12 Apr 2016, Spinner


ACROSS
1   One with guts to expose scam (6,6) SQUASH RACKET {SQUASH} {RACKET}
10 Wife starts to fry grain (5) WHEAT {W}{HEAT}
11 Gave data set with new value (9) ADVANTAGE {GAVE+DATA+N}*
12 Vegetable buried in spot at orchard (6) POTATO [T]
13 Locked in? Stop consuming calories, miss! (8) ENCLOSED {EN{C}{LOSE}D}
15 Ace almost flounders incredibly, after wicket (9) WONDERFUL {W}{FLOUNDERs}
16 Beer-drinking boy is talented (4) ABLE {A{B}LE}
20 Bank gets second place (4) POST {PO{S}T}
21 Systematically flay clue mistakenly bypassing some rules (9) CAREFULLY {FLAY+CLUES}* around {R}
24 A bit of canvassing by a politician to gain ground? (8) CAMPAIGN {Ca...g}{A}{MP}{GAIN*} &lit
26 Workshop made odd suit without designer's lead (6) STUDIO {O+SUIT}* around {De...r} (Addendum - {ODd+SUIT}* - See comments)
28 Country crushed as a ritual (9) AUSTRALIA*
29 Sarfraz ornamentally conceals sharp instrument (5) RAZOR [T]
30 Crawlers with hundred legs, hiding a butterfly at heart (12) CATERPILLARS [CD] (Addendum - {C}{A}{butTERfly}{PILLARS) - See comments)

DOWN
2   Doubts? Probe Spinner's alternate down clues at the end (9) QUESTIONS {QUEST}{I}{dOwN}{c..eS}
3   Geographic coordinate with no linearity at first, involves Ptolemy's second approach (8) ATTITUDE {AlT{pTo...y}ITUDE} (Addendum - {lAT{pTo...y}ITUDE - See comments)
4   Captain ate with England's opener (4) HEAD {H{En...d}AD}
5   Commercial undertaking ultimately involves risks (10) ADVENTURES {AD}{VENTURE}{i...eS}
6   Easy-going family delays regularly (6) KINDLY {KIN}{DeLaYs}
7   Frogs transformed on affectionate damsel's smooch, basically (5) TOADS Acrostic My COD
8   Cried after son was charged (5) SWEPT {S}{WEPT}
9   Badgers want short tail clipped (7) NEEDLES NEEDLESs (Addendum - {NEED}{LESs} - See comments)
14 Organised a trial run with group's chief, involving three stakeholders (10) TRIANGULAR {A+TRIAL+RUN+Gr..p}*
17 Vehicle animal draws with zero running (9) BULLDOZER {BULL}{D}{ZERO*}
18 Unusual cryptic places captivating setter (7) SPECIAL {I} in {PLACES}*
19 Ethnic group on mountain range (8) CULTURAL {CULT}{URAL}
22 Repeat of nonsense is below standard (6) PARROT {PAR}{ROT}
23 Place for suits and boots? (5) COURT [DD] {If it was MOJRI as shown below then we would have had a Pangram!!}
25 Composition's metre basically untouched — just as it was written! (5) MUSIC {M}{Un...d}{SIC}
27 Cab fee is on Spinner (4) TAXI {TAX}{I}

GRID

42 comments:

  1. I had 26a as (odd suit -D)*

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  2. 3D I took it as (L) ATITUDE with T from Ptomley

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    Replies
    1. Latitude as a Geographical co-ordinate is more suitable

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    2. But does it not involve jumbling of some letters? I think it works only as shown by Col.

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    3. I took Altitude (which means angular distance of a celestial object) and replaced l with t to get attitude.

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    4. I intended Latitude drops L and takes T. Altitude may not translate to 'Geographical Coordinate'.

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  3. 30 Crawlers with hundred legs, hiding a butterfly at heart (12) CATERPILLARS [CD]

    C+A+TER+PILLARS TER from But(ter)fly

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  4. And 30a as C a ter pillars ter=heart of butterfly

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    Replies
    1. And I thought it would almost qualify as a &Lit

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  5. In some cases With is used as a container and in one Without is used.I generally get confused on it in Spinner's puzzles.

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    Replies
    1. I'm not for using without as a container indicator. I don't think I've used it, at least in the last year or so. So with is the way to go.

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    2. Yeah .. I mistook the Studio puzzle as container. But I am not too convinced that 'with' indicates containment either.

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  6. Squash racket is a totally genius clue :) Enjoyed others too.. thanks Spinner..not fully sure of 23d - Court?? I put it down as Board but i thought it should be the name of a place??

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    Replies
    1. The intention was to go for court as a place where lawSUITS happen and a place for boots in the sporting context (sports people refer to their footwear as boots rather than shoes). I guess the boots side of it wasn't straightforward.

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    2. Tennis and badminton courts will file suits against me now.

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  7. 9D I took it as NEED + LES(S)

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  8. So did I, but when I got Squash racket I had to rethink and settled on attitude. Did not quite parse it until I saw it in the blog.

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    Replies
    1. Attitude is right. We were discussing on the Anno.

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  9. Thank you Spinner for a brisk start of the day.
    23D- court is a place where they file suits, but boots? Though I filled it thanks to crossings,I could not get the hang of it.Can someone pl. explain?

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    Replies
    1. Court also means ä Court shoe as per Chambers.

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    2. Thank you KKR. That is new to me.

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    3. I took it as BOARD... 'a place where men with suits and boots are generally seen!'

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  10. I know samosas are not healthy food. But these are good to crunch and munch. Thanks Spinner!

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  11. Minus samosas...still enjoyable! Thank you, Spinner. :)

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  12. I put ALTITUDE. Am I eligible for samosas?

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    Replies
    1. There is no L, so you can have T in stead!

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    2. Sure. Only it will not be free and would need to be paid for.))

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  13. 6D Easy-going may be KIND, but can it be KINDLY?

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    Replies
    1. Kindly is also an adjective that can be used in the same context as kind. 'She was a kindly old lady'.

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  14. I hope Spinner will pay cab fee when I visit Chennai :D

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  15. Logging in late..could complete the puzzle now after doing about half in the morning..
    Lovely puzzle..squash racket..toads court caterpillars et al were 15 A..

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  16. Been a while since comments hit the 40 mark. Thanks for all the feedback :)

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