Wednesday 19 July 2017

No 12063, Wednesday 19 Jul 2017, KrisKross


ACROSS
1   Reduces uric salt through treatment (8) CURTAILS*
5   I am back wrapped in tattered coat, that can't be cut further (6) ATOMIC {I'M<=} in {COAT}*
9   Majority of Indians… (8) EIGHTEEN [GK/CD]
10 …work hard, with a new motto (6) SLOGAN {SLOG}{A}{N}
12 Short artist played instrument (5) SITAR ARTISt*
13 Old-timer? (9) HOURGLASS [CD]
14 Senior members wish to be included in parties (6) DOYENS {DO{YEN}S}
16 "Cars wrecked houses" – news by English reader (7) SCANNER {NN}{E} in {CARS}*
19 Sat casually in virgin grassland (7) PASTURE {P{SAT*}URE}
21 Stick had broken earlier (6) ADHERE {HAD*}{ERE}
23 Promise an umbrella? (4,5) RAIN CHECK [C&DD]
25 Agent is mostly penniless (5) BROKE BROKEr
26 A soft skin, according to reports, creates attraction (6) APPEAL {A}{P}{PEAL}(~peel)
27 Pole hiding a weapon without a tip, it is obvious (8) MANIFEST {MA{kNIFE}ST}
28 Criminal loves to start robbing you (6) SOLVER {LOVES*}{Ro..g}
29 What the bride says after some time – "He is madly in love" (8) IDOLATER {I}{DO}{LATER}

DOWN
1   Fold sleeves of robe inside bag (6) CREASE {C{RobE}ASE}
2   Its rough at sea…around twelve, finally becomes fair (9) RIGHTEOUS {ITS+ROUGH}* over {t...vE}
3   In fact, Orson Welles was one (5) ACTOR [T] &lit
4   Worms left trees trimmed at the top (7) LEECHES {L}{bEECHES}
6   Possibly great help to communicate in the past (9) TELEGRAPH* &lit
7   Hot rock music, appreciated initially by grandmother (5) MAGMA {Mu..c}{Ap...d}{G}{MA}
8   Coy nurse perhaps is the centre of attraction (8) CYNOSURE*
11 Studies faces (4) MUGS [DD]
15 Say, oriental spies protect a lady, in order to escape at first (9) ENUNCIATE {E}{NUN}{CIA}{To}{Es...e}
17 Dart into retreat that's extremely cramped (9) NARROWEST {N{ARROW}EST}
18 They exhibited self-control, without taking leave (8) SPARTANS {SANS} taking{PART} Exhibit would have been better
20 The peer's fencing weapon (4) EPEE [T]
21 Difficult week spent in a hospital room (7) AWKWARD {A}{WK}{WARD}
22 I could be in Queer Street (6) SETTER*
24 Force politician to wear garland when rising up (5) IMPEL {MP} in {LEI<=}
25 Advertisement about river fish (5) BRILL {B{R}ILL}

GRID

30 comments:

  1. Lovely puzzle. Enjoyed solving it. My favourites....Hourglass, Scanner & Adolater. Thank you KrissKross.

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  2. Good one as usual. Could 27a have done w/o use of extra articles?

    24d. Do you really need to force them to wear garlands? ;-)

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    Replies
    1. My opinion is that these articles don't seem to be superfluous as they might be sometimes. Elegant surface reading - which will suffer if the articles are removed.

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    2. Pole hiding weapon without tip, is obvious (8) Is also elegant

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    3. Or atleast by removing one 'a':

      Pole hiding a weapon without tip, is obvious (8)

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    4. On 27A, Point taken, Raghu and Col.
      On 24D, I was thinking of the politicians who get bombarded (choked?) with life-size garlands during every meeting, and can't remove them for fear of offending the crowd :)

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  3. I am sure KrissKross when he wrote the clue for 13ac did not have female figures at all in his mind. He is a simple man who was only thinking of the device that is used to measure the passage of time. The pic that is chosen would have been apter if KrissKross' solution was HOURGLASS FIGURE. But it is not so.
    To be frank, I have known only three of these figures. I had never heard of 'newspaper figure'.

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    Replies
    1. I was just being a little naughty :-)

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    2. I know! Old-timers can be and are usually naughty.

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  4. Smooth flowing. Clues are simply well written

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  5. +1
    Enjoyed solving. Thank you Ramki.

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  6. 26A. A typo in the answer. APPEAR to be corrected as APPEAL.

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  7. Also, only 'attraction' is the def.

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    Replies
    1. I had "attraction" as the def in mind (APPEAL as noun to mean attraction)
      "creates" as the connector between wp and def

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    2. Sorry, I got mixed up with 8D

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  8. Smooth crossie,kriss-kross ! is TIME the theme? Eighteen, hourglass, doyens, telegraph ( now obsolete), crease(with age),Raincheck(future pledge) awkward( teenagers' gawkiness) Idolater( I do later) ------ or is it that I'm time-bound as a solver vis-a-vis you, the setter?

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Raju. I did not have any particular theme in mind for this grid :)

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  9. Lovely. Enjoyed thoroughly.9,23&29A- much appealing.We could find a place for ' you' &'I'in the definition. Relished to the core.Simply put quite an enjoyable one.Thank you sir KK.

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  10. Thanks everyone for the feedback!

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  11. Lovely crossword Ramki, enjoyed solving it.
    18D Since the definition is 'Spartans' who were citizens of ancient Sparta, I think using the past tense 'exhibited' is OK.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Arden sir.
      Yes - since Spartans were a race in the past, I used exhibited in the past sense. But agree with Col that present tense may make the surface read more smoothly.

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  12. What an absolutely pleasurable crossword ! Thanks Ramki. Keep them coming

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