Sunday, 1 March 2026

The Hindu Cryptic on Sunday No 45, Sunday 01 Mar 2026, Vidwan

Three answers per commenter till 4 PM (Annotations compulsory) 
Please submit all your answers in one comment.  

(COMMENTS ENTERED WITH LESS THAN THREE ANSWERS/ANNOTATIONS WILL BE DELETED WITHOUT NOTICE, UNLESS THE COMMENTER SPECIFIES THAT IT IS A COMPENSATION FOR A REPEAT)

ACROSS
7   Fit and resize loose clothing/uniform (7) SEIZURE {SEIZ{U}RE*}
8   Lead planet with incomplete ring of light (7) MARSHAL {MARS}{HALo}
10 High heel tilts toe unfortunately (8) STILETTO*
11 Flower had around 51 beads at the centre (6) DAHLIA {HAD}*{LI}{beAds}
12 He's treading unsteadily being myopic! (11) NEARSIGHTED*
15 Grouse meat (4) BEEF [DD]
17 Musical hosted by Billy Rich (5) LYRIC [T]
18 Heavy Metal guitarist, who plays solos and riffs (4) LEAD [DD]
19 Buy a steeple, perhaps for rest of grace (6-5) BEAUTY-SLEEP*
22 In situ valuation for a small state (6) TUVALU [T]
23 Scraps of shells covering a button on keyboard (8) RESCINDS {R{ESC}INDS}
25 Team adopts uniform, one about topping oneself (7) SUICIDE {S{U}{1}{C}IDE}
26 Dream about one acquiring large car company (7) DAIMLER {DA{1}M{L}ER*}

DOWN
1   Despatched purchased stolen goods, fellow escapes getting punished (9) SENTENCED {SENT}{fENCED}
2   Plant a feverish zeal with hint of anarchism (6) AZALEA {A}{ZEAL*}{An...m}
3   Trun oto basically jog (4) TROT Acrostic
4   Gauges small horse cart returning with parasites (10) YARDSTICKS {S+DRAY}<={TICKS}
5   Old shape, perhaps of a flowering plant (8) ASPHODEL*
6   Fellow on island, cold and feverish! (5) MANIC {MAN}{I}{C}
9   Spooner's mistake spotters or lyricists (11) SONGWRITERS (~wrong sighters to songwriters)
13 Gauls in mad rush for an English salad (10) SALMAGUNDI*
14 Epic dream about living in the present (5,4) CARPE DIEM*
16 Following old bunch carrying wife's time piece (8) FOBWATCH {F}{O}{B{W}ATCH}
20 Mystery topaz, unravelled for top magazine (6) ENIGMA {ENIGMA+TOPAZ}*=TOP MAGAZINE [CA]
21 Peaty soil like Arabian dishmillions consumed (5) HUMUS {HUMmUS}
24 No European servant for a European (4) SLAV SLAVe

Reference List
Uniform = U, 51 = LI, About = C, Large = L, Fellow = F, Small = S, Horse cart = DRAY, Island = I, Cold = C, Following = F, Old = O, Wife = W, Millions = M, European = E

Sunday 08 Mar 2026, IIT (M) WGC, IIT (M) Crossie Open, KrisKross



Announcing the Crossie Open 2026 - Cryptic Crossword competition conducted by the Word Games Club of IIT Madras. It is on March 8th, 2026 at the IIT Madras campus, and I will be hosting it this year.

Registrations are now open - please use this link (google form) to register.

https://forms.gle/eZivoahrNcwt3pTdA