Did not enjoy a couple of clues for reasons as shown against them.
ACROSS
1 - Got tapes made out for one who is said to be a confidant (8) – GATEPOST*
5 - Almost relate about fool sporting tuft (6) – T{ASS}EL (-l) Youngsters of today may laugh but in my college days having Tassels at the bottom of jeans was the in thing, I had one of them.
9 - Danger signal from businessman leaning back and holding a foreign article (3,5) – RED A{LE}RT<- 10 - Commando horseman going around the leading ambassador (6) – R{A}IDER
12 - Consumes what is on the menu (4) – EATS [CD]
13 - Sum up: no mag carries a great work of art (6,4) – MAGNUM OPUS*
15 - Decry many hoodlums topping up illicit drink (6) – HOOT{C}H
17 - Congratulation to workers for silk from south India (5) – PAT{TU} Agreed the Hindu is a paper largely read in the south, but a word like this will I feel will not be found in an English dictionary (correct me if I am wrong)
20 - Main canoe is rocking (5) – OCEAN*
21 - Son leaving crude mother is one who is worshipped (6) – BRAH{MA}
24 - What models present is diagram of cow (4,6) – NEAT FIGURE (Update - Neat from Cow and Figure from Model)
27 - Cereal for artist and soldier (4) – ACROSS 10 - Commando horseman going around the leading ambassador (6) – R{A}IDER
29 - It gives cover to a pupil (6) – EYELID [CD]
30 - Deny agent Abe is blown up (8) – ABNEGATE* A new word for me
31 - What a summer does (6) – TOTALS [CD]
32 - How films are cast with actors (8) - STARRILY [CD] I wonder if this is wrong, though it is right as per my dictionary
DOWN
1 - A cultural place? (6) – GARDEN (Update - See Bhargav's comment below)
2 - Carry around a primarily dangerous article until this point (2,4) – TO {D}{A}TE
3 - One might take it lying down (4) – PILL
4 - Extremely sandy and rather airy country (5) – {SY}RIA(-y)*
6 - Wake-up call? (5) – ALARM [CD]
7 - Part of the street for the pedestrians (8) – SIDEPATH [CD} First time I am hearing footpath being called a sidepath, as per wikipedia it is meant for cyclists, a sidewalk is for pedestrians
8 - Egg is under the bird; yet it is a bloomer (8) – LARK{SPUR} Beautiful flower.
11 - Article somewhat hard on an Indian State (6) – AN{DHRA*}
14 - Anna of old, for instance (4) – COIN [CD]
16 - To capture nothing in the island (6) - TO{BAG}O
17 - Elicit information about onset of mange in young dog (4) – PU{M}P
18 - Most idiotic small room Stein did up (8) COR{NIEST*} (Update - LOO{NIEST}* see Shuchi's comment below)
19 - Last month at present time hospital department was in a deteriorated state (8) – DEC{AD}ENT
22 - I ran wildly around a good town in AP (6) – N{AG}ARI* Got bogged down a bit as I had RAGIA initially, later realised RANGIA is not in Arunachal which also is AP!!
23 - Crafty deal little boy struck within to a great extent (6) – WI{DE(-al)}LY
25 - Luxury stuff gathered around redhead (5) – F{R}ILL
26 - Programmed machine in section of plant to check blood group (5) - RO{B}OT
28 - Spin around with a suggestive grin (4) – LEER <-{GI}
1 - A cultural place? (6) – GARDEN {CD}
ReplyDeleteA place where plants are cultured. A nice clue, I thought.
Hello Col,
ReplyDeleteI have pleasant memory associations for the words TASSEL and LARKSPUR too, enjoyed seeing them the puzzle. 20A and 23D were my favourite clues.
17A: PATTU: I didn't know this word, but got it from the wordplay. It isn't there in the online dictionaries.
24A: NEAT FIGURE: A double-definition. Models have neat figures, and neat is a bovine animal too. So a diagram of cow is a "neat figure".
The first part of the clue is a little off I think. "What models present" is the items they're showcasing - clothes, watches, etc, not their figures though they happen they have them! Also the plural leads you to think of a plural answer - "what a model presents" might be NEAT FIGURE, but "what models present" are NEAT FIGURES.
32A: I've put down STARRILY too, the clue is a bit vague if that's the expected answer.
18D: LOO NIEST*, LOO=small room
A model need not necessarily be a model in the sense as represented by you, it can also represent a figure for eg 'model of an aeroplane' etc
ReplyDeleteShuchi
ReplyDeleteI forgot to add NEAT also means a bovine animal or animals hence NEAT (from Cow) FIGURE (from Model)got that from the Professor, plus the explanation given by you, so double definition it is
"A model need not necessarily be a model in the sense as represented by you, it can also represent a figure for eg 'model of an aeroplane' etc"
ReplyDeleteYes that's possible. With that meaning, is "what models represent" an accurate definition for "neat figure"? Not in my view.