Some excellent clues today. 10D being the best and the last to fall.
ACROSS
1 - A cap on plastic money (4,5) - CASH LIMIT [CD]
5 - Clean up or begin sulking, shed tears (5) - {S}WEEP
8 - Way of cooking with cheese etc. gets upper-class rating, a surprise (2,6) - {A}{U} GRATIN* Anything with cheese on it is Yummy.
9 - ”After us the ___” (Mme de Pompadour) (6) - DELUGE [CD] After a google search
11 - Woman’s garment for a conservative festival (5) - {C}HOLI Loved playing Holi when serving in the army, a great festival. It is by no means conservative as is made out in the surface readibg of the clue.
12 - Iced tea ma brewed for the weak and gaunt (9) - EMACIATED*
13 - Crushing grapes? Sprinkle water (6) - SPARGE New word for me. Sparging is a process in crushing Grapes to make wine as well
14 - Half dry — or half wet? (8) - SEMIARID [CD]
16 - Benevolent one resolves trade union’s trial (8) - ALTRUIST*
18 - Accountant General has time to be amazed (6) - {AG}{HAS}{T}
22 - Wife of Uriah, and David (9) - BATHSHEBA [CD]
23 - Leading character from Greece (5) - ALPHA [CD]
24 - After end of treatment, cheroot is returned — very sad (6) - {T}RAGIC <- )
25 - Hearing for the aspiring performer (8) - AUDITION [CD]
26 - The girl gets points for radiance (5) - SHE{E}{N}
27 - Gas in a welder’s torch (9) - ACETYLENE [CD]
DOWN
1 - Opportunities which, when missed, may prove costly in cricket (7) - CHANCES [CD]
2 - She may be from Rome and in some respects ignorant (7) - SIGNORA [T]
3 - What may not be asked of a witness results in the quiet dean losing out (7,8) - LEADING QUESTIONS*
4 - People accept help from a girl (6) - M{AID}EN
5 - Relative density (8,7) - SPECIFIC GRAVITY [CD]
6 - It has zero latitude (7) - EQUATOR [CD]
7 - With a soft edge, journalist made an earnest appeal (7) - {P}{LEAD}{ED}
10 - Festive gatherings, back in Tamil Nadu or Massachusetts (5) - SALEM<- )
15 - Tree in a small enclosure… (5) - {A}{S}PEN
16 - … and an evergreen such as Brutus endlessly cultivated (7) - ARBUTUS(-s)*
17 - Determine the concentration of a bird on charge (7) - {TIT}{RATE} Remember doing this drop by drop literally in the Chemistry lab!!
19 - Inform one about a state award, say (7) - {AP}{PRISE} (~prize)
20 - One receiving coaching coaches beginners in elementary education (7) - TRAIN{E}{E}
21 - Gesture of respect on the parade ground (6) - SALUTE [CD]
Good puzzle today with many good clues. Picking the ones I had trouble with:
ReplyDelete8 AC: I was able to solve with the crossings - a good clue.
11AC had me stumped for a while. I kept wondering what a conservative festival might be! Thanks to Vasi Sir's subtle hint in the Orkut Forum.
10DN was the last clue I solved!
Hi Bala,
ReplyDeleteSince I like cooking cheese omelettes and the presence of upper class, it did not take me long to get 8A without the crossings.
10D fell last in my case as well.
Gemini
ReplyDelete24A end of treatmen//t// = T,
cheroot returned = RAGIC <-
very sad = {TR}{AGIC}
1D It is not only CATCHES that win matches but run-out, LBW etc CHANCES
7D soft = P in crosswords
edge = LEAD
journalist = ED (short for editor)
earnest appeal = {P}{LEAD}{ED}
15D a = A
small = S (in crosswords)
enclosure = PEN
tree = {A}{S}{PEN} and by the way ENTRY is not a tree
16D as brutus endlessly = ASBRUTU
cultivated is the indication for anagram
evergreen = required definition = ARBUTUS
I suggest you visit www.crosswordunclued.com and go through all the links provided there, by Shuchi, and you will be able to improve your crosswording skills tremendously
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ReplyDeleteThe first Holi that I saw was in 1954 - when we were in Secunderabad. I was a 11-year-old and children of other Air Force officers - all north Indian - came home and smeared coloured powder on me. This was novel to me, as until that time I was not aware of the festival as we children were living in the Madras province. In Chennai, even now Holi is celebrated on any noticeable scale only in areas where people from north India live in considerable numbers.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, before we went to S'bad I was studying in Tamil medium: there I was pitchforked into an English medium school.
These friends used to speak in English and I was not too uncomfortable but occasionally they would use a word or two (pertaining to bodily function) that meant nothing to me: once I asked my father what a particular word meant and he, without batting an eyelid, said what it was.
I guess my working with words goes back to those years!
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ReplyDeleteThe phrase "après nous le déluge" is originally attributed to Louis XV. He, being a King, would have used 'nous' ('us' what is called the royal pronoun)
ReplyDeleteLater, lesser personages may have used 'moi' (me).
Hence the variant, I think.