YECH!!! will be an understatement for this one. Please don't ask me for any explanation for some of the answers, as I don't have them!!!!
ACROSS
1 - Principal element (4) - LEAD [DD]
9 - Cocktail gent has mixed as fast as possible (7,3,5) - AGAINST THE CLOCK*
10 - Lacking taste from the puff lately (4) - FLAT [T]
11 - Fast arab turns back even to upwind (5) - {RAP<-}ID Anno pending (Addendum - {RA<-}{P}{I}{D} Thanks to Anokha - see comments)
12 - Heartless Roy is holding you and the black stone (4) - R(-o){U}{B}Y
13 - Politician is following the case somehow leaving Edward with the naughty child (5) - SCA(-e)*{MP}
14 - Long trips taken by sea explorers! (7) - VOYAGES [CD]
16 - Birds irritate the calf in the capital of Sri Lanka (7) - FALC*{ON}{S}
18 - Sound to disturb the development stage (5) - PHASE ? (Addendum - PHASE(~faze) Thanks to Anokha)
22 - Race around area of land (4) - ACRE*
23 - Roll dice to host a party (5) - THROW [DD]
24 - After midnight, it is all right to go out of control (4) - {AM}{OK}
25 - A cut above the basic is mandatory at first for the spirit world (15) - {SUPER}{NATURAL}{IS}{M}
26 - First to dye the beard after sunset (4) - {D}{AWN} This must be a first if Dawn comes after sunset and I suppose the sun will rise in the west!!!!
DOWN
2 - With hesitation, I and the saint are in charge of the debater (7) - {ER}{I}{ST}{IC} New word for me
3 - Start to dodge one second crook endlessly for the money the man is picking out (14) - {D}{I}{S}{CRIMINA(-l)}TING
4 - Quick to barge in Leeds every second (5) - AGILE [T]
5 - Finishes the card game (5) - STOPS [DD]
6 - Mummy holding the red hot owl gone off to sleep soundly (4,2,3,5) - DEAD TO THE WORLD Poor mummy
7 - Initially good looks often require immense approval from a girl (6) - {G}{L}{O}{R}{I}{A} [T]
8 - Infection disturbs the basic beast regularly (7) - SCABI*{ES}
15 - Mediator’s job? (5,2) - PATCH UP [CD]
17 - Intelligent class the lady will start to rule (6) - {CL}{EVE}{R}
19 - Samajwadi leader has a structure opening in the direction of the bird (7) - {S}{WALL}{O}{W}
20 - Brother cooks the hot liquid (5) - {BR}{OTH}
21 - Unpleasant woman buried in a poor setting (5) - {W}ORSE Reminds me of the recent debate on one of Neyartha's clues resulting in DOLCE
First time I am seeing a grid with no repetions in the numbers of Across and Down clues
ReplyDelete11ac RAPID: ARab turns back (RA<-) even to uPwInD
ReplyDelete18ac PHASE: ~faze (disturb)
She has one crazy brain, col.
Dear Colonel,
ReplyDeleteI do not have the full annotation for 11 Ac, but it seems to me that "PID" comes from the even letters of upwind. We then have to account for "RA" which I am not sure how it comes about from "Arab".
Krish
@Krish,
ReplyDeleteSee Anokha's post just before yours, the answer for AR is there
other grid pecularities - an aversion to acrosses, the block pattern is strange...and the clues are uniformly bad, only one or two good ones in there.
ReplyDelete@anokha: She has one crazy brain.
i would agree with the crazy part, would not agree with the latter. :)
A computer program with definitions could make a better grid and clues if such rules are allowed for clue-framing! :o
My cryptic clue for the day goes:
1D. Her clumsy moves ain't a good jig (4,5)
Anokha has probably got what NJ intended, but really!
ReplyDeleteWhy is "even to upwind" = PID and not OPID?
If "a stage of development" = "development stage", then I suppose "a pang of envy" = "envy pang" and "a lot of food" = "food lot".
Shuchi,
ReplyDeleteI think it is pointless trying to find fault with NJ's clues as obviously she is not bothered. If I were in her place, seeing the kind of comments being passed around, I would have beeb squirming in embarassment. It's obvious she is not bothered as long as she gets paid for what she is producing or else she is really thick skinned to be continuing after reading all this stuff. I suppose it's a question of making money and that's it.
@TJC
ReplyDeleteTouché!
@Shuchi & Col.
You said it Shuchi - this has become a "guess the compiler's intention" exercise! Better yet, it is now a "CW crime solving exercise" - NJ commits the CW crime(s) and we try to solve it!
Re Col.'s comment on the DAWN clue:
Dawn comes after Sunset if you remain awake throughout which is what NJ probably does to come up with all these weird clues. No wonder she is aptly named "Jaggi" instead of "Soyee!"
6d is also a very bad clue! Where did dead come from?
ReplyDeleteIf 'RED HOT OWL' gives: to world. Leaving behind EH. "dead" and an extra T comes from?
Or if 'RED HOT OWL' gives: THE WORLD. We have an 'O'. Then 'dead' and 't' comes from where?
If "dead" comes from mummy & "the" comes from "the red hot owl" then what happens to the extra "he"?
Am I missing something here?
For 3d, I could get to 'D I S CRIMINA'. How to get the 'ting'? Is it from 'picking' indicating that the solution must end with 'ing' so 'dis crimina ting'?
Col 5d: is from a game called Fan Tan or Sevens or Stops:
boardgames.about.com/od/cardgames/a/fan_tan.html
It is also listed in the web-site you link to under 'F'