Saturday 26 December 2009

No 9724, Saturday 26 Dec 09, Gridman

17 & 22D have me stumped for now. 17D looks like MISMATCH but then 28A doesn't match!!
ACROSS
1 - Associate to come round father and medical officer (8) - COM{PA}{DR}E
5 - Avoid playing chess with bridge player (6) - ESCH{EW} Where did one S go?
10 - Boor holds remains of attack (4,3) - L{ASH} OUT
11 - I said: “See, it’s on the tail of a peacock!” (7) - (~i){EYE}{SPOT}

12 - Reptile – one, unknown, driven out of South American country (6) - {I}{GU(-y)ANA}

13 - Rumour about block-buster: V-1 (4,4) - {BUZZ} {BOMB}

15 - Detail in one piece (4) - ITEM [CD]
16 - Now, end-term changes arouse curiosity (10) - WONDERMENT*
18 - Relative, after sleep, to phone for place-setting part (6,4) - {NAP}{KIN} {RING}
20 - Hurried with small hamper (4) - {S}{PED}
23 - On church, Rome’s dilly-dallying again (4,4) - {ON}{CE} {MORE*}
24 - Lathe-worker to shift with hesitation (6) - {TURN}{ER}
26 - ”Too much,” old teacher returns rice dish (7) - {RIS<-}OTTO Anno pending (Addendum - {RIS<-}{O}{TTO<-} - Thanks to Chaturvasi, see his comments) 27 - Chart drawn up on each windpipe (7) - {TRACH*}{EA}
28 - Not an altruistic quality (6) - EGOISM [CD]
29 - Yanked hatch up: last character is within. That’s tenacity! (8) - CHUT{Z}PAH*
DOWN
1 - The way to a crash? (9,6) - COLLISION COURSE [E]
2 - I am up to clever lures to produce disorder (7) - {MI<-}{SRULE*}
3 - Tot up a pony (6) - {A}{MOUNT}
4 - Rubbish Oriental method of learning (4) - {ROT}{E} Could never do this at school
6 - They make explosive expirations (8) - SNEEZERS [E]
7 - Greeting, lead an individual to a joint (7) - {HI}{PB}{ONE}
8 - How the opener of an innings would walk to the pitch and beard the bouncers – very nervously (4,5,6) - WITH BATED BREATH [DD] (Addendum - {WITH BAT{ED BREATH*} - Thanks to Suresh, see comments)
9 - Underproductive Delhi’s top worker is no longer needed (9) - {REDUN*}{D}{ANT}
14 - Drilled, we hear, Rex to bellow back in corporate meeting place (9) - (~bored){BOARD}{R}{OOM<-} )
17 - A pair of shoes that is not actually a pair (8) - ?I?M?T?S (Addendum - MISMATES [CD])
19 - Painter’s picture presented to small association (7) - {PIC}{ASSO}
21 - Old English magazine on high scrap (5-2) - {PUNCH}-{UP}
22 - Where you may find rich Arab bores (6) - ?U?A?T (Addendum - KUWAIT [CD] Good one - Thanks to Richard see his comments below)
25 - Sibyl without inordinate desire (4) - (-w)ITCH


GRID

11 comments:

  1. Just making a guess:

    17 down: MISMATES - a pair, being not together emotionally. Not sure about the shoes connection.

    22 down - Where you may find rich Arab bores (6) - ?U?A?T

    The only word that fits the bill is KUWAIT. Although the word 'bores' is a good play on oil rigs, will our Kuwaiti friends take it kindly?

    Richard

    ReplyDelete
  2. Taking it granted that the above two are correct, I can be sure of having completed the c/w quite in time.

    Today's crossword was quite a challenge. Some of the clues were brilliantly contrived, which element one could perhaps consider a hallmark of Gridman creations.

    Buzz bomb, a reference to German V-1 rocket, was a nice one. I was happy to recall some rarely-used words like 'chutzpah'.

    'Collision course'. 'Napkin ring', 'With bated breath' and few others too had interesting clues.

    Looking forward to solving similar ones regularly.


    Richard

    ReplyDelete
  3. Correction:

    The first line to read 'Taking it for granted...'.


    Richard

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Richard,
    I got MISMATE exactly at 8:30 by when the day's post was already published.
    KUWAIT just didn't hit me, though it is quite obvious

    ReplyDelete
  5. Today is the last of this Gridman series, you will be tearing your hair out with Manna from Monday

    ReplyDelete
  6. Mismate needs to be used with an object, that's why the shoe is there

    ReplyDelete
  7. 8D anno is as under
    With bat {ed breath*}
    Bracketed letters are an anagram of 'beard the'

    ReplyDelete
  8. Re
    ”Too much,” old teacher returns rice dish (7)
    ”Too much,” - OTT - recognised abbr for over the top
    old - O
    teacher SIR
    all reversed

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Col

    I found today's xword very tough. since i have being doing this only for 5 months now, i got a few after which i gave up and looked up your blog...i guess patience is a virtue.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi tpa,
    Yes, you have to be patient

    ReplyDelete

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