1 - Pen: “Saint has rosette with top worn off” (8) - {ST}{
5 - Shattered, American lawyer and the woman died (6) - {DA}{SHE}{D}
9 - News from the sea? (7) - TIDINGS [CD]
10 - Worker on extreme poverty married? Just the opposite! (7) - {ANT}{ON}{Y}{M}
11 - Knave at last going in, had trees cut extremely recklessly (4,5) - {H{E}AD} {FIRS}{T}
12 - One graduated after odd steps (5) - {RUM}{BA}
13 - See, a couple of learners recline (4) - {LO}{LL}
14 - I'm in Seoul cruising in car (9) - LIMOUSINE*
19 - Direction to hail gesture (4) - {W}{AVE}
23 - No backing out of twisting trunks (5) - TORSI
24 - Tyson act a hit, no matter what the consequences may be (2,3,4) - AT ANY COST*
25 - Boy (foreigner) with the hollow tube in lab (7) - {PIP}{ET}{T
27 - Somehow I decry what is used to create a stage effect (3,3) - DRY ICE*
28 - Again about church medical officer attending on footless clergyman (4,4) - {ON}{CE} {MO}{RE
DOWN
1 - Head of school latches shakily onto bags (8) - {S}{ATCHELS*}
2 - Eccentric old theologian to lay without publicity (7) - {O}{DD}{BALL
3 - King discards gun for endless merriment in martial art (4,2) - {K}{UNG*} {FU
4 - Separate at a joint, boy rises to express thoughts (13) - {DIS<-}{ARTICULATE}
6 - Star skater is hauled away (8) - ASTERISK*
7 - One whose job is execution upon orders (7) - HANGMAN [CD]
10 - Domineering one Utah Rotarian negotiated (13) - {AUTHOR{I}TARIAN*}
15 - Quote recalled about YouTube offering circle (8) - {E{CLIP}TIC<-}
16 - When you … …, you've arrived! (3,5) - GET THERE [CD]
18 - Declining a prize? (7) - {A}{TROPHY}
20 - Fruit in a case for a party (7) - {A}{VOC}{A}{DO}
21 - Foolish private investigator has dust thrown about him (6) - {STU{PI}D*}
22 - What a creditworthy writer is given by a publisher (2-4) - BY-LINE [CD]
Hi
ReplyDeleteLiked ST(-br)OCKADE, ASTERISK, DEMEAN(-our), TIDINGS, TORSI(-on<-)E(CLIP)ITC<-,MANCHURIA (Manjuria near the Gobi desert, actualy not a dessert, but a savoury?), LIMOUSINE*, W-AVE, ON-CE-MO-RE(-v), PIPET-TE, A-TROPHY. Overall a pleasant CW.
Lovely set of clues!
ReplyDelete7 - One whose job is execution upon orders (7) - HANGMAN [CD]
ReplyDeleteAfter a recent trip to US, for a moment I thought the solution to be HANDYMAN!!!
Deepak, I had taken as ST(-br)OCKADE, but your anno is better, and brocade is spelt without K.
ReplyDeleteVOC is still inexplicable..
Kishore,
ReplyDeleteSee the link embedded in the word 'case' above
- can someone explain 12a: RUMBA? don't get the rum in it. :)
ReplyDelete- VOC .. duh?!
- PIPETTE had me lost... i still don't get how "ET" fits in there.
Other than that, a good mix of easy, cryptic and thought-provoking clues. :)
thx col. missed the link for voc.
ReplyDeletebut damn... that one's out there! :)
12 - One graduated{BA}// after odd{ODD=RUM}// steps (5) - {RUM}{BA}
ReplyDeletePIP ET TE
ReplyDeletePIP - boy
ET - foreigner (as in extra terrestrial)
TE - hollow THE (without H)
Thx CGB and VJ!
ReplyDeleteDidn't know ODD=RUM.. any idea how that came about?
Also.. ET=foreigner? Diabolical! but nice! :-)
I suppose these aren't uncommon to the seasoned cwers.. i'll get there. :)
ET = Extra Terrestrial
ReplyDeletethx gita
ReplyDelete17A MANCHURIA... I think Gridman wishes to dedicate this clue to Kishore and Deepak.
ReplyDeleteThey've discussed a lot on this Indian delicacy...
Hari,
ReplyDeleteFor VOC see my 8:39 post
Oh yes I love our very own GOBI MANJOORI !!
ReplyDeleteThx Col. I saw it... albeit a bit late. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Deepak, for being e(VOC)ative !
ReplyDeleteHari, hows the internet connectivity in the Himalayas?
ReplyDeleteToo many anagrams in this CW for my liking.
ReplyDeleteCan we get Manjuri in Manchuria?
Good morning all
ReplyDeleteNice set of clues. 90% through. I spelt pipette wrongly. nice to see VJs explanation. Stockade and tidings troubled me long.
Enjoyed solving and week starts well.
Good day.
Mathu
Too many anagrams in this CW for my liking.
ReplyDeleteSuresh is quite entitled to his opinion and even criticism.
But, to put things in perspective, will he, Deepak or anyone else interested examine how many anagrams are in this cw of 30 clues, what is the percentage and whether that is within acceptable limits.
Partial anagrams don't count. By partial anagrams is meant where an anagram is a component in a combination clue.
@ VJ 9:01
ReplyDeletehehe. I went to 2 internet cafes... one of them corrupted my mem card w/ a virus! Fortunately, my friend managed to recover my pics back in B'lore.
P.S: This was in Leh, Ladakh. No idea about how it is in the valley...
ReplyDeleteWell, at a cursory glance I think there are six anagaram clues.
ReplyDeleteThis is one-fifth of the total number of clues.
Four in a puzzle of twenty-eight clues are said to be an ideal by Ximenes in his book. There are six in this puzzle. May have overshot the ideal mark, but I am not sure.
One thing, though: If two whole-word anagrams are next to each other, the solver jumps to the conculsion that there are too many anagrams. This puzzle does have two anagrams contiguously.
By my count I see 5 (17%) full anagrams and 3 partial. Acceptable to me.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, we may read what Alec Robins, a former Everyman crossword setter and a collaborator with Ximenes in his seminal work Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword and also an author in his own right, says in his book Teach Yourself: Crosswords:
ReplyDelete(Some typing required!)
"...nor need the clue-writer feel any sense of guilt if from time to time he exceeds this suggested optimum, especially if he considers that an extra anagram either makes for a neater clue, or avoids a particularly tortuous one, or is in some way of greater help to the solver."
The count is 6 full (14A 17A 27A,24A,6D,10D)AND 3 partial (1D,3D and 21D). Included is a contrived clues like 10D.
ReplyDeleteAll in all I say an acceptable CW but not a WOW
Also 1D though partial is nearly a full anagram.
ReplyDeleteSuresh
ReplyDeleteHas any THC made you wow in the past? I would be most interested to know!
By which I don't mean to say you are too fastidious but that such a thing is very, very difficult to come by in the paper on weekdays for solvers used to UK crosswords.
Suresh
ReplyDeleteYou called one clue 'contrived'. I find it is this:
10 - Domineering one Utah Rotarian negotiated (13) - {AUTHOR{I}TARIAN*}
What makes you think the above is 'contrived'?
Are there no Rotarians in Utah?
Is the substitution of I for 'one' strange?
Or will Rotarians not negotiate with domineering ones?
Or is the AInd 'negotiated' not acceptable?
Back to the time when I was some thirty years old. I used to meet a distinguished citizen of Madras. The subject of crosswords will inevitably crop up and he would denounce THC in no uncertain terms. And that was a time when the paper was the only one to carry an original week-day crossword (I think it still is, if you don't take into account the feature in DNA) and I as a solver was proud of the work of the Admiral (though occasionally I used to criticise his clues and had indeed written th the paper). This gentleman had lived in the UK and had been used to the crossword in the London papers. He just could not reconcile himself to a crossword set by an Indian in an Indian paper!
ReplyDeleteNow, my question is how do your rate the original crossword in the local paper? Do you think that no original crossword can go anywhere near a crossword in a UK paper? That all Indian papers must reproduce one or the other crossword from the 'home of the crossword'? That however arcane they are, whatever British flavour they have, they are to be preferred over the pale imitations of the real thing?
@ CV You got me thinking.
ReplyDeleteI think Gridman has done better CWs than this.
While 10 D is technically right, the moment I read Utah Rotarian it was a certain anagram even without reading the word negotiated. But then, it would be unfair to expect every anagram to be well disguised in the writing.
Just that, for some reason, I did not enjoy solving this CW as I did some others.
Don't get me wrong. I like The Hindu because it is the only Indian paper to carry an original CW. I think when I see Gridman as the setter my expectations go up a lot. If this was NJ there would have been no comments from me at all
ReplyDeleteWhile 10 D is technically right, the moment I read Utah Rotarian it was a certain anagram even without reading the word negotiated.
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right, Suresh!
The clue labels itself as an anagram!
Just that, for some reason, I did not enjoy solving this CW as I did some others.
ReplyDeleteI respect that opinion!
Even Gridman doesn't always pay attention to the surface reading, while a bad surface is a real rarity in the Guardian or FT crosswords. Perhaps a survey of meaningful surfaces of crosswords would help. I would place my bet on Sankalak then.
ReplyDeleteRecall Gridman's clue: Sign a number is lion-like...
@ Shyam. Except that Sankalak is too easy.
ReplyDeleteGuardian also has clues which make for poor surface reading
Gridman doesn't always pay attention to the surface reading...
ReplyDeleteNow, we're coming to the point! Shyam, that's a pertinent comment!
At the end of Gridman's present series, I will examine the puzzles and pick out the clues that have poor surface reading. Perhaps you could do that as well. See you on Wed or Thu.
Sign a number is lion-like... LEO NINE
ReplyDeleteSign - in the sense of hint, indication. One thing can give an intimation of something else, just as the poet had intimations of immortality.
number - not just NINE. 'number' also means 'many' or 'multitude' or 'herd [of people]'.
Persons can be 'leonine' or 'lion-like'.
Now, doesn't that clue make sense?
'Lion-like' in the sense 'brave'.
ReplyDelete@Cvasi Sir
ReplyDeleteI agree that with the assistance of some excellent contrivance skills, it is possible to assign a meaning to every clue. But that is not the surface that I mean. In this case, even a naive reader is not misled into non-cryptic thoughts. He would not bother about the surface meaning at all, as there is no element of deception.
Instead take this example.
Join in after fish and chips.
Even a regular British crossword solver who is
inured to calling his carpenters as chippies would, at least for a moment, be misled into thinking about food. An explanation may be necessary for the solution, but not for the surface.
Indeed, the seam of separation between an average and a bad surface is quite tenuous, and good ones stand out on any day.
Domineering one Utah Rotarian negotiated, as said earlier, is also quite explicit as an anagram clue. You may point out the meaning, yet the latter may at the max be bothered about after cracking the clue. But I am willing
to accept below average surfaces to anagrams, as they are crossword openers after all.
I think I'd never understand why people go head over heels for British crosswords - it's like they're set by superhuman bots and like.... we humans over here can only sit and admire or something.
ReplyDeleteIn my limited solving experience, I've tried my hand at both Indian and UK puzzles (enough to form an opinion) and personally, I get the same level of satisfaction out of them both. It's not like I'm on cloud 9 after solving UK crosswords.
If you're in fault finding mode, you could always find something to complain about, be it British crosswords or our own. In an objective sense, I don't know if there's such thing as a perfect puzzle. Somebody would always find something to complain about and no setter's puzzle is an exception to this.
To be honest, I find the surface reading of cryptic clues to be pretty ordinary (generally!!) and UK puzzles are no exception to this. Out of 20 odd clues in a puzzle, one or two might stand out.
Shyam
ReplyDeleteAfter having read your 16:29, I see what you meant.
I agree that there is no deception in surface reading of that clue.
However, your 15:18 seemed to suggest that it was not meaningful.
The matter having been cleared up, I shall not be examining G's series as I said I would.
@CVasi Sir: Even I do think that such an survey/ examination would be onerous, besides proving heavily subjective.
ReplyDelete@VJ: I would gainsay your assertion. If you count 3/7 of Manna's puzzles as bad on an average, you get (6G+4M+2N+6S)/31 percentage of good puzzles - which works out to only 58%. Please don't handpick the good clues of an NJ puzzle :)
From my experience with the FT, gaffes are a rarity, though I do concede they occur. But the reason of going gung-ho is the inordinate number of chuckles and wows I manage during the solving process.
An ideal comparison may not be fruitful; the overwhelming British references in the Guardian are a certain turn-off; yet I do find a notable gradient between THC and British crosswords.
Shyam, the way I see it, no assertions can be made here. Whatever you've stated in your comment is just your opinion (I've done the same earlier) and I respect that for what it is.
ReplyDeleteDepending on one's own way of looking at things, percentage may vary anywhere between 1 and 100. I'd say it's around 90/ 100 and I wouldn't rate British ones any differently. To me, the factor that matters is how well a puzzle keeps me engaged. In this regard, I don't find any difference between TH, FT, Guardian and G&M (these are the only ones I've solved).
The G & M crossword is the same syndicated puz that is published in the New Indian Express.
ReplyDeleteWhile it is true the English language is borrowed, creativity being available locally, there is no reason why crossword puzzles in Indian newspapers have to be pale imitations of 'English' ones. In fact, a puzzle in an Indian paper which uses local news items, place names, etc. in the clues is preferable to one having "English", Scottish, references, in my opinion.
ReplyDelete