ACROSS
1 - Perplexed, raised issue about eastern dramatist (10) – {B{E}{WILDE}RED}
6 - Stage favourites brought back (4) – STEP <-
9 - Dog following kind print worker (10) – {TYPE}{SETTER}
10 - Ring after European snubbed in game (4) – {POLe}{O}
12 - Where H may be freely available (2,3) – ON TAP [CD]
13 - Complicated procedure to get millions invested in capital function (9) – {RIG{M}A}{ROLE}
14 - Come out with a mild exclamation of surprise (6,1,5) – STRIKE A LIGHT [CD]
18 - Freedom to act for actress leaving on the wagon? That's about right (5,7) – {CA{R}TE BLANCHEtt}
21 - A royal has to name an Ivy League university (9) – {PRINCE}{TO}{N}
23 - French composer posed with one close to stage (5) – {SAT}{I}{E}
24 - Least likely to continue (4) – LAST [DD]
25 - One way shopper could get you a tiny jumper? (4,6) – {S{AND} HOPPER}
27 - These areas, redeveloped, can bring peace of mind (6-4) – HEARTS-EASE*
DOWN
1 - Weaver's influence (6) – BOTTOM ?
4 - Go in to register (5) – ENTER [DD]
5 - Myrtle, for example, always gullible (9) – {EVER}{GREEN}
8 - Characteristic of conventional type? Not half! (8) – {PROPER}{TYpe}
11 - A film director should say what is to happen (4,3,5) – CALL THE SHOTS [CD]
15 - Uncomfortable, a guy after trouble (3,2,4) – {ILL} {A}{T EASE}
17 - What comprises coaches on piece of track attached to rear of locomotive? (5,3) – TRAIN SET [CD] Not sure of Anno (Addendum - {TRAIN S}{E}{T} - See comments)
19 - More would have us believe this is the perfect place (6) – UTOPIA [CD]
20 - Tries English vehicle (6) – {HEARS}{E}
22 - Lowest point? A depth in Northern Ireland (5) – {N{A}{D}IR}
Hi everyone
ReplyDeleteSome staggering anagrams and clues.
1A was indeed bewildering. Got stuck on CARTE BLANCHE for some time with a mix-up with the Winslet girl's spelling. 1D - I also thought of BUTTON, somehow. 2D -not sure of the anno for WAPITI. Will check the blog now.
TYPESETTER, RIGMAROLE, PRINCETON, HEART'S EASE, THOROUGH (superb!), ILL AT EASE, CALL THE SHOTS, NADIR, UTOPIA etc were good.
Hi
ReplyDeleteWAPITI reminded of the No.1 Squadron of the Indian Air Force.
Thought “flea market” was a nice place to get tiny jumpers, but crossings changed that.
17 - What comprises coaches on piece of track attached to rear of locomotive? (5,3) – TRAIN SET [CD]
ReplyDeleteShould be DD:
1.What comprises coaches on piece of track
2.attached to rear of locomotive
17 - What comprises coaches on piece of track attached to rear of locomotive? (5,3) – TRAIN SET [CD]
ReplyDeleteCoaches on double duty here.
Coaches = TRAINS
Piece of Track = T
Rear of locomotivE = E
TRAIN,S ET
Hi Deepak, 12A - I took this as ON TAP by way of guess and with crossings. Should it be H2O freely available? But then you also have draught beer! ;)
ReplyDeleteMissed out on 1d and 23a
ReplyDeleteBhavan
ReplyDeleteNot satisfied with the appellation CD and DD given to 17d and not having done this puz as a whole, I was just examining the clue for some possible discovery when you posted your anno.
Great! Congratulations!
12 Where H may be freely available (2,3) – ON TAP [CD]
ReplyDeleteI think the H on tap reference is to do with the markings in hotels for Hot water.
Could 1d be Button, holding button is infludence, but weaver? Is capitalisation of W relevant, as in a name?
ReplyDeleteBhavan 08:42
ReplyDeleteOh, I C !
12 should be DD I think,
ReplyDeleteH is seen on (the) tap
freely available is on tap
I feel 17D would have been beeter if it were written as
ReplyDeleteWhat comprises coaches attached to rear of locomotive on piece of track? (5,3)
Bhavan @ 8:42,
ReplyDeleteThat's hot!
Colonel @ 8.45 I see what you mean, but piece of track attached to rear of locomotive does suggest ET rather than TE.
ReplyDeleteIts the A+B = AB or BA argument I suppose.
I was lucky to lay my hands on “Very Good, Jeeves” by the venerable PGW. Boy! Do I love it or what!
ReplyDeleteI think it was Kishore who mentioned that one finds oneself laughing heartily in solitude merely ruminating a line from the book. How true that is! For example, chew on this a bit, if you please.
“The Right Hon. was a tubby little chap who looked as if he had been poured into his clothes and had forgotten to say ‘When !’ ” or this – “I don’t know why it is, but women who have anything to do with opera, even if they’re only studying for it, always appear to run to surplus poundage.”
This is what I had in mind
ReplyDeleteWhat comprises coaches - TRAINS
attached to - position indicator
rear of locomotive - E
on - position indicator
piece of track - T
Satya,
ReplyDeleteChew as I might I still don't dig PGW!!
1 - Weaver's influence (6) – BOTTOM ?
ReplyDeleteDD: (i) Character in A Midsummer Night's Dream
(ii) Importance, seriousness, or influence : his views all have weight and bottom ...Dictionary.Com
Satya, I think some one else said it, though I fully endorse the quote.
ReplyDelete@Sandhya : thanks. Was unable to figure how the second definition was fitting in.
ReplyDeleteBingo, Sandhya !
ReplyDeleteThe opera woman reference reminds me of the following.
ReplyDeleteA certain music conductor happens to be very frustrated with his “surplus-poundaged” female singer. “You need to sing the note C, Gertrude, not D”. She tries again but to the conductor’s chagrin repeats the mistake. Frustrated, the conductor walks up to her, lays each of his hands on each of her copious bosoms and utters, “If only these were brains!”
My book collection (including Wodehouse) had to be left behind when I moved countries. Reading online is not the same as lounging around with the paperback.
ReplyDeleteColonel,
ReplyDeleteI certainly respect your opinion, sir. At the risk of angering you, may I ask if you had a chance to give a second try after your first try during the college days?
Bhavan, I think that applies to solving CWs too with a wad of paper, meticulously folder. Here I have a beef with ET, they print their CWs in odd positions requiring display of origami talents before CW talents.
ReplyDeleteSandhya
ReplyDeleteNeither Chambers nor COD nor any other dictionary gives the sense 'influence' for 'bottom'.
However, I came to know that Collins does give that meaning. My on-line search in a Collins dictionary too was not helpful. It is possible that the db is based on a lighter edition.
I was trying to think of a sentence where 'bottom' could be used in the sense 'influence' but had not reached any conclusions.
So your link - where the illustrative sentence is given - is great.
Thanks.
Seconding Satya, Deepak, would you consider me presumptious if I requested you to give it one more try ?
ReplyDeleteI should have said "...nor any other dictionary in my collection..."
ReplyDelete@Kishore : Right now I do the crossword using a maths book that has grids. Not my preferred way but ...
ReplyDeleteFor all crosswords (except THC) I use the maths book with grids (Classmate Expressions).
ReplyDelete@Chaturvasi: Thank you!
ReplyDelete@Bhavan: That is what even I have been doing (except for The Hindu) since my printer conked out a few days back - it's quite laborious.
Bhavan
ReplyDeleteRe your having to 'leave behind books while moving countries"...
For decades I hugged on to books from my dad's collection and then adding my own, with the wooden racks in almirahs groaning under their weight.
Now at age 65 (and also because of www availability), I am in a 'culling' mood. We can track anything down on the Net, it seems.
Before our independent house fell to give place for an apartment buliding, I gave away scores to a local private library. Last month, scores went to another private library specialising on Tamil books. These are all reading rooms where anyone can use these books for free.
Yesterday I spoke to the librarian of another private library if they will take English books.
What I hold will books that will be useful for growing-up children.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@CVasi : Right now mine are all cartoned. I also intend to keep a subset and give the rest away. But that will have to wait for a couple of years I think.
ReplyDeleteRe 'maths notbook with grid'.
ReplyDeleteThis takes me back to the early Seventies.
A time when I didn't have computers and www.
I used to draw the lines on paper with a pencil using a 'ruler'. For 'blocks' I used to chequer with a ball-point pen. For numbers in cells, I used a sketch pen so they will appear prominently.
Then I noticed LKG children using those 'maths' notebooks, but the problem was those squares were very large for me to have a 15x15 square on a single sheet.
Then I noticed some college students using grid paper with smaller cells. It was not widely available; only the students co-op store in MCC, Tambaram, sold it. So I got it from there.
It was this paper and the method outlined above that I used for my submissions to The Evening News of London.
I use a book with 5 mm grids. It used to test my eyesight and patience. I ink the numbers and blocks in blue and the answers in black. Like with everything else, it has now become a tolerable habit.
ReplyDeleteCorrection
ReplyDeleteRead: "Now at age 67..." ! ! !
I use a graph type background when I try to solve gridless and try to figure out the grid based on word lengths. It gets an easy start if the first across is of 15 or the sum of the first two/three across clues is 14 or 13. But becomes tougher if first word is say 7 letters long and the next across is after a string of downs.
ReplyDeleteCV @ 0904
ReplyDelete]Neither Chambers nor COD nor any other dictionary ]
A nor too many!
As only one 'nor' goes with 'neither', the second 'nor' may have to be changed to 'or'.
Venkatesh 09:56
ReplyDelete""Neither you, Simon, nor the fifty thousand, nor the Romans, nor the Jews, nor Judas, nor the twelve, nor the priests, nor the scribes, nor doomed Jerusalem itself understand what power is, understand what glory is, understand at all." - Jesus Christ Superstar.
I have the God's word.
Well said CV !!
ReplyDeleteSatya @ 9:01 & Kishore @ 9:06,
ReplyDeleteNever tried it again and nor am I inclined to do so, even after reading the quotes that from PGW that I have been seeing over the past couple of days, here.
And an old essayist...
ReplyDelete"Neither was there any phantom memorial of life, nor wing of bird, nor echo, nor green leaf, nor creeping thing, that moved or stirred upon the soundless waste." — De Quincey.
I reverse engineer the grid based on word length and put it down on plain paper putting an underscore for a blank space and an 'x' with a circle around it for the darkened square. That way I don't need graph paper or math's note books, just the obverse side of train tickets or air tickets, plenty of them lying around now that one can book tickets and print them at home!!
ReplyDelete@Chaturvasi: Your age increased by 2 years within 20 minutes? Super fast growth! :P
ReplyDeleteSandhya 1052: Whatever CV Sir does, he does it quickly !
ReplyDeleteWhatever? I'm sure CV sir will object to that. :-)
ReplyDeleteSatya, I am sure he will object quickly
ReplyDelete9a TYPESETTER could make a mistake. Read this intresting discovery by a crossword fan:
ReplyDeletehttp://typophile.com/node/75568
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After a long time I read a magazine from cover to cover: It was the special issue of Outlook commemorating their 15th year. Thoroughly enjoyable as well as stimulating.