Friday 10 December 2010

No 10021, Friday 10 Dec 10, Sankalak

ACROSS
1   - Room for adjustment by the eye for better focus (13) - ACCOMMODATION [DD]
10 - Command for a rigid posture (9) - ATTENTION [CD]
11 - Admonition to a child playing with his food (3,2) - EAT UP [CD]
12 - Lukewarm Greek character escorted by boy (5) - {TE{PI}D}
13 - Aunt, playing with niece, could speak clearly (9) - ENUNCIATE*
14 - Attack the spy, by the way (6) - {MOLE}{ST}
16 - Brilliant success for European Commission, nearly overdue (5) - {EC}{LATe}
19 - Coir, for one, becomes black in flames (5) - {FI{B}RE}
20 - Tension? Rest arranged in ship (6) - {S{TRES*}S}
25 - A topic of the south altered by that very act (4,5) - {IP(S)(O F)(A)CTO*}
26 - Future moth, a bit of a singular variety (5) - LARVA [T]
27 - For the mature a long costume right inside (5) - {G{R}OWN}
28 - The fuller it is, the happier is the producer (5,4) - ORDER BOOK [CD]
29 - A place to begin for a hero with money and good direction (8,5) - {STAR}{TIN}{G} {POINT}
DOWN
2   - Stone-thrower (8) - CATAPULT [CD]
3   - Knight, in debt all round, was possessed (5) - {OW{N}ED}
4   - Master, targeted, was wounded (6) - {M}{AIMED}
5   - Condemn a dunce, one crazed (8) - DENOUNCE*
6   - Pit worker is forthright (9) - {TRENCH}{ANT}
7   - Fugitive from justice in a Howard Hughes's production (6) - OUTLAW [DD]
8   - Chicken, gives such weight to a boxer (6) - BANTAM [DD]
9   - Implausible story built up by bad lies about Penny (5) - {S{P}IEL*}
15 - Starch, for example (9) - STIFFENER [CD]
17 - Vegetable, British, cooked with zero c.c. oil (8) - {BR}{O}{CC}{OLI*}
18 - Tire out a wader now somehow (4,4) - WEAR DOWN*
21 - Loose garment, small, is wanting in something (6) - {S}{LACKS}
22 - Wild dog would quit, following racket (5) - {DIN}{GO}
23 - A chaperon for Cortes? Funny! (6) - ESCORT*
24 - Food for an excitable canine (3,3) - {HOT} {DOG}


26 - Slow and dignified bit of music from popular Gothic rock (5) - LARGO [T]

22 comments:

  1. Hi
    HOT DOG ! At the STARTING POINT, in case you have TEPID interest in what I am going to ENUNCIATE, lemme say : Spooks again ! to get your ATTENTION
    A crossword with links to BOND (not the Landour Guy Ruskin or Randor Guy Rangadorai) , who was a man of FIBRE, in fact, a STIFFENER (remember how many stiffs used to turn up in his movies ?) with ECLAT :
    The spy in 14a, LARGO (Thunderball) in 26d, IPSO FACTO are pointers to movies , by Producer (ref. In 28a clue) Albert R BROCCOLI who appeared in 17d. Further, I understand from Wiki that Howard Hughes’ (mentioned in 7d) hotel was used for filming in Diamonds are Forever and ARB was his close friend.
    26a calls in Tamil LAR-VA, while 26d sends off with LAR-GO, both incidentally telescopic (in case you DIdNtGO).
    Having just got a call from Spain yesterday, use of Cortes in 23d to get ESCORT*, brought to mind the way the Spanish use this word.
    CATAPULT reminded of the elastic from Richmal Crompton’s William’s garters.
    Staying on the same page as the CW in the Bang Ed, what a name for a mushroom, sounds like a pain in the ... .
    Thanks for your ACCOMMODATION.

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  2. Reg cartoon for 24d, would have been worse if the line was 'Master said he is going to have Hot Dog for lunch today'

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  3. ACCOMMODATION: Was clueless on this one for a pretty long time. Also with BANTAM and IPSO FACTO

    Otherwise I thought it was easy.

    Not sure why there's a redundant "rock" in 26D.

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  4. Kishore, that would have been wicked.

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  5. VJ,
    Rock is there for the surface reading, 'music' and 'Gothic rock'

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  6. In Bangalore edition, you got the obit. and Crossword on the same page?

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  7. Deepak, I get that, but I'm not sure whether it's acceptable 'cause it has no role in word-play.

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  8. Nope obits on pg 10 today, CW on 4, VJ.

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  9. Just like the lunar surface, it has got rocks too..

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  10. VJ 837 Lots of candle thread Edwards here anyway ...

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  11. Another interesting smooth flowing fare from Sankalak today.Cant say which I liked more-the crossword or the all encompassing comments from Kishore! Had to google 7d for confirmation-no wonder it was a 1943 film from Howard Hughes.Made the mistake of reading 26a as 'month' instead of moth and got stuck.I too got stuck in 1a for a while due to misspelling.(missed the 2 m's part)-had to wait till I got maimed.

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  12. Another good one from Sankalak! Missed BANTAM, STIFFENER, MOLEST (easy!). Mistakenly put CHARS instead of FIBRE... (becomes black in flames) :)
    hence lost on that part for a while.

    Otherwise, yet another reliable, fun fare from one of our most consistent performers! :-D

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  13. Reg. "rock" being extraneous: Extra words for surface seem to be allowed in the case of hidden word clues - I have seen extra words in this clue type by multiple established setters in different newspapers to probably make it an accepted norm though there may be some disagreement. I think it is done only to make it a bit more challenging as it most often is a gimme and an embellished surface may make it less so. For my preference, I would not add extra fodder for the surface, but I think there's little to quibble about since it seems to be only a matter of taste and does not seem to run afoul of any unwritten rules or the like.

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  14. Sankalak seems to be doing simple things well.

    For many, today's Xword would have been "bhayen haath ka khel". Enjoyed.

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  15. Kishore@20:57 09 Dec

    Isn't it "..., for, Tomorrow may NEVER Come" ?--- I've heard a pop song of this line in the 80's

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  16. good morning all

    Except BANTAM and ECLAT everything fell in place well in time. Sankalak became a popular setter especially because he make the solvers jubilant in the end. Ipso facto is a tad tough just filled thro crossing.

    Good day

    Mathu

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  17. Veer, thanks for your comment. I still feel the clue would have been better without an extraneous word in the fodder. Anywho, like you said, it's just a matter of preference.

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  18. DDS
    ‘If tomorrow never comes’ was a song. ‘Tomorrow never comes’ and ‘Tomorrow never Dies’ were movies (the latter being a Bond one)

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  19. Articles confused me. 'The' in 25 Across and 'a' in 5 d and 18 d .

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  20. 21 d 'Is wanting' is 'lacks' - Is it ok grammatically?

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  21. Subramaniam,

    is wanting in something = lacks

    Perfectly fine grammatically

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  22. CV does not seem to be on the circuit today. Otherwise, I am sure he would have some recollections of Randor Guy mentioned by me in the first post today as RG was with The Hindu.

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