ACROSS
1 - The wrong one — or sure to appear wrong (9) - ERRONEOUS*
6 - Secure Denver boot? (5) - CLAMP [DD]
9 - Bill in car crash in Ghana (5) - {AC}{CRA*}
10 - Mean six footer and manager (9) - {INTEND}{ANT} My COD
11 - Drastic treatment for hair that is parted, oily, disheveled (10) - DEPILATORY*
12 - A woman caught the lion (4) - {C}{LEO}
14 - They make up the final version of a film (7) - EDITORS [CD]
15 - Painted copies produced from perforated design plates (7) - STENCIL [CD]
17 - Learn maybe about preservationists, and see the light (7) - {LA{NT}ERN*}
19 - Organised when one over fifty got in control (7) - {A{L}IGNED*} Not sure of Anno
20 - Opt for the cream (4) - PICK [DD]
22 - It's misleading to say his fiancée has a ruby (3,7) - {RED} {HER}{RING}
25 - Set price beyond estimated worth (9) - OVERVALUE {E}
26 - Pope's triple crown (5) - TIARA [E]
27 - Noble man has gold to gift (5) - {DON}{OR}
28 - Quickness advisable in building a plant (9) - {SPEED}{WELL}
DOWN
1 - Land first east in South Africa to find an antelope (5) - {E}{LAND}
2 - Admission price — note change is needed (9) - RECEPTION*
3 - Not quite clearing it, coming towards the end (6,4) - NEARLY OVER [DD]
4 - Opt for the best eastern drugs (7) - OPIATES* (opts+ai+e)
5 - Sardonic wit tries a quarter change (7) - {SATIRE*}{S}
6 - Product from mid Jamaican estate (4) - CANE [T &lit]
7 - Come down to take advantage (5) - AVAIL [CD]
8 - The Irishman took a turn on the beat (9) - {PAT}{ROLLED}
13 - Dennis and I reduced to shreds and vilified (10) - {DEN}{I}{GRATED}
14 - Egg shaped feature which appeared among the oldies somehow (9) - {EL{LIP}SOID*}
16 - Blunt note about a competitor (9) - {CANDID}{A}{TE}
18 - Irritates by a sharp note (7) - {NEEDLE}{S}
19 - One sportingly prepared to face vigorous competition (7) - ATHLETE [CD]
21 - Family English to the core — completely (5) - {CL{E}AN}
23 - A Greek has trouble in achieving a cherished ambition (5) - {GR}{AIL} Didn't know this meaning.
24 - Eternally on record (4) - EVER What's the connection with 'record'
1 - The wrong one — or sure to appear wrong (9) - ERRONEOUS*
6 - Secure Denver boot? (5) - CLAMP [DD]
10 - Mean six footer and manager (9) - {INTEND}{ANT} My COD
11 - Drastic treatment for hair that is parted, oily, disheveled (10) - DEPILATORY*
12 - A woman caught the lion (4) - {C}{LEO}
14 - They make up the final version of a film (7) - EDITORS [CD]
15 - Painted copies produced from perforated design plates (7) - STENCIL [CD]
17 - Learn maybe about preservationists, and see the light (7) - {LA{NT}ERN*}
19 - Organised when one over fifty got in control (7) - {A{L}IGNED*} Not sure of Anno
20 - Opt for the cream (4) - PICK [DD]
22 - It's misleading to say his fiancée has a ruby (3,7) - {RED} {HER}{RING}
25 - Set price beyond estimated worth (9) - OVERVALUE {E}
26 - Pope's triple crown (5) - TIARA [E]
28 - Quickness advisable in building a plant (9) - {SPEED}{WELL}
1 - Land first east in South Africa to find an antelope (5) - {E}{LAND}
3 - Not quite clearing it, coming towards the end (6,4) - NEARLY OVER [DD]
4 - Opt for the best eastern drugs (7) - OPIATES* (opts+ai+e)
5 - Sardonic wit tries a quarter change (7) - {SATIRE*}{S}
6 - Product from mid Jamaican estate (4) - CANE [T &lit]
7 - Come down to take advantage (5) - AVAIL [CD]
8 - The Irishman took a turn on the beat (9) - {PAT}{ROLLED}
13 - Dennis and I reduced to shreds and vilified (10) - {DEN}{I}{GRATED}
14 - Egg shaped feature which appeared among the oldies somehow (9) - {EL{LIP}SOID*}
16 - Blunt note about a competitor (9) - {CANDID}{A}{TE}
18 - Irritates by a sharp note (7) - {NEEDLE}{S}
19 - One sportingly prepared to face vigorous competition (7) - ATHLETE [CD]
21 - Family English to the core — completely (5) - {CL{E}AN}
23 - A Greek has trouble in achieving a cherished ambition (5) - {GR}{AIL} Didn't know this meaning.
24 - Eternally on record (4) - EVER What's the connection with 'record'
4 - Opt for the best eastern drugs (7) - OPIATES* (opts+ai+e)
ReplyDeleteWhere does the S come from?
Put in Mitre in 26a and went for a merry ride.
ReplyDeleteINTENDANT reminded me of the time I first came across this word, in Capt Marryat's The Children of the New Forest.
24 - Eternally on record (4) - EVER What's the connection with 'record'
ReplyDeleteMaybe, record=best ever performance
19 - Organised when one over fifty got in control (7) - {A{L}IGNED*} Not sure of Anno
Got in control=gained
fifty=L
but what about the 'one'
Is Organised the def or the Anagrind?
Alternatively, if one over fifty is LI...
Sandhya,
ReplyDeleteopt for = opts :-)
Well, thanks all for the good wishes: the Little Woman is back in circulation. Limited edition circulation for the time being as CGB and our friends at the numismatic group will say. Hopefuly, will be issued for wider circulation by next week. I use the term LW reservedly. All of us in the family are large economy size, like those packs you see with the legend 50% extra. And the youngest, starting as a two feet package, now stands at 76 inches, and can no way be considered little.
ReplyDeleteFor those interested in the details, the problem arose when the missus had infiltrated into Chennai for a day last week to present a paper. While she got out of Chennai on schedule, it appears that Chennai’s heat did not get out of her. She landed up with high fever and UTI (I remember CV’s CV having this in the recent records) and had to be sequestered. In the meantime, the domestic realm was run by the materfamilias, who gave up a trip to Ooty and Coimbatore to accommodate the needs of a hungry brood.
Kishore, Glad to hear that all is well.
ReplyDeleteI hope your audit reports and tax appeals use more elementary language.:))
I thought audit reports would deliberately use a roundabout language to hide the manipulations of the clients but at the same time save the skin of the scrutinisers.
ReplyDeleteDont tell anybody, Suresh, but I moonshine as a Dictionary salesman ;-)
ReplyDeleteCV: 904: Beating about past presidents of the US is a strict no-no there.
ReplyDeleteKishore
ReplyDeleteI remember reading Children ... in a slim volume called BRIGHT READERS. The cover of this series had a colour band on top and bottom with the title printed in all caps in white background in the middle.
Had Celtic tales, Greek legends, etc., among my father's collection.
I think the colour on the cover had something to do with difficulty level in the graded series.
If you wish you may read my post here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.boards2go.com/boards/board.cgi?action=read&id=1299727651&user=dharrison
The Dragon series which printed Enid Blyton in the sixties and seventies too had blue dragon, green dragon and red dragon, the last for 'older boys and girls'.
ReplyDeleteMy billets-doux in the good old days too had such language creating enough confusion for the intended and the unintended reader/s.
A reminder of those days:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95aP0OWx4jY
10a-
ReplyDeleteCan someone explain to me what is the connection between six footer and ant?
CV CAs always think they write mere clearly than anybody else.
ReplyDeleteDeepak
ReplyDeleteThanks for the pic of 'Denver boot'.
Chennai police have a similar device but obviously local-made.
Recently I questioned a cop on the roadside after I saw yet again the clamp put on a parked car.
This car had been parked outside a bank just for a few minutes when the police took action. There is no 'no parking' sign anywhere near.
Some distance away there is tyre-changing firm outside of which many cars are parked routinely every day blocking the pedestrians' space completely and obstructing movement of passers-by.
I asked the cop why those cars were not clamped.
He had no answer !
The first-ever (and only!) billet-doux I wrote when I was still in college was delivered safely and later a proposal too came but alas ...
ReplyDeletePadmanabhan
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious that you don't look at legs !
CV @ 9.32
ReplyDeleteI AM a slow coach since I took time to get the answer even after your clue about six feet!
I was reminded of a Tamil poem which my father used to recite,which in part goes like this..
"poonaikku aru kal..." the hidden meaning of which is the bee which licks the flower has six feet!!
For those of you who dont know Tamil-poonai is a cat (with only 4 legs)which is meant to confuse you.
hi
ReplyDeleteALIGNED
i thought over 51 is aged and LI doing a double duty then arrived at aligned. if you ask whats "n" doing i am lost.
16 d is my cod.on the whole a good puzzle.
I am a relative newbie to this blog corner, but my two bits worth:
ReplyDeleteDid solve the puzzle, but found some irritants, not in keeping with good CW norms. Mainly to do with the form of speech (eg tense, plural vs singular, etc). To illustrate:
27A DONOR is neither a 'gift' nor 'to gift'
15A STENCIL - Clue suggests that the answer should be in the plural
8D On the beat could be 'PATROLLER' or 'PATROLLING' but not PATROLLED
Somehow these spoil the pleasure! Comments welcome, esp if I have got it wrong
Bhala
ReplyDeleteOver the past several years I have often pointed out such infirmities in the puzzles of certain setters. Others too have done so.
Bhala, given Manna's oscillations between the Maestro and the Novice in his clueing, this is par for the course
ReplyDeleteIf solvers are to cut setters some slack, where would that be ?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely not in fairness,grammar,spelling or pronunciation.
All I can think of are padding and proximity of final word to its definition in the clue. What else ?
Hmm. Have come back to The Hindu crossword after a long break, so I'm getting enlightened. In the last month have found only Sankalak puzzles true to form (perhaps a trifle too easy at times, but integrity in clueing). NJ also exasperating.
ReplyDeleteThanks folks for the comments
I'm surprised that no one else has voted this crossword Poor or even Average.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how any setter could justify these goofs.
9 A - Bill in car crash means that AC should go inside CRA* whereas the solution is AC + CRA*
15 A - No way this CD can work
17 A - `see the light' to mean LANTERN? `See the' is a poor link word in my opinion.
19 A - Only god knows how this clue works
27 A - How gift is DONOR?
1 D - `Land first east' is ELAND? This must be a joke.
4 D - Don't agree with the annotation provided in the post. There's no anagram indicator. `Opts for' to mean OPTS is far fetched.
5D - `Tries a quarter change' is SATIRES? This is awful.
18 D - a sharp note and NEEDLES? How does that work?
24 D - Eternally can mean EVER. But what is `for ever' doing there?
Meghna
ReplyDeleteSee, for example,
http://dailydozen.blogspot.com/2010/02/oh-short-ones.html
The analysis was on a crossword by the same setter.
See also:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.crosswordunclued.com/2010/09/limericks-for-m-manna.html
Meghna Agarwal has raised valid points! Is Manna trying to compete with NJ?
ReplyDeletePP On his day Manna can leave NJ far behind.:)
ReplyDeleteFriends
ReplyDeleteDo see the fresh post - by Rufus - in the thread cited above. URL is in my post at 09:15 above.
It seems that the repetition of ET crosswords may be from the original source itself !
I take the solver ratings for these crosswords (quality/difficulty) with a pinch of salt.
ReplyDeleteBewildering clues have always been part of Manna's offerings (links by CV indicate there are precedents).
Probably Manna doesn't get as much flak as another because his unpredictability means there are going to be some good clues in the offing too - instead of being uniformly pedestrian.
13D is a repeat from 28 Dec, last year. Incidentally, it appeared as 13D then too.
ReplyDeleteREG., Bhavan's comment on quality / difficulty - I usually rate the quality on the total crossword. If some of the clues or even one or two are/is complete nonsense from a cryptic perspective I rate it as poor. If the surface makes no sense on more than a couple of clues ( which is more subjective) I rate the cwd as average. Otherwise good - I don't even rate the difficulty unless the puzzle is good IMO. I don't see the point in difficulty on a poor or average puzzle. My 2 cents.
ReplyDelete