ACROSS
4 - Trustee involved is daring to arrest you on the road (8) - {G{U}{A}RDIAN*} GUARDIAN What's the connection between 'A' and 'Road' ?
8 - Cut off the joint (6) - (Addendum - CORNER [DD] - See comments)
9 - Steep prices (10) - EXORBITANT [E]
10 - An extinct ox (4) - URUS [E]
11 - Dispatch a State Enrolled Nurse on duty first (4) - {S}{E}{N}{D} SEND
13 - Hardly ever depend on God (6) - {RA}{RELY} RARELY
15 - Deposit the American man's medicine (7) - {PLACE}{BO} PLACEBO
17 - Car given to the French princess (4) - {AU}{DI} AUDI
18 - A canonical hour (4) - NONE [E]
19 - Lock up the prisoner in shape (7) - {CON}{FINE} CONFINE
21 - Call for a specialist in distress (6) - {ENT}{AIL} ENTAIL
22 - Darlings, switch the dance move (4) - STEP <-
25 - Stop the puppy (4) -
26 - He may be caught for general theft on camera (10) - SHOPLIFTER [CD]
27 - Adjust four files alternately for the new opening term (6) - {O}{R}{I}{E}{N}{T} ORIENT I wonder if anyone can make this clue longer!!
28 - Vendor in South Africa has to hand some suspicious names (8) - {SA}{L}{ESMAN*} SALESMAN L from Left hand?
DOWN
1 - Check out the small river outside the castle (5) -
2 - Acclaimed raja protects the warrior prince (6) - (Addendum - {ARJ{UN}A*} ARJUNA - See comments)
3 - Square temple found in the rocky ridge (5) - ARETE [T]
5 - Boar ate in Rio this kind of rice (7) - {ARBO*}{RIO} ARBORIO
6 - Ted put up the fine coat in shape (9) - {DET<-}{ERMINE} DETERMINE
7 - Alternative for a divorce (9) - ANNULMENT [E]
12 - One gets up to first cook the hot starters as a snack (5) - {NA<-}{C}{HO
14 - Pundit starts using the naughty language (9) - (Addendum - {PU}TONGHUA PUTONGHUA - See comments)
15 - Long for the delicious fruit (9) - {PINE}{APPLE} PINEAPPLE
16 - Suitable boy in England is in great shape (5) - {B}{E}{FIT} BEFIT
19 - It is found in bones and teeth (7) - CALCIUM [E]
20 - Time on the Spanish square (6) -
22 - Waited, wearing the shiny fabric (5) - {SAT}{IN} SATIN
23 - Outperformance of an actor following the rare Cockney girl is a mistake (5) - {'ER}{R}{
24 - Charts out an area (5) - PLOTS [DD]
Some answers:
ReplyDelete25 - Stop the puppy (4) SEAL (2)
2 - Acclaimed raja protects the warrior prince (6) ARJ(UN)A* [Don't ask me how, that's what I put in for no sane reason]
14 - Pundit starts using the naughty language (9) PUNTONGHUA ( looks like some part of naughty + p + god knows what else)
20 - Time on the Spanish square (6) EL + EVEN
24 - Charts out an area (5) PLOTS?
Correction 14 is PUTONGHUA
ReplyDeleteThanks Bhavan
ReplyDeleteRoad = A
ReplyDeleteIn Britain, the roads are classified as A,B,C,D and U. For instance, the main roads radiating from London have single-digit numbers, starting with the A1 which heads due north. Motorways which came after the advent of the A-road numbering event, were given an M prefix, e.g., M1.
1 - Check out the small river outside the castle (5) - {S}{C}OU{R} ?
ReplyDeleteSCOUT
S COU(-r)T
Castle=court ??- r (outside)
Kishore, by mutual agreement we can drop the ? at the end of each annotation...
ReplyDeleteYour decoding of that clue makes good sense.
8 - Cut off the joint (6) -
ReplyDeleteCORNER DD
=cut off, joint
8 - Cut off the joint (6) - CARVER
ReplyDeleteKishore,
ReplyDeleteYou are right.
The setter must be smirking that the setter defeated one of the most determined solvers of THC.
ReplyDeleteThe question is: can it be really considered a defeat?
Definitely not a defeat, the UDRS will show that I was not out!!!
ReplyDeleteThe right question to my mind is - can this be considered a puzzle?
ReplyDelete2 - Acclaimed raja protects the warrior prince (6) ARJ(UN)A* [Don't ask me how, that's what I put in for no sane reason]
ReplyDeleteraja=fodder
acclaimed=Aind ???
protects=encapsulation indicator
the=an=un (NJism)
warrior prince=def
Bhavan, 859:
ReplyDeleteYou are puzzled, aren't you? ;-)
Puzzling puzzle it definitely is!!
ReplyDeleteKishore, I feel well 'puzzle'd on all days except for ...
ReplyDeleteThere are two aspects to a crossword puzzle.
ReplyDeleteOne is gridfill. On this score, how would you rate this? One or two rare words might be OK, but so many of them in a standard puzzle? Isn't there a difference between a standard puzzle and an advanced puzzle? What is the setter aiming at?
Two is clueing. On this score, how would you rate it?
On the whole I would rate this a poor puzzle which needs to be forgotten at the earliest.
ReplyDeleteCV, in light of the way common words are clued, does it matter at all that rare words made their way into this puzzle?
ReplyDeleteI'd rate the clueing as 1/32.
13A is the only coherent clue.
I guess I cast the evil eye on Col by my comment yesterday ;) So, for today, congrats to Bhavan, I say!
ReplyDeleteEven as I browsed through the solutions, the loudest LOL moment for me was URUS. I thought, "As if I really bothered!". The setter doesn't even want to make simple changes like making 'A' to a 'NO' in 18A.
18 A canonical hour (4) - NONE [E]
ReplyDeleteI think the above answer is incorrect.
I think it should be NINE.
I am poor in maths so a person like Kishore must tell me if NINE is a cardinal number.
If so, 'cardinal' is indicated by the setter with the word 'canonical'.
Though I also feel NINE may be the correct answer and nine is a cardinal number, so are one, two, three, ad infinitum.
ReplyDeleteHowever, only nine fits the crossing.
Definitely not a defeat, the UDRS will show that I was not out!!!
ReplyDeleteBut Deepak, you claimed you were 'clean bowled' in the opening line...
I think the pitch had as 13/31 orientation ;-)
Clean bowled-yes,but off a "NO BALL"!
ReplyDelete2D-Would UN be the protector? Of course,it is a wild guess.
ReplyDeleteCV @ 9:31,
ReplyDeleteNONE is correct see the link provided in the main post.
Kishore @ 9:41
NONE does fit the crossings.
None is a homonym of 'nun'& hence canonical?
ReplyDeletePadmanabhan,
ReplyDeleteSee the link to NONE provided in the main post
Deepak has it right on 18a. We were all shooting loose cannons.
ReplyDeleteDeepak
ReplyDeleteThe word is Nones, plural form.
None, as a singular, may not have the sense that is attributed to it.
CV Sir,
ReplyDeleteMy C has the following entry under 'nones':
(usu none) one of the hours of the Divine Office, orig held at the ninth hour of the day (3pm) (RC)
I wrote what I did after consulting Chambers.
ReplyDeleteFurther lookup with other dictionaries suggests that 'none' is a sp variant of 'nones'.
My Oxford Concise has the following
ReplyDeletenone (also nones) n.a service forming part of the Divine Office of the Western Christian Church, traditionally said at the ninth hour of the day (3 p.m.)
Also see NONE
ReplyDeleteThank you, Deepak.
ReplyDeleteNone is the centre of attraction today.
ReplyDeleteNotwithstanding the fact that the Colonel wants to forget this crossword ASAP, I must point out that yesterday's grid had a 2 Across clue. I remember Kishore wondering how often one sees those in the THC grid some months back. Well, we now have a data point.
ReplyDeleteMsg from Raju
ReplyDeleteQuote
Dear Deepakji,
I tried, with the perseverance and patience of an angler to post this in your blog and find it very frustrating. Many times, I felt, the bait has been caught and then I find the process frozen at 5 stems in the box.
Can you please assist in posting this?
Thanks and God bless
Regards,
Raju Umamaheswar
Yesterday's crossword:
Another beauty from NJ? Is it the Hindu's way of beguiling and compounding our misery by omitting to insert a block at the end of 13 across? As it is, their grids are so vague that it is very difficult to differentiate between a blank and a block. The blocks are more on the grey side. I even thought, as is the wont of NJ, she has introduced us to a new word PROVID .The clue itself is wrong in construction. Too many four letter words- It is easier to have a phrase constructed in a crossword rather than have too many small words.
Cha-sir: Thanks for the poetic efforts of your grand daughter. They were very creative and redolent of a child's innocence. Give her a pat on her back from Raju uncle.
After seeing your views on crossword books ,thanks to Crossowrd Unclued, I recall having seen them before and even commented. I too have very many books but of hardly much use.
They just sit there and adorn my carousel shelf.
Raju Umamaheswar
Unquote
CV had, in Orkut, asked for clarification on the difference between annulment (7Dn) and divorce - the two ways to legally end a marriage.
ReplyDeleteAn annulment is a legal procedure which erases the complete existence of a marriage legally - it declares that the marriage never technically existed and was never valid.
A divorce, or legal dissolution of a marriage, is the termination of a valid marriage returning both parties to single status with the ability to remarry.
Grounds for annulment include bigamy,Forced Consent, Fraud, Marriage Prohibited By Law (based on familial relationship considered incestuous), Mental Illness, Mental Incapacity that made the person unable to make informed consent.
Sowndar,
ReplyDeleteThe drudgery has just begun you will have to bear another 4 days of it.
After being in Sankalak heaven last week, reality strikes(bites) this week!
ReplyDeleteManju
Intrepid solvers - this group here. I am amazed that the Col., Bhavan et al never give up the ghost. I put down some answers but gave up when I thought of ARJUNA but did not know why it should be Arjuna and not say, Hector. The clue generally did not give a hint one way or the other!
ReplyDeleteThe clue for "RARELY" surely does not belong in this set of clues - it seems to stick out. But, looks like all here and in Orkut had fun with guessing the answers.
Wish some of the NJ defenders who have not commented yet would explain some of the clues ..