Wednesday, 14 September 2011

No 10258, Wednesday 14 Sep 11, M Manna

ACROSS
1   - No taped material — it's for writing by hand (7) - NOTEPAD*
5   - He has doubts about entering poisonous surroundings (7) - SCEPTIC {S{C}EPTIC}


9   - Successful combatant briefly has tea with congressman (5) - CHAMP {CHA}{MP}
10 - It is most washed-out in the east of old country (9) - PALESTINE {PALEST}{IN}{E}
11 - Lawrence to run out with note on occupation time (6) - TENURE {TE}{NUR*}{E}
12 - Keep your hair on if you want to stop sweating (4,4) - COOL DOWN [DD]
14 - March past (5) - APRIL [CD]
15 - Use the car too often in high gear (9) - OVERDRIVE [DD]
18 - George offers gold to sanctimonious group (9) - AUTOPILOT {AU}{TO}{PI}{LOT}
20 - Record no music at the club party (5) - DISCO {DISC}{O}
22 - Piece of cloth, chaps found in the fort (8) - FRAGMENT {F{RAG}{MEN}T}
24 - Small caps formerly used as a light bracket (6) - SCONCE {S}{C}{ONCE}
26 - Thought about what the mirror did (9) - REFLECTED [DD]
27 - Country becomes popular by reciprocating help (5) - INDIA {IN}{DIA<-}
28 - Old cues from daughter freed him from blame (7) - EXCUSED {EX}{CUSE*}{D}
29 - Men loco to prefer single eyepiece (7) - MONOCLE*
DOWN
1   - Getting involved in action over a bloomer made (9) - NICOTIANA {NICOTIAN*}{A}
2   - I ran badly three times outside — coach needed (7) - TRAINER {T{RAIN*}ER}
3   - Press cutting — or what links some of them together (9) - PAPERCLIP [DD]
4   - Drug placed in copper cup for English (4) - DOPE {DOP}{E} Anno for DOP not clear (See comments below)
5   - Drawn outline of hotel suite refurbishment (10) - SILHOUETTE*
6   - Renewed lease for an art supporter (5) - EASEL*
7   - Organised tour to rehabilitated oil port in Libya (7) - TRIPOLI {TRIP}{OLI*}
8   - Completely free from dirt (5) - CLEAN [E]
13 - Vote in a man who worked like a busy bee! (10) - POLLINATED {POLL}{IN}{A}{TED}
16 - Discount the inference (9) - DEDUCTION [DD]
17 - Clear one troublesome pest found in the river (9) - EXONERATE {EX{ONE}{RAT}E}
19 - Trade vehicles (7) - TRAFFIC [DD]
21 - Nature of an ecclesiastical council (7) - SYNODIC [E] 
22 - From a distance, engineer has to perform a meaningless display (5) - FARCE {FAR}{CE}
23 - Matches adequately (5) - MEETS [E]
25 - First man to be present early morning (4) - ADAM {AD}{AM}



21 comments:

  1. 4 - Drug placed in copper cup for English (4) - DOPE DOP{E} Anno for DOP not clear

    http://dictionary.babylon.com/dop/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dop - A copper cup for holding a diamond while cutting it (Your Dict)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Deepak, I don't believe you selected that cartoon for5a.

    ReplyDelete
  4. In the above 'believe' may be read with reference to:

    a. you
    b. selected
    c. that
    d. cartoon

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kishore @ 8:35,

    I don't believe, that you don't believe that I could believe that.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The clue 19D has been published first by Rover in 2000.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/cryptic/21965

    And Manna (hopefully) has published it for the first time in 2002. And repeated it in 2007 and 2010. BTW it is also a Guardian quick clue!

    ReplyDelete
  7. For 26A see this Glasgow Herald Link .

    While now it's pretty much clear where most clues are coming from, I have difficulty in tracking the exact location. It's from all over UK - the clues are mostly from Guardian, but there are exceptions.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 14 - March past (5) - APRIL [CD]

    This also appears familiar. Though I do not have any database to say if it is repeated from MM's past clues or otherwise.

    On an aside, the monocle and April reminds me of a gag from Plum:

    In 'The Small Bachelor', the hero George Finch was called April Showers by his girl's brother, because he brought her, May, flowers.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have also seen 7D and 15A recently (probably Everyman)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Sudalamani (926), OMG, a crossword that was published way back in 1981? How on earth did you dig this one out? I think this is somethin' even Scotland yard would be proud of. And seeing that it's from The Glasgow Herald, wondering if you got any connections up there.

    Anywayz, I think it could just be another case of two different people thinking up the same idea.

    ReplyDelete
  11. LOL VJ. Very likely you are not keeping a tab on the latest article on crosswordunclued and the comments thereunder.

    MM has been regularly lifting clues from whatever sources he could muster. That explains the 'master' version of his clues.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Further to earlier swallows, I think that this more than what many of us can swallow.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Kipling:
    Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.

    But borrowed drugs can be dangerous.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Manna's crosswords are turning into double the work. Not only do you have to solve the clue, but then you get to track down where it originally came from ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  15. In the last two days, much muck flak has been hurled against Manna. Be that as it may, it does bring back to me many such clues from the crosswords of the UK, and I feel not much strongly against that. Not all have the access to the UK xwords and if Manna culls and introduces a few clues here and there, so be it. Leave him be. We get a wider exposure. Agreed, it should be more of a creative effort, but as I said before, Who invented what? Everybody discovers.

    So long as we get our daily quota of shots, let the compiler find peace with his own conscience and try and be a bit more creative. QED.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Not often that you get a completely satisfactory crop from Manna, but this could be one of those days, so willing to turn a blind eye to the 'lifts'. 18A struck me as being a particularly cleverly crafted clue!

    ReplyDelete
  17. w00t for Sir Patrick!

    ReplyDelete
  18. (from yesterday)

    Re that Times/Times in HT clue for which the answer was AVOID.

    See the discussion here:

    http://www.boards2go.com/boards/board.cgi?action=read&id=1315926455&user=dharrison

    ReplyDelete
  19. My Chambers 12th Edition has arrived , hot off the press, all the way from the UK. Bought it from Amazon books when the free shipping offer was on

    ReplyDelete
  20. It's still on, Colonel. It lasts until the 30th. :-)

    ReplyDelete

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