ACROSS
1 - Decay of French literary work (13) - DECOMPOSITION {DE}{COMPOSITION}
10 - Lee crying falsely because of a chemical (9) - GLYCERINE*Semi & lit as well
11 - High and frequently caught in heartless levity (5) - LOFTY {Lev{OFT}itY}
12 - Determined about returning money (5) - NOTES {NO}{TES}<-
13 - So nice, a B.E. trained in a gesture of respect (9) - OBEISANCE*
14 - End of play before time ? Happens once in 365 days (6) - YEARLY {Y}{EARLY}
16 - Mechanical contrivance to steal books (5) - ROBOT {ROB}{OT}
19 - Fail to complete the term (5) - ABORT [E]
20 - My clue revised in a place of learning (6) - LYCEUM*
25 - Series of steps to reach a higher level (9) - STAIRCASE [E]
26 - What may be left by a fibber returning after time (5) - TRAIL {T}{RAIL<-}
27 - The light of progress (5) - GREEN [CD]
28 - Birds with growths on the head around the beak (9) - HORNBILLS {HORN{BILL}S}
DOWN
2 - Tangy pie possibly from Cairo (8) - EGYPTIAN*
3 - Exposes very big enclosure inside (5) - OPENS {O{PEN}S}
4 - Fictional sleuth, the best around South American city, propped up (6) - POIROT {P{OIR<-}OT<-}
6 - Tots rally around in an unbelievable tale (4,5) - TALL STORY*
7 - Here is Karloff ending pretense to cause an insult (6) - OFFEND [T]
8 - The instrumentality to make a genius weep, losing heart (6) - AGENCY {A}{GEN}{CrY}
9 - Pressure is what keeps them going (5) - TYRES [CD]
15 - Hint barely worked out, without energy, by a network (9) - LABYRINTH {HINT+BAReLY}*
17 - Man of religion with power reined in by potential energy? Right (8) - PREACHER {P{REACH}E}{R}
18 - Glories spelt out around a Turkish palace (9) - SERAGLIO {SER{A}GLIO} Was fooled by the incorrect enumeration
21 - Stubborn boy from China bathed in sentimentality (6) - MULISH {MU{LI}SH}
22 - Popular wise man's practice (5) - USAGE {U}{SAGE}
23 - Bring a tea urn and in it a cake (6) - GATEAU [T]
24 - Stuff discarded by girl coming out ahead of retired teacher (6) - DEBRIS {DEB}{RIS<-}
26 - The roof of the world (5) - TIBET [GK]
Incorrect enu seems to be becoming a bit common. Typos?
ReplyDeleteNice one. Was able to complete today & happy.
ReplyDeleteSunday Telegraph of Dec 4 has this clue for SERAGLIO (18D):
ReplyDeleteE.g., sailor or gaoler is misbehaving in women’s quarters (8)
Double anagram - (EG SAILOR)* & (GAOLER IS)* both giving the word SERAGLIO for women’s quarters
Not the best offering perhaps. Half a dozen anagrams, too many 'meaning' type clues, and incorrect enu as has been pointed out.
ReplyDeleteBhala, an incorrect enu. need not necessarily be the fault of the setter (the offerer, so to speak). In any case, the publisher should have been cautious even if it was.
ReplyDeleteI was talking to Sankalak the other day about the dominant vs dormant goof up and he clarified that he had sent it in as Dormant. While printing if a whole word can change, a botched enumeration is nothing. Like Navneeth mentioned, can't ascribe it to the setter's carelessness.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Bhavan. The errors seem to be happening at the TH end.
ReplyDeleteOnly wonder whether setters send hard copies or soft copies to the publisher. And whether in case of hard copies, the publisher gets them scanned with OCR or gets them keyed in, which can result in optical illusions when read by a 'data entry operator' or worse if the person is using some predictive software. Or alternatively, the soft copies are run by a spell check and edited by an disediting editor.
Also recall, that a few Sundays back, we had the peripheral column missing in the grid printed.
ReplyDelete