Gridman starts off this round with a Pangram.
ACROSS
ACROSS
1 - Brightness of artist, one in ballroom activity (8) - RADIANCE {RA}{D{I}ANCE}
5 - Nullify sign by changing sides (6) - CANCEL CANCE(-r+l)L
9 - How one puts in extra hours? (8) - OVERTIME [CD]
10 - 50-50 chance to secret service in a higher position (4-2) - TOSS-UP {TO}{SS}-{UP}
12 - Pitcher, more recent with cap lost (4) - EWER nEWER
13 - Carefully tend physio under a spell (10) - HYPNOTISED*
15 - Moist for a small measure in soil (6) - CLAMMY {CLA{MM}Y}
17 - More gloomy and ultimately morose in fog (5) - BLUER {BLU{E}R}
20 - Having a good physique, the Italian enters objection (5) - BUILT {BU{IL}T}
21 - Police officer goes over fine lives (6) - DWELLS {D{WELL}S}
24 - The charge for a traveller's extra burden (6,4) - EXCESS FARE [E]
27 - Was privy to fresh hearing (4) - KNEW(~new)
29 - Colour of voile spread on tabletop (6) - VIOLET {VOILE*}{T}
30 - Weapon supplier — our withdrawal makes no difference to him (8) - ARMOURER {ARM(OUR)ER}
31 - Jacket needed for sail reducer (6) - REEFER [DD]
32 - Praise for more inane youth (8) - FLATTERY {FLATTER}{Y}
1 - Begin again with oner's disposition attracting beginners in physical education (6) - REOPEN {REO{PE}N*}
2 - Backward editor takes ultimately inquisitive writer to dig more (6) - DEEPEN {DE<-}{E}{PEN}
3 - Culturally pretentious pastor goes out of faction (4) - ARTY pARTY
4 - Snug male-female in company (5) - COMFY {CO{M}{F}Y}
6 - A daughter to choose to take a stray in (5) - ADOPT {A}{D}{OPT}
7 - Expels accountants and notorious touts (5,3) - CASTS OUT {CAS}{TS OUT*}
8 - A rapidly working stone-cutter (8) - LAPIDARY*
11 - Catalyst is last letter enemy scattered around (6) - ENZYME {EN{Z}YME*}
14 - Good instrument broken in pack (4) - GLUT {G}{LUTe}
16 - Ministry of Defence provided unknown quantity to repair (6) - MODIFY {MOD}{IF}{Y}
17 - Leave lightning-like? (4) - BOLT [DD]
18 - Old boy's domestic watchman (8) - OBSERVER {OB}{SERVER}
19 - Reveal girl's seal (8) - DISCLOSE {DI'S}{CLOSE}
22 - Treacherous manoeuvre of U-turn to end of avenue (6) - UNTRUE{UTURN*}{E}
23 - We're almost smothered by a small bunch of key characters (6) - QWERTY {Q{WERe}TY}
25 - Is back to woman with a riddle (5) - SIEVE {SI<-}{EVE}
26 - Head right to mountain country (5) - RURAL {R}{URAL}
Nice pangram, Gridman. A rare occurence, the Q is not followed by an U.
ReplyDeleteOr to correct myself, should I say, a Q followed by not single, but double U.
ReplyDeleteThe server in 18d reminded of ole Gundu Rao in Server Sundaram.
ReplyDeleteKishore's range seems to be very wide to include server sundaram of Nagesh fame.
ReplyDeleteI was nowhere near the 'key characters'- must learn to think differently.
Paddy, an unforgettable scene was where he picks up the same coin several times and puts in his pocket with a hole, just to have it fall out again and to put it in programming terms, the iteration continues looping for sometime. Also, a balancing act when serving.
ReplyDeleteYes Kishore. It was a very nice picture in many ways. talking of coins, I was reminded of the coin AB had in a picture ( Sholay?) with 2 heads, whenever he supposedly wanted to make a decision (!)Coming closer WI captain wanted a coin with 2 heads since he always lost calling for 'heads'!
ReplyDeletePaddy, another movie, involving a toss, Odds and Evens, starring Terence Hill and Bud Spencer has a peculiar ending when the coin is tossed up...
ReplyDeleteGood start to this round. QWERTY helped in achieving the pangram I guess, and have to say that while I got it, I wouldn't have thought it actually qualifies as a 6 letter word!
ReplyDeleteOverall nice one, could have had smoother surface in a couple of cluies, eg 11D
BRA- ZEN Skills
ReplyDeleteQ: Which is the striped BRA? zeBRA
Q: Poisonous BRA? coBRA
Q: Mathematical BRA? algeBRA
Q: Zodiacal BRA? liBRA
Q: Magical BRA? aBRAkadaBRA
Q: Religious BRA? BRAhmin! BRAhma!
Q: Metallic bra? BRAss
Q: Anjelina Jolie's Bra? BRAd pit...
Q: Botany BRA? BRAnch
Q: Marketing BRA? BRAnd!
Q: puctuation bra? BRAcket
Q: Scary bra? GhaBRAahat!!!!
Q: A room where BRA's are kept? LiBRAry
Q: Bra which became the American President and inspired the whole world? ABRAham Lincoln!
Q: Which bra is very important for any vehicle? BRAke
Q: Brave Bra - BRAvado
Q: Donkeys language? BRAying
Q: Where do naughty thoughts originate? BRAin
AND U THOUGHT ONLY WOMEN USE A BRA ???
Your mind is wicked !1 what can I tell?
Bhala, Qwerty is a valid word in a Dictionary including the OED
ReplyDeleteGridman always prides himself for doing hid 'Dictionary work'.
ReplyDeleteMy typing has hid instead
ReplyDeleteThat is new to me Suresh! I thought ASDF was more familiar.
ReplyDeleteIn yesterday's crossword, did Sankalak get his inspiration for CALVARIA from KOLAVERI ? I had known about Calvary but not Calvaria. Caused me KOLAVERI to get it through. I was on the roads, doing this, tackling Road VERI in CBE and didn't have any access to a dicky-book.
ReplyDeleteTHERMIDOR is an exotic word and reminded me of a restaurant in Nairobi with the name LOBSTER POT, serving Lobster thermidors.
Or lobster thermidore at the Sky Room in Kolkata. Fantastic stuff.
ReplyDeleteServer Sundaram was remade into Hindi as Main Sundar Hoon with Mahmood and Leena Chandavarkar. I felt there was a word-play there. While Mahmood's character said his name was Sundar, Leena could say she was pretty. The movie had very catchy songs.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind the truth but I prefer Flattery
ReplyDelete-Oscar Wilde
EXCESS FARE of four and five letter words for a change. Nothing to be HYPTONISED or get CLAMMY about.
ReplyDeleteJOLT, BOLT, GLUT, CASTS OUT in the TOSS UP.
QWERTY was pretty though.