Wednesday, 29 February 2012

No 10398, Wednesday 29 Feb 12, Neyartha

ACROSS
6   - Abandon supply… (5) - YIELD [DD]
7   - … to the Massachusetts whaling town made famous by limericks (9) - NANTUCKET [GK]

There once was a man from Nantucket
 Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
  But his daughter, named Nan,
Ran away with a man
  And as for the bucket, Nantucket.

10 - Deliver note sent ahead by the UP leader in the midst of rocks at the cliff base (6) - RESCUE (+re){RE)(SC{U}(-re)E}
11 - Mother ignored bottom plate put outside in the sink (8) - DIMINISH {D{IM}{IN}ISH} ? Anno pending (Addendum - {DI{MINImum}SH} - See comments}
12 - Piercing jewellery piece of the harsh judge thrown out by the Earl (7) - EARRING (-j+e)EARRING
13 - Sees Cuban hiding some diving gear (5) - SCUBA [T]
14 - Quantity of something about which no one is certain (7) - UNKNOWN [E]
15 - Witty joker goes back with cooked ham for some Greek money (7) - DRACHMA {DRAC<-}{HAM*}
18 - John, in speaking to the police department, was comprehensible (5) - LUCID (~loo){LU}{CID}
19 - Revolutionary eventually gets rigorous imprisonment in the repeat hearing (7) - RETRIAL {RET{RI}AL<-}
20 - Dangerous racists settle around the island over a geological timescale (8) - TRIASSIC {TR{I}ASSIC*}
22 - Initially place lumber inside nursery to help with the column support (6) - PLINTH {P}{L}{I}{N}{T}{H}
23 - Sluggard scratching head with some smoothing tools used by manicurists (9) - NAILFILES {sNAIL}{FILES}
24 - Spirit found in a Tianjin nightclub (5) - JINNI [T]
DOWN
1   - Score: -1 (8) - NINETEEN [E]
2   - On-screen letter? (10,4) - ELECTRONIC MAIL [CD]
3   - Broke AG ready to provide the old outdoor storage fee (7) - YARDAGE*
4   - Scrap one of the Intel microprocessor lineups (4) - ATOM [DD]
5   - Studied to find out, we hear, about the Middle Eastern water body (3,3) - RED SEA (~read){RED} {SEA}(~see)
8   - Conservative's unfortunate junction visit results in ‘Madras Eye' (14) - CONJUNCTIVITIS {C}{JUNCTION+VISIT*}
9   - Inspected sheep picked up by the underwater worker from the south (8) - REVIEWED {REVI{EWE}D<-}
13 - Group of microbes found in crumpled polyester left outside (8) - SEROTYPE POlYESTER*
16 - Michigan in flames over worker being aggressive (8) - MILITANT {MI}{LIT}{ANT}
17 - Windpipe in painting drawn up by a revolutionary undergoing imprisonment (7) - TRACHEA {TR{A}{CHE}A<-}
18 - Awkward palaver initially ignored by the ones in need of a metamorphosis (6) - LARVAE pALAVER*
21 - Spotless Oriental making way for the Pole in the hero's tale (4) - SPIC (-e+s)SPIC

LINK TO GRID


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26 comments:

  1. Bhavan29 February 2012 at 08:40

    11 - Mother ignored bottom plate put outside in the sink (8) - DIMINISH {D{IM}{IN}ISH} ? Anno pending

    DI(MINI(-mum))SH

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bhavan29 February 2012 at 08:42

    Is there a theme today along with the nina - Neyartha hits a century?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous29 February 2012 at 08:45

    Good spotting, Bhavan. One setter announces his/her arrival two days back, and another his a century today, both with Ninas.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bhavan29 February 2012 at 08:50

      I think there are only a finite number of ways to hide/convey stuff in a crossword : )

      Delete
    2. Anonymous29 February 2012 at 08:55

      We could expand the finite to the infinite, by having a coded Nina. Let us say the Nina is coded, to begin with, with a simple character shift or a Vigenere. It could be a code that needs to be fitted into an Enigma machine with a large number of replaceable disks (still finite !). Or may be RSA with infinite number of Public and Private keys. But that would be out of the ken of the 'normal' solver, whatever that may be...

      Delete
    3. Bhavan29 February 2012 at 09:03

      I was afraid of getting into this mathematricks discussion with you : )

      May be I should qualify that word "finite" with "and keeping it within the reach of most solvers".

      Delete
    4. Deepak Gopinath29 February 2012 at 10:11

      Bounce - Bounce

      Delete
  4. Deepak Gopinath29 February 2012 at 10:12

    Congrats to Neyartha on hitting a ton

    ReplyDelete
  5. Suresh29 February 2012 at 10:46

    Wd never have seen the nina if Bhavan hadn't pointed it out

    ReplyDelete
  6. Suresh29 February 2012 at 10:48

    And of course, congrats to Neyartha. Great going and we look forward to several more centuries.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Padmanabhan29 February 2012 at 11:18

    The game of coining a NINA and spotting it is really very intriguing.Congrats to both the setter and the solver.
    Congrats to the centurion with best wishes to hit many more centuries.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Navneeth29 February 2012 at 14:22

    Seriously, has there already been 100 Neyartha crosswords featured in The Hindu? The blog shows only 62 (and I would hardly suspect the Colonel of forgetting to tag 38 puzzles with the setter's name).

    I actually expected a NINA, but concentrated only on the letters at the bottom (which has CAST) at the time.

    Colonel,
    1D should be a CD, I think. No regular person (i.e. not a solver ;-)) would ever come to the conclusion that that statement refers to the number 19.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Suresh29 February 2012 at 15:04

      The remaining 38 must be before the blog commenced

      Delete
    2. Navneeth29 February 2012 at 15:20

      Hm... I was under the impression that Neyartha was a recent member of The Setters, someone who was introduced after I started following this blog, which was soon after S&B I.

      Delete
    3. Bhavan29 February 2012 at 17:17

      Good question Navneeth

      Assuming Neyartha always contributed 2 puzzles per month, it would take approximately 4 years to get to 100 puzzles. Which means he would have started in 2008 around this time or end of 2007. And we know this blog turned 3 quite recently. So approximately 24 puzzles would have been published in the year prior to this blog.

      Neyartha if he drops in, can clarify about those 38, but a rudimentary search on thehindu website yielded 80 results with Neyartha's name. At least going by the first page they were all THC puzzles.

      Delete
    4. Chaturvasi29 February 2012 at 17:29

      I think the figures depend on when the Col started using tags.

      Delete
  9. Chaturvasi29 February 2012 at 17:24

    I wrote the following but before I could post it, I had to 'select profile' and log in. Meanwhile, B's post came on.

    Some math work for Kishore.

    Neyartha is producing two a month.

    He has contributed 100 puzzles.

    So how far back did he start?

    On calculation, we will get a rough figure: I say 'rough' because the two puzzles f N may not have appeared exactly every month: some may have been after 35 days or something like that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous29 February 2012 at 18:52

      Rough would be 100/2=25 months= Jan/Feb 2010

      Anyways, to doff my helmet at the setter:

      Ave, Centurion !

      Delete
    2. Col_Gopinath29 February 2012 at 18:54

      Some more inputs for K,

      I started using tags/labels right from my first post on 04 Feb 09, Neyartha's first CW on my blog was on 18 Feb 09. His CW of 19 Feb 09 did not appear on my blog as I was out of town and those days I did not have a laptop or data card which nowadays enables me to blog while on the move.

      finally if you click on 'Neyartha' in the cloud under the labels link all his CW's will show up.

      Delete
    3. Suresh29 February 2012 at 19:16

      Kishore What is the catch, if any, 100/2 normally (except for CAs) would be 50

      Delete
  10. veer29 February 2012 at 21:11

    I don't know if the number of ways one can hide / code stuff into a cryptic crossword is finite. "Within reach of most solvers" could be harder I guess, though I think not necessarily so especially if the setter chooses to put the time into it. I sometimes follow Derek Harrison's Crossword Centre where prize puzzles are published - they are routinely coded puzzles that for me are fiendishly difficult. Here is an example of the coded part of the puzzle that is currently up:

    Quote from Derek Harrison's Crossword Centre prize puzzle link (http://www.crossword.org.uk/technical.html)

    Complete the perimeter, a collection of stories and its author running clockwise from some square to be determined. Highlight two words (of 9 and 5 letters) in the completed grid, cryptically indicating the title of a well-known work by the same author. Write the actual title of that work below the grid. Unchecked cells in the perimeter could spell MAIN STORY OF HIS TOLD. Answers to clues may all be found in Chambers, 11th Edition, or ODE, 2010.

    Unquote

    I tried to publish under the Col.'s bounce post using the "Reply" link but did not work for some reason.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bhavan1 March 2012 at 03:07

      veer, good to see you here.

      By finite ways to hide things I wasn't talking about the restrictions on setters. Without instructions to solvers about where to look and then what to do with it, the message remains out of reach for a majority. And let's face it. There isn't a provision in THC for adding titles to themed puzzles - much less instructions about solving.

      Most days some of us don't spot a theme or a nina. To be honest because it was Neyartha and given his penchant for a theme I was exploring the completed grid and stumbled on the nina.

      That is also the reason why I didn't spot the nina from Anitya the day before - because I wasn't expecting it (with a little bit of wink wink and nudge nudge from CV I finally got there)

      Delete
  11. Alok29 February 2012 at 23:35

    This is probably a stupid newbie question but...

    what is a nina?

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bhavan1 March 2012 at 03:10

      Hi Alok,

      Nina is basically any message left by the setter inside a completed crossword solution grid. It could be along the perimeter of the puzzle or any other horizontal or vertical run.

      You can read more about it here : http://www.crosswordunclued.com/2009/10/what-is-nina.html

      Delete
    2. Alok1 March 2012 at 11:04

      Awesome! Thanks

      Finally "saw" the "Neyartha hits a century" in this grid just as I finished today's (01.03.2012) grid.

      Delete
  12. Neyartha1 March 2012 at 11:14

    Dear Solvers,

    Thank you very much for your kind words of encouragement.

    My first crossword for The Hindu appeared on Dec. 17, 2007 [ More details here: http://www.crosswordunclued.com/2011/02/interview-neyartha.html ].

    I completed 100 puzzles for The Hindu with THC No. 10376 on Feb 3rd, 2012. So, the puzzles published on Feb 29th and Mar 1st are actually Puzzle No. 101 and 102.

    I should also apologize to solvers for getting by with just 26 clues in Puzzle No. 101 (had to do it in order to accommodate the Nina). Rest assured, we will be back to 30 clues per puzzle in my future submissions.

    It has been a very interesting journey and I hope to do my best in the future to keep everyone entertained :)

    Best Regards
    Neyartha

    ReplyDelete

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