ACROSS
8 - Game bird's moan (6) - GROUSE [DD]
9 - A doctor leads a demo, going against principles (8) - AMORALLY {A}{MO}{RALLY}
10 - Distrustful of the crusade before the fourth of July (4) - WARY {WAR}{Y}
11 - Expect trouble opening it (3,2,5) - CAN OF WORMS [CD]
12 - Wrestling with the problem, one sounds surprised (4) - SUMO {SUM}{O}(~oh)
17 - Place to eat in Indian city no Hindu leader would enter (4) - DELI DELhI
18 - The tedium of travelling in June, leaderless (5) - ENNUI {IN+jUNE}*
19 - Cook the game (4) - DICE [DD]
21 - Ends contain a narrow escape (5,5) - CLOSE SHAVE {CLOSE S}{HAVE}
23 - Piled up dirt in front of a parliament (4) - DUMA {DUM<-}{A}
24 - After an almost tasteless first course, Megan served up some
dessert (10) - BLANCMANGE {BLANd}{C}{MEGAN*}
28 - The prompter has left. This is it (4) - CLUE {C{L}UE}
29 - Detached notes from famous musical reviewed by Roman statesman
(8) - STACCATO {STAC<-}{CATO}
30 - It is fashionable to finish the game while he finishes his
sentence (6) - INMATE {IN}{MATE}
DOWN
1 - A right age to get winding, perhaps (8) - ARMATURE {A}{R}{MATURE}
3 - The judges urge for some exercise (5,5) - BENCH PRESS {BENCH} {PRESS}
5 - Run over the animal (4) - WOLF <-
7 - Those who passed out some salt are back home (6) - ALUMNI {ALUM}{NI<-}
14 - Country gets an opener without name, by the middle of May
(5) - KENYA {KE{N}Y}{A}
15 - The Niger issue could become unique (3,7) - SUI GENERIS* Thanks to Google
16 - Help said to have run away with the junior officer (4-2-4) - AIDE-DE-CAMP (~aid){AIDE}-{DE-CAMP}
25 - It is pleasant to be in this city (4) - NICE [DD]
26 - A drink made to order (4) - MEAD*
Anyone interested in enetring The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament? The site is HERE
ReplyDeletePlease ask any ToI reader.
DeleteFirst of all, ask ToI readers (see yesterday's cwd in ToI supplement) if they were able to read the clues with their naked eye.
I would be most interested to know if any visitor to your blog has ever put pen to he ToI cwd on paper.
How many in say 10 readers ever open the supplement that is supplied with the main paper, be it ToI, NIE or TH?
I used to do the TOI CW for quite some time and had to use either a fine ball point pen or a freshly sharpened pencil to enter the answers.
DeleteI for one very rarely open the supplements!
I can only answer the last bit. I rarely read any of the articles in TH supplements, except perhaps Metro Plus if it relates to my place of residence.
DeleteI do NIE crosswords..definitely not bothered to look TOI as we need a magnifying glass and end up with a head ache...the crosswords in supplements doesnt enthuse me normally.
DeleteAnother delightful puzzle from Arden.
ReplyDelete27 - It was the first nighttime light (4) - NEON [CD]
This might be a charade with
first night = n
time = eon
I endorse Bhavan's remarks " A delightful Puzzle" from Arden.
ReplyDeletea bit tough for me...dint get blancmange, aide de camp so some empty grids...stared at me
ReplyDeleteIf you were to pronounce those two words in any conversation, you should have done some homework!
DeleteThat is what I thought
ReplyDeleteThis comment was in response to Bhavans 8:17
ReplyDeleteGreat crossword from Arden. Liked the clue clue and also the reference to mg daughter's name (although we spell it Maegan). I thought the whole crossword a pleasure and it was a very pleasant start to the day.
ReplyDeleteCV: Which edition of the Times of India's supplement features any crossword ? Haven't seen one? I stopped looking at the daily ones as they are not cryptic, except the Sunday double ones that continue. Those good old days in Bombay, I used to complete the TOI cryptics in a span of 22 minutes commuting time in the suburban trains and made a lot of friends in the Ist class compartments who used to'reserve' ensuring my seat by sitting spreadeagled and have me ensconced between them.I still fondly remember an elderly and kind parsi couple.
ReplyDeleteI do the NIE also but under duress because their print and types are so miniscule like their Jumble Box, tho' they are very challenging.
The Hindu and Metro plus crosswords need to darken their blocks as one has to squint one's eyes to separate the blocks from the blanks. Who cares? Looks like that the editors are doing a favour to all of us by having these features to 'fill in the space'.
Surely, it is so easy to allocate a corner, preferably the last page LHS bottom and having them serially numbered? The Sunday Hindu comes up with different shapes and forms and makes it so difficult to clip them out.What to say about the wrong clues and grids that are a common feature in the NEI and the Economic Times?, that frustrate you so much?
Compare this to the Daily Telegraph of London section which is so very well organized.
But then, aren't we living in a very disorderly, imperfect and Jugaadi world in which there is no place for obsessive compulsives like me ?
Will respond tomorrow.
Deletew r t your 1st para, which period in Bombay?
DeleteI used to do the same during 1972-78 between Bandra & King's Circle Harbour Branch.The X word is from IE. Used to get extra 20 min in Bandra station if the train leaves just as I descend the stairs wading through the morning crowd in PF 6 & 7.
TOI Xword in the college with my friend, though we could not complete (leave alone 22 min), it was an excellent learning curve.
I thoroughly enjoyed today's crossword. The Shepakazhingu pic got my gastric juices bubbling !
ReplyDeleteTARO was a new word for me among a few others.
DeleteI also shared this with my friends enlightening them on Seppankizhangu. good picture by Col
TARO was a new word for me among a few others.
DeleteI also shared this with my friends enlightening them on Seppankizhangu. good picture by Col
Regarding the TOI cw, my wife and son have recently snatched the Metro Plus crossie from my custody and also have a shy at the TOI one. That's ok with me, now that I have free secretarial help to fill the crossies, as they keep hollering the clues at me.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was living in Pune, I used to get both ToI and NIE. Solely for the crosswords.
ReplyDeleteExcept for Sundays I used to find the ToI crossword a joke. Its position made it impossible to fold it into a quarter. And the clues and answers themselves were often so far removed from any context for it to appear in Times of 'India' (agreed it was just a syndicated puzzle). The crossword in the supplement - we used to get one called Pune Mirror - was another source of hilarity.
Now that they made it a paid service and also the fact that I have much better and original puzzles to tackle, I stopped bothering altogether with the ToI. I used to faithfully solve Economic Times until I caught onto their trick of recycling puzzles.
NIE was another matter. Now I know they are mostly Rufus' puzzles, but back then found the puzzle itself to be impeccable more often than not. Like Raju mentioned, the print left a lot to be desired and showed the general attitude of the newspaper towards this feature.
THC used to be easy to handle when I was in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai because I could do both the cryptic and metro plus puzzles in pen. It was hard to get the hard copy in Pune, so had to resort to printing the pdf file on a sheet and fill in during lunch break. Nowadays I use a math rule notebook to read the clues and fill answers in or use crossword compiler if I'm feeling too lazy.