Moved like 'Greased Lightning' today.
ACROSS
ACROSS
1 - Society transactions, I'm more upset about (6) - MEMOIR*
4 - Separated, Ed follows second train (8) - STRAINED {S}{TRAIN}{ED}
9 - Night out for an inanimate object (5) - THING*
10 - Spanish number one is the best (6,3) - NUMERO UNO [DD]
11 - Judge's habit to fleece an oriental (4) - ROBE {ROB}{E}
12 - Addled sage turns grey (4) - AGES*
13 - Greek character smuggled in some gadgets (5) - OMEGA [T]
15 - Surprise shaken rattles (7) - STARTLE*
16 - Takes in tea brewed by bridge player (4) - EATS {TEA*}{S}
19 - Kiln for cooking oats? (4) - OAST*
23 - Looking at a donkey in glee, partly (5) - EYING [T]
24 - Cuts of pork for bad actors (4) - HAMS [DD]
25 - First man, a mother? (4) - ADAM {A}{DAM}
27 - Six balls caught and surpassed (9) - OVERTAKEN {OVER}{TAKEN}
29 - Flabbergast, eviscerated and confounded historians (8) - ASTONISH HISTOriANS*
30 - Address whistled cheeps (6) - SPEECH*
DOWN
1 - Tart cooked in service canteen – sleep on it! (8) - MATTRESS {M{TART*}ESS}
2 - Postal packet that goes overseas (4–4) - MAIL-BOAT [CD]
5 - Twin means more change for typeface (5,3,5) - TIMES NEW ROMAN* What I always use
6 - Flight attendant damaged those saris (10) - AIRHOSTESS*
8 - Repeatedly do publicity somehow for a gizmo (6) - DOODAD {DO+DO+AD}*
10 - Unimportant small tremors? (2,5,6) - NO GREAT SHAKES [DD]
14 - Tidy up shattering change (10) - STRAIGHTEN*
17 - Clue file for undomesticated animals? (8) - WILDLIFE {WILD}{FILE*}
18 - Spymaster is Lucifer? That does not tally (8) - MISMATCH {M}{IS}{MATCH}
21 - Leapt about nothing for this Basque game (6) - PELOTA {PEL{O}TA*}
22 - Erring priest most ready to fall (6) - RIPEST*
Easy-going both for solving and maybe for the setter too.
ReplyDeleteNot the most enjoyable. 18 anagrams or part anagrams (56%). STRAINED clue not good.
Agree fully with Col.,though I could not get the new game-'pelota'.
ReplyDelete2D-dtruggled a little with sail boat before getting 'memoir'.
I have only heard of boat mail ( Rameswaram Express was called that way since it was connecting to boats to Sri Lanka-then Ceylon). I think CV will bear me out on this.
Well yes, strained was almost a quick clue and not a cryptic one.
ReplyDeleteDont mind this type of breeze-through-puzzle once in a while :)
ReplyDeleteQuestion on 29D: Techincally removing the middle (as indicated by eviscerated) should amount ot removing "or" and not "ri". Or is it acceptable to remove any part using the deletion indicator eviscerated ?
Yes. Got the same question.
DeleteAs indicated earlier, I am new to crosswords, and yet was able to "move" rapidly - so it must have been easy for you "pros"!
ReplyDeleteI had a question on how 26D is phrased. I had it initially as POOH (solved it before I got to 30A) and later corrected to HOOP. Ring up Winnie seemed to indicate to me that Winnie is the main clue and Ring (Hoop) had to be reversed. I felt something like "Winnie went up the ring" would have been more instinctive.
Perhaps this clue is not a good example, but the question is whether the reversal indicator (esp the word "up") would normally come after the word (which has to be reversed) or before or there is no pattern?
You were not wrong in having POOH as the answer because the clue doesn't tell you clearly.
DeleteAn unambiguous version of this clue might be (strictly in terms of cryptic instruction without going into surface reading )
Ring Winnie up (4)
This was also a clue I was not happy with entirely.
DeleteHi. I'm new to this blog. Sort of easy. But didn't have the time to solve it fully. Decided to look up this corner instead. Congrats COl. for your posts everyday.
ReplyDelete[insert here whatever Suresh has said so far]
ReplyDelete:)
Deepak, I did not get the significance of the link to the word clue in 17D.
ReplyDeleteI only saw wildlife a way to clue file
'Clew' to which the link leads is a variant spelling of 'Clue' and means "To roll or coil into a ball"
DeleteI saw that Deepak. Only I could not fit it into the clue or its anno, if you get what I mean.
DeleteI did not get the the anno for 17D.
ReplyDeleteWhere does "Wild" come from?
If we go with Clue(clew) as the anagram indicator for File-> life, does it mean that undomesticated is doing double duty ?
You have the answer Sriks, almost. Wildlife would serve as a clue for file. The word means an undomesticated animal. A kind of reverse anagram
DeletePELOTA, DOODAD,MISMATCH ..enjoyed 'em!
ReplyDeleteI started out with my poohs and hoops about face! Agree there were lots of anagrams but quote a few had nice surface readings. Also agree with comments about "strained" - I didn't put this in on the first pass through as I couldn't believe it would be that easy. Overall though, a pleasant - if quick - puzzle
ReplyDeleteRe 6D AIRHOSTESS, liked the cartoon. Does anyone remember an Amul hoarding on 'Middle-aged Spread' hinting at airhostesses being grounded because of their age? That happened ages ago. Following loud protests, it was withdrawn.
ReplyDeleteFor Kishore and other Bollywood aficionados -
ReplyDeleteJoy Mukherjee (73), best remembered for his roles in Love in Simla, Love in Tokyo, Shagird, Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon etc., passed away in Lilavati hospital in Mumbai today, Friday, March 9.