ACROSS
1 - Put something over shaven skin (3) - HID HIDe
3 - Andaman prisoner (3,2,6) - BAY OF BENGAL Anno not clear
8 - Arbitrator's vault is not risk-free (6) - UNSAFE {UN}{SAFE}
9 - Order bottled soft drink variety (8) - SPECTRUM {S{P}ECT}{RUM}
11 - Uneducated police officer's sensible speech (8) - IGNORANT {IG}{NO)(RANT}
12 - Infected nuclei provide a hint (4,2) - CLUE IN*
14 - A barrier that follows scandals? (4) - GATE [DD]
15 - A government authority makes corrupt MPs appear tense (5,5) - STAMP PAPER {S{T}AMP PAPER*}
19 - They speed often for stunt (4) - SYCE or TYRE ?
22 - Communist Party fellow turns up for dry refreshment (6) - FODDER {F}{OD}{DER}
24 - Confirmed I've fired blasts (8) - VERIFIED*
26 - Abet evil scam that could have been avoided (8) - EVITABLE*
28 - Condom? (11) - KLEPTOCRACY The only thing that fits here!!! Anno not clear
29 - Heard a horse cry? Not at all (3) - NAY (~neigh)
DOWN
1 - Who's not started utilising accommodation? (7) - HOUSING {wHO}{USING}
2 - I studied strenuously about Navy split (9) - DISUNITED {DISU{N}ITED*}
3 - Gun releasing bad smell due to first of shots (6) - BOFORS {BO}{FOR}{S} Bofors by itself is not a gun, it is the name of the company that manufactures Guns.
4 - Dudes not fully backing empty promises (4) - FOPS {fFO<-}{PromiseS} (Addendum - {r}{PromiseS} - See comments}
5 - Cute play: running around a tree (8) - EUCALYPT*
6 - British emperor repudiates eastern valley (5) - GORGE GeORGE
7 - Like some thin plates railman displaced (7) - LAMINAR*
10 - Popular government put in place (7) - INSTATE {IN}{STATE}
13 - Amm… accumulates wealth in great quantity (7) - AMASSES {A}{MASSES}
16 - His panic about surgery eventually could be dangerous! (9) - PHYSICIAN {PH{Y}SICIAN*} Semi &lit
17 - Man-made object or affected truth, say (8) - ARTEFACT (~arty){ARTE}{FACT}
18 - Badly styled fake fop is yet to climax (3-4) - OFF PEAK*
20 - BushSenior ludicrously lacking in substance (7) - ELDERLY {ELDER}{LudicrouslY}
21 - In south, cold engulfs the Italian island (6) - SICILY {S}{{IC{IL}Y}
23 - Motor road (5) - DRIVE [DD]
25 - Syndicate needing no initiation of Kissan Jam (4) - BLOC BLOCk
14 - A barrier that follows scandals? (4) - GATE [DD]
ReplyDeletea la watergate, memogate, Tigergate etc...
thats super, yessss,,, we have porn gate also,, ha ha
Delete28 - Condom? (11) - KLEPTOCRACY The only thing that fits here!!! Anno not clear
ReplyDeleteA dom who is a con or the other way around. A conning dom.
Would that be correct grammatically?
DeleteHi Suresh, Col, it is much simpler than that. Further hint: If kingdom is ruled by a king, ...
DeleteCondom=ruled by con(men)=kleptocracy
DeleteSo the condom fits, after all...
Reminds me of a tailor shop in Bangalore called Khanate, pronounced by the owners (Khans) to rhyme with emirate and sultanate, but pronounced by most clients to rhyme with karate, presuming it to be a Maharashtrian surname a la Date, Gore, ...
Delete3 - Andaman prisoner (3,2,6) - BAY OF BENGAL Anno not clear
ReplyDeleteAndaman being island in Bay of Bengal, it is imprisoned (surrounded) by Bay of Bengal. Nice clue and well solved in ORKUT.
May be the confusion is Andaman is prisoner of Bay of Bengal and not vice versa.
DeleteHaving served in the Andamans for over 6 years my confusion was even more!!
DeleteAnd a man from Andaman was confused...
DeleteIf that is the explanation for the clue, I do not like it. Maybe a poet would find that description valid, but we would need to read through his entire poem to figure out his thoughts.
DeleteThere must be another explanation. Otherwise it would go down as a bad clue.
Scintillator is silent on this one.
DeleteWas the Bay of Bengal referred to as Kala paani as this link seems to suggest. http://www.wordnik.com/words/kalapani.
If so the clue makes some sense. But then prisoner should read as prison.
Yes. Kaala pani referred in general to any sea or ocean and to the Bay of Bengal in particular.
DeleteDoubts-
ReplyDelete22A- Where do we get 'OD' from? Also, we had a discussion a few days back about the suitability of "Turns up" as a reversal indiactor in Ac clue.
16D- What is the Def.? Dangerous?
20D- 'senior' doing double duty?
25D- Why Jam? (that too capital letter, tending one to think the missing letters are KJ)
On the whole lot of unanswered questions.
22 - Communist Party fellow turns up for dry refreshment (6)
Delete(communist) RED + (party) DO + (fellow) F all reversed
Hello Sir, most of your questions are answered in the blog itself. 16D is a semi-&lit, the entire clue is the definition. 20D: No, Bush=Elder (the plant). 25D: Jam=Block, capitalization is just an allusion to the product "Kissan Jam."
Delete22A: Yes, the indicator is suspect. Will take care of that henceforth.
28 - Condom? (11) - KLEPTOCRACY
ReplyDeleteIf kingdom is ruled by a king, ...
condom is ruled by a con.
To me, this would appear to stretch the setter's licence (!) a bit too far. This may score as a riddle not as a crptic.
Not sure of that, Rajan. Riddles and rebuses do have their places in cryptic clues, it is just that we find them rarely. There is a risk associated for setters with such clues: if people solve them, there will be a lot of appreciation, but if the decoding does not happen, the setter draws flak.
DeleteBAY OF BENGAL;One can fill or fit in any word and justify its appropriateness. Reminds me of a friend who used to be an 'illiterate' cryptic solver and justified his filling in words with letters beyond the square , merely because they fitted !!So a 15 lettered word became 16lettered outside the square and he would justify !!
ReplyDeleteRandom KINGDOM.
19 - They speed often for stunt (4) - SYCE or TYRE ? HYPE
ReplyDeleteAlternate letters from tHeY sPeEd
Just finished doing yesterday's. Enjoyed immensely. Read thru' the conmments post-solving. Nice even more to see the positive responses by the setter.
ReplyDeletePANORAMA: This has appeared many times in mnay crosswords and I don't find the construction wrong at all. NORA sits between her PA and MA. Very smooth.
BETTER HALF: First among the equals. Brilliant.
May cause a rift at home as to who is the first amongst the equals!
SVELTER/ SWELTER " Passable in cryptics as a homophone but isn't Svelte an adjective ?
Why's everyone griping about FLORENCE? It's neat, I'd say.
OGLERS: Reminded me of Vidya Balan (not Bidya) and her wink in the Dirty Picture.
Buzzer kept us buzzing alright, away from the run-0f-the mill.
Hi all
ReplyDeleteBoth 3A and 28A were intended to be CDs. With 3A, it was just an English quirk: leader of India is the same as India leader. Thinking philosophically, man makes prisons in beautiful places like Andaman, Alcatraz and St Helena, but in a way, he is himself a prisoner of nature.
The theme is something that is a constant feature in an Indian newspaper - Bofors, spectrum, fodder, stamp paper or housing - scams, scandals, -gates and corruption - a Con-dom we call a democracy!
Sometimes CDs may not appear good during the solve, but may grow on us in course of time. Who knows, you may be reminded of 3A on an Andaman vacation... and re 28A... ;)
How on earth can 'Andaman prisoner' or 'Prisoner Andaman' lead to Bay of Bengal? Makes no sense to me
DeleteAgree with Deepak, despite my reasoning given earlier.
DeleteWhat I meant was "Prisoner of Andaman" can mean 2 things: a human prisoner in the Andaman jail or the Bay of Bengal which confines the island itself. Calling a geographic feature as a "prisoner" may be poetic (as Suresh says), but we can always agree to disagree.
DeleteMain shayar to nahin. Magar ai haseen....this is stretching it a bit yaar.
Delete4 - Dudes not fully backing empty promises (4) - FOPS{fFO<-}{PromiseS}
ReplyDeleteThe anno needs revision. backing=FOR (I am for/backing this motion); not fully backing=FO
Thank you Scintillator, not only for answering all of my queries, but ALL questions patiently. Sometimes such discussions are as much fun as filling the CW, if not more. Thank you once again.
ReplyDeleteHow exactly does Amm... translate to amasses?
ReplyDeletem as in e=mc^2 stands for mass, so mm is ms or masses
Deleteso amm = a masses=amasses
wow. a bit of a stretch, isn't it?
DeleteNice old song, Suresh!
ReplyDeleteKLEPTOCRACY:
ReplyDeleteVery ingeneous innovation of our condemnocracy, this side of the Bay of Bengal? what next? Will Didi bay and ban this blog for calling it Bay of Bengal, instead of BOY OF POSHIM BONGLA ? Hope our own cryptocracy will remain safe?
INGENIOUS
ReplyDelete