Tuesday, 9 October 2012

No.10589, Tuesday 9 Oct 12, Arden

Another fine run from Arden. Several clues to savour in this puzzle. Liked 12A, 18A, 28A, 2D, 17D and 25D.

ACROSS
1 Doesn't make sense to create friction without hard back up support (7) RHUBARB (RUB outside H + BRA <=)
5 Doctor removes bone out of the fish (7) SURGEON (StURGEON)
9 Complaint when the girl is good enough to eat (5) GRIPE (G + RIPE)
10 Angry about one worker getting a roll (9) CROISSANT (CROSS outside I + ANT)
11 Missile he tracks after a brief while (9) MINUTEMAN (MAN after MINUTE)
12 It is a leaf insect, reportedly (5) BETEL (~beetle)
13 Boast over one’s clothing (4) GARB (BRAG <=)
15 Run into decay with one creating disturbance (4,4) RACE, RIOT (RACE + I inside ROT)
18 Gets them out cheaply in a game (8) SKITTLES (DD)
19 Badly want to hear a story (4) YARN (~yearn?)
22 Army regulation issue could be a crime (5) ARSON (A R + SON)
24 Has help at another place of rest and recuperation (6,3) HEALTH,SPA (HAS HELP AT)*
26 Censure a salesman going over the edge and trailing behind (9) REPRIMAND (REP + RIM + AND)
27 It will grow in size when left in the vessel (5) BLOAT (L inside BOAT)
28 Procession will get back into the centre (7) CORTÈGE (GET<= inside CORE)
29 He believed in booze without a job (7) APOSTLE (ALE outside POST)

DOWN
1 The powers that be lined up two soldiers before me (6) REGIME (RE + GI + ME)
2 A standard card after marriage (5,4) UNION, JACK (JACK after UNION)
3 He represents time before a contract (5) AGENT (AGE + N'T)
4 Agitated Blair arrived inside having two houses to face (9) BICAMERAL (CAME inside BLAIR*)
5 Small hooter cut to size (5) SHORN (S + HORN)
6 Disapproval for a fruit (9) RASPBERRY (DD)
7 Stick up time to make laws (5) ENACT (CANE <= + T)
8 It is an irritant to catch and let loose (6) NETTLE (NET + LET*)
14 Back one up, angry with the unpleasant fellow (4,5) BÊTE,NOIRE (BET + ONE<= + IRE)
16 Caught a fool and an artist, but none believed her words (9) CASSANDRA (C + ASS + AND + RA)
17 Given a choice teacher will return to cheer Herb (5,4) ORRIS, ROOT (OR + SIR<= + ROOT)
20 Force to ask for a building block material (6) FABRIC (F + A + BRIC) (~a brick)
21 Acacia gives some power to the French (6) WATTLE (WATT + LE)
23 Fantastic to dine with the Queen (5) SUPER (SUP + ER)
24 Throw the fellow on the way (5) HEAVE (HE + AVE)
25 Check before castle is a no-no (5) TABOO (TAB + O-O)

33 comments:

  1. Good morning

    Missed a few in the northwest corner for want of time. SURGEON, CROISSANT, BETEL, ARSON, HEALTH SPA, REPRIMAND, CORTEGE, BICAMERAL, RASPBERRY (Is the definition full here?), ENACT and some others were good.

    Do you know how I got CASSANDRA? By way of CROSSING(s), of course!

    Was a 'French' indicator necessary in HEAVE?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ooh, i had nystagmus and my head reeled. looks like arden was in a great mood,when he set clues.

      Delete
    2. Nystagmus drove me to the dictionary. Nice to learn a new medical term.

      Delete
    3. So did I and rolled my eyeballs!

      Delete
    4. Or a shortening indicator ( ave = short for avenue)

      Delete
  2. I don't see a homophone indicator in 20D, nor is there an indicator to delete the 'K'

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I too had a similar doubt with FABRIC but meekly submitted without questioning.

      Delete
    2. On second thoughts, 'to ask for' could be a homophone indicator.

      Delete
  3. Are we into a botanist special today?
    I was waiting to hear what the doctor did to remove the T bone?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Though with 'believer and crossings, I filled in apostle, I could not get the anno until I saw it in the blog. Perhaps the 'booze' created a doubt in my mind!

    ReplyDelete
  5. 13A-
    I took boast as the def. and filled in 'Brag' and had a hold up. 'Bete noire' cleared it for me.

    ReplyDelete
  6. In today's Guardian ' Annoyed about one social worker's role, say (9)'

    Keep wondering about how the same word appears on the same day, clued differently in different papers, so often.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, Suresh, an ideal subject for PhD dissertation...

      Delete
    2. The Guardian's clue is nice. The definition is 'role, say'. The homophone of role is roll - CROISSANT.

      Delete
  7. Enjoyable as always.

    Apropos Col comment on 20D, I guess 'ask for' has to be considered as the homophone indicator, else it does not fit in the clue.

    14D also seems to have a minor flaw: IRE would be anger, not angry.

    But who's complaining!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought the same too, that an adjective like angry cannot give the noun ire.

      But then I checked in Chambers where angry is defined as a transitive verb meaning "to make angry" or "to irritate". So extrapolating it "to ire" seemed reasonable.

      Delete
  8. Loved today's crossword. Took some time to fill up. Did not get wattle. Liked union jack the best.

    You may need a good grounding in this to answer Suresh's question@9:50 :

    Chance for British talent (11)

    ReplyDelete
  9. 27 It will grow in size when left in the vessel (5) BLOAT (L inside BOAT)

    I found the 'It will" bit jarring and irrelevant, since we cannot say that a bloat will grow in size.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Struggled a bit today, but managed to finish it. Enjoyed this run from Arden. 18A reminded me of the number of times our team gets "skittled" on seaming tracks abroad :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yes, 'skittled out' is more of a cricketing (Indian?) term.

    ReplyDelete
  12. In ET today ( Hyd edition) I came across this clue.

    Go off course like an Australian female (7) (D_G_E_S)


    The crossings suggest digress which is confirmed by the definition ("Go off course"), but I am unable to explain further. Can some one provide a complete explanation ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anything to do with Oz? Bhavan could show the way!

      Delete
    2. Go off course like an Australian female ? (7) (D_G_E_S)

      I missed putting in the '?' at the end

      Delete
    3. Did not find the clue on online edition of Hyd ET

      Delete
    4. http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=ETNEW&BaseHref=ETBG/2012/10/09&PageLabel=13&ForceGif=true&EntityId=Ar01301&ViewMode=HTML

      Delete
    5. This link leads me back to our blog !!

      Delete
    6. If you are having difficulties try going to http://epaper.timesofindia.com

      There choose 'Economic times' Bangalore Edition. And go to page 13 in the epaper & click on the crossword that you see at the bottom of the page

      Delete
    7. Digger (n) : Austral./NZ informal a man, especially a private soldier (often used as a friendly form of address)

      So the female equivalent of that would be diggress or digress in the clue's cryptic reference.

      Delete

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