Thursday, 3 January 2013

No 10661, Thursday 03 Jan 13, xChequer

 Another excellent CW from xChequer though I have a few questions.

ACROSS
1   Dry rum initially consumed, can get plastered with this? (6) TROWEL {T{R}OWEL}
4   Abusive words, these sadly smother mine (8) EPITHETS {E{PIT}HETS*}
10 Cause tail to wag, make it real (9) ACTUALISE*
11 Block armaments, seal fate (5) KARMA [T]
12 Popular bases are undesirable environments (7) HOTBEDS {HOT}{BEDS}
13 Model exercise interrupted to dismantle swing (7) TRAPEZE {T}{RA{PE}ZE}
14 Affected by fervour with image of goddess (4) AVID <=
15 Compelling country to accept direction, Oriental’s travel permit rejected (10) PERSUASIVE {PER{S}U}{ASIV<=}{E<=}
19 Once-over for Indian ship before drill, combat will mostly follow (10) INSPECTION {INS}{PE}{aCTION}
20 Brought over charts and unwanted correspondence (4) SPAM <=
23 Rim belt adjusted for tambourine (7) TIMBREL*
26 Alternates between speakers lacking direction (7) TEETERS TwEETERS
27 Sage, polite man reciprocated greeting (5) RISHI {RIS<=}{HI}
28 Adolescents rightly get a sneer (9) TEENAGERS*
29 Many a pig found inside a wood (8) MAHOGANY {M{A}{HOG}ANY}
30 Angry man’s blind date (6) HEATED {HE}{DATE*}

DOWN
1   Reach a junction, regroup for a breather (7) TRACHEA {REACH+A+T}*
2   Exposed, removes clothes and performs better (9) OUTSTRIPS {OUT}{STRIPS}
3   Shelter safeguarding worker hoisted up for protective coating (6) ENAMEL {E{NAM}EL}<=
5   Fold suit on table top (5) PLEAT {PLEA}{T}
6   Income gone, food to go? (4-4) TAKE-AWAY {TAKE}-{AWAY}
7   Lofty dwelling, King and Emperor living inside, see? (5) EYRIE {EY{R}{I}E} 'I' for Emperor? (See comments)
8   Closely connected cats? (7) SIAMESE [CD]
9   Imprudent girl, darling, overstepped a point (8) MISSPENT {MISS}{PE{N}T}
16 Kiss without warning, thereafter straighten things out (8) SMOOTHEN {SMOOch}{THEN} Warning and 'ch'? (See comments)
17 Deploy tool (9) IMPLEMENT [DD]
18 Desire variable remuneration without limit (8) YEARNING {Y}{EARNINGs}
19 Meanwhile bury him sans top honours (7) INTERIM {INTER}{hIM}
21 Maltreated union leader crushed by loss experienced (7) MISUSED {MIS{U}SED}
22 Harshly rebuke engineer on charge (6) BERATE {BE}{RATE}
24 Obligatory hospital time when tusker’s feeling very hot? (5) MUSTH {MUST}{H}
25 Tongue of American found in Chile, say (5) LATIN {LATIN america}


17 comments:

  1. 16 Kiss without warning, thereafter straighten things out (8) SMOOTHEN {SMOOch}{THEN} Warning and 'ch'?

    CH: CHECK (Chess)

    ReplyDelete
  2. 7 Lofty dwelling, King and Emperor living inside, see? (5) EYRIE {EY{R}{I}E} 'I' for Emperor?

    EY{RI}E
    RI: King-Emperor (Rex Imperator)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your Annos are always a great learning experience for me / us.Thanks Sandhya

      Delete
  3. Lot of nice clues here, but I have a few nits to pick

    10A not sure I get the surface
    14A, "image" doesn't convey reversal. It might, only if it is taken to mean reflection
    19A "combat will mostly" doesn't yield "ction" but "actio" ? Plus the "will" feels out of place in cryptic reading
    9D I'm not sure imprudent and misspent are synonyms.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think Image was meant to convey reflection. A new type of reversal indicator?

      Delete
    2. Traffic a bit lean, so will come in with comments/clarifications now:

      10A not sure I get the surface

      Admittedly could have been better, intention sought to be conveyed was to get a dog to express happiness, and unreservedly so

      14A "image" doesn't convey reversal. It might, only if it is taken to mean reflection
      I think Image was meant to convey reflection. A new type of reversal indicator?

      Yes, image used as proxy for reflection, no arguments there. New or not, am not sure

      19A (1st part)"combat will mostly" doesn't yield "ction" but "actio" ?

      Don't get it, logically no reason that only the last bit goes out. If there is such an implied rule, I am not aware

      19A (2nd part) Plus the "will" feels out of place in cryptic reading

      Again not sure why, 'action will follow' does not throw it out of gear. But maybe a better construction would have been 'action to follow'

      9D I'm not sure imprudent and misspent are synonyms.

      Yes, they are, had checked before putting it in. References available at (amongst others):
      http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/misspent?showCookiePolicy=true and
      http://www.thefreedictionary.com/misspent

      Thanks for comments. Also Sandhya's annos as intended by me, thanks for clarifying

      Delete
  4. One other comment Col, regarding anno for 25D. It was intended as a DD

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. American found in Chile is Latin American and Latin is a tongue/ language. The only problem IMO is that "of" is not an appropriate link word for a double definition.

      Delete
    2. It was broken up as Tongue + 'the rest of the clue'.

      Of not used as a link word but part of the second definition, of having the meaning of 'relating to', 'pertaining to', 'characterising' etc

      Hope it makes sense

      Delete
  5. Nice crossword, learnt a couple of new abbreviations today.
    I have not seen mostly, for the most part etc. used as indicators for head-deletion (19A).

    ReplyDelete
  6. I refreshed the page and got a huge photo of Bhala staring at me and I said "Wow! What a way to make an entry"

    Refreshed again and the image is back to normal size.

    Must be a glitch

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just in passing:

      I guess Bhalchandra spells his name correctly, unlike many others who spell it Balchandra or Balachandra, a la Balakrishna for child Krishna.

      The Bhal or Bhala in Bhalachandra stands for 'forehead' (perhaps closely linked to 'cephallo'). I presume I am right if I take the meaning of Bhalachandra as one the who has a moon on the forehead, namely, Lord Shiva.

      Opinions please.

      Delete
    2. Correction: I presume I am right if I take the meaning of Bhalachandra as the one who has a moon on the forehead, namely, Lord Shiva.

      Delete
    3. Ha ha, what an interesting discussion! Yes, I believe I do spell my name right (but the contraction is Bhala). What generally irritates me is that Indians mostly are cavalier in their attitude towards spelling my name (my complaints in this regard are legion). Never ever had a problem abroad.

      As to meaning, I believe it is one of the names for Lord Ganesha

      Delete
  7. Yesterday's crossie by SUNNET: My comments are a day late and hence I'm transposing them in today's space.

    Ramesh: I'd give 90% for your attempt. Most of us are used to the English crossies and I do admire the Indian flavour put in by our compilers

    I didn't like 22 down at all !! Too far-fetched.!Similarly, 26 across- INDIA is very outre !! why radio? Why not just I ?

    10 across: REPAPERED : This is often seen in the English papers. I annotated it as REED for RUSH which is a plant and PAPER as printed matter. Your annotation is new to me.

    4 across: PONIARDS is very refreshing, especially for newbies !

    I also just now completed your sunday special of 9th Dec, 2012, as I was away. You do put in a few weird clues unheard of in our lingo-- What say CV?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Richard

    I looked up Maneka Gandhi's The Penguin Book of Hindu Names. For Balaćandra, it gives the meaning 'the crescent moon'; 'the young or waxing moon'.

    So your surmise is right.

    ReplyDelete

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