Cakewalk with samosas today, too many giveaways and lengthy clues. Shades of our old enemy No 1 seen in some clues today?
ACROSS
7 Royal Engineers take fees with hesitation, but they ensure fair
play (8) REFEREES {RE}{F{ER}EES}
9 A condition of general abundance at the French National Theatre
on the outskirts of Pondicherry (6) PLENTY {Pondi{LE}{NT}cherrY}
10 German leader had food at the passageway (4) GATE {G}{ATE}
11 Everybody wants to die in this manner. Will it not be better if
they live together in this manner? (10) PEACEFULLY [CD]
12 You and I go to Andhra Pradesh playing a type of instrument
(6) WEAPON {WE}{AP}{ON}
14 Constituents of Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space (8) ELEMENTS [GK]
15 Prepared food for commander with approval of journalist (6) COOKED {CO}{OK}{ED}
16 Rides a bicycle to the footstalls disheartenedly (6) PEDALS PEDestALS
19 One who is the first to think of fashionable outlet for gold
(8) INVENTOR {IN}{VENT}{OR}
24 A layer of earth’s surface with sulphur and petroleum (4) SOIL {S}{OIL}
25 Editor turned up and allowed Edward to remove something (6) DELETE {DE<=}{LET}{E}
26 Sample of special ice sent back to soldiers (8) SPECIMEN {SP}{ECI<=}{MEN}
DOWN
1 Belgian leaders have to act properly (6) BEHAVE {BElgian}{HAVE}
2 Listen to the audience at this place (4) HERE (~hear)
3 Extraordinary person facing South-East gets an answer (8) RESPONSE {PERSON*}{SE}
4 Superintendent of police here has his area of influence (6) SPHERE {SP}{HERE}
5 Make payment to neuter mare surgically (10) REMUNERATE*
6 The least trained to compete in sports! (8) ATHLETES*
8 Scary creatures that emerge from darkness when healer goes out
(6) SNAKES dArKNESS*
13 Attributes of correct social relationships (10) PROPERTIES {PROPER}{TIES}
15 Bewildered by trick that fellow employed (8) CONFUSED {CON}{F}{USED}
17 Former political leader and journalist grew vigorously (8) EXPANDED {EX}{P}{AND}{ED}
18 Paths of satellites or small fragments (6) ORBITS {OR}{BITS}
20 Of no use to treasured cocktail dealer (6) TRADER TReAsuRED*
22 Tremble convulsively like tennis player Pam (6) SHIVER She was 'Shriver' and not Shiver!!!
24 Flask insulated with an outer covering (4) SKIN [T]
Samosas, yes! But the samosa connoisseur has been away over the past few days!
ReplyDelete11A Everybody wants to die in this manner. Will it not be better if they live together in this manner? (10) PEACEFULLY [CD]
ReplyDeleteA beautiful message, indeed!
By the way, it is 19-word clue. Phew! But I can bet CV can cull out another from his database which could beat it.
Yes, it's a samosa day, though Trader and Snakes had me foxed for a while! Gayathri must be busy with work and the movie script.
ReplyDeleteGood morning all.
After Textrous's fun challenge yesterday, today felt like falling over a log. I am not sure I know exactly who enemy # 1 was (there were atleast two competing for it, IMO), but I think shades of both enemy 1 and 2 can be seen. Some nice clues like 23Ac show definite signs of advanced clueing if one were to accept wonder as a anagram indicator, as well as others like the 6D chestnut, the exclamation mark notwithstanding. But, then there were also clues as careless as 22D, and 11A (generously called CD, is more of a value statement) and some others. Almost a mix of the master and apprentice as well as who I think is being referred to as enemy # 1.. I am sure it will get more fun as time goes along and Tester picks up the nuances..
ReplyDeleteWithout any odious comparisons to setters past or present, I agree with others here about the puzzle being underwhelming.
ReplyDeleteCome, come Bhavan.. the sentiment on the headline or my comment was more tongue-in-cheek than anything more sinister.
DeleteOn another note, are you still in Australia? I have been hooked by my wife into watching this British period drama on TV called Downton Abbey and was wondering if anyone else in India or other countries had a chance to see it? Kind of interesting and full of references to the bygone Edwardian era - nothing like the comic interplay in the British series Yes, Minister which was playing a long while ago on Indian television, but interesting nevertheless.
Hmm filling in time only mostly. 23A a beautiful clue, and though Veer's observation of anagrind may be relevant, I am inclined to give the setter the liberty for the surface. In fact, quite a few puzzles these days seem to have to 'nounal' anagram indicator
ReplyDeleteReasonable standard. Some original indicators.
ReplyDelete9 A. Clue has a typo or maybe it's wrongly worded: should have been 'in' in place of 'on'.
14 Constituents of Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space (8) ELEMENTS [GK]
I think this a CD and not GK as Elements: constituents: Earth, fire...
How is Great Barrier Reef: AUSTRALIAN? Like saying Taj Mahal is Indian?
I took 14A as DD with Constituents being one def and the rest being the other def.
DeleteSimple one no doubt, but I guess Tester has always been this way.
I think it's "Great Barrier Reef, for example" that gives Australian - like Taj Mahal, for instance, is Indian.
Delete...with wonder doing double duty. To be precise, I did not notice the anagram part at all with crossings and Great Barrier Reef directly leading down under! We may be 'wonder'ing about its suitability as Anind, but the surface is really great.
ReplyDeleteYes, Tester should have been more careful about Pam Shriver.
Samosas make it enjoyable anyway.
did any one notice 31113 being a palindromic number?
ReplyDeleteSome comments which inadvertently got deleted
ReplyDeleteRita Mathur : Thanks for pointing this out!
Raju Umamaheswar : Oh, it won't be one if one expanded to 31-01-2013 !! or if one wrote the date-lined it the American way----013113 ! This is how numerologists fool gullible folks by predicting their future, at their own convenience. A lot of bunkum when one juggles with numbers and names and initials etc, distorting names to unspellable letters with several AAs !
But surely, palindromic , names and numbers are fun indeed !
Glad to see the doting Grandpa!
ReplyDelete