Nice one from xChequer with some excellent surfaces. My COD 20A.
ACROSS
1 Old-fashioned customer left outside an opening (7) ANCIENT {AN}{ClIENT}
9 Revive with right cure administered during period of relaxation
(9) RESURRECT {RES{R+CURE}*T}
10 Balanced lady in the fifties (5) LEVEL {L{EVE}L}
12 Model state partners pubs! (7) TAVERNS {T}{AVER}{NS}
14 Enthusiastically laud downfall (4) HAIL [DD]
15 Seek out Dad in response to this call? (4,2,4) COME TO PAPA [CD]
19 Instrument to scale originally oversized drawing, blow up?
(10) PANTOGRAPH [E] (Addendum - {PANT}{O}{GRAPH} - See comments)
20 Speed generally gives superiority (4) EDGE [T]
22 Plays at that place outside (7) THEATRE {THE{AT}RE}
25 Audible expression of relief after mutt’s restriction on
movement (6) CURFEW {CUR}{FEW}(~phew)
27 It is communal anyway (5) =>CIVIC<=
28 Cardinals convert me in moving scene (9) EMINENCES {ME+IN}*{SCENE}*
29 Superfluous of course, pointless advantage (7) SURPLUS {SURe}{PLUS}
30 Mechanic shifted gears with hesitation (7) GREASER {GEARS*}{ER}
DOWN
1 Out of line state back on track (4) AWRY {AW<=}{RY}
2 Warden in China receives me royally to reciprocate assistance
(9) CUSTODIAN {C{US}{TO}{DIA<=}N} Anno for US not clear (See comments)
3 Loaded nut earlier to improve value (6) ENRICH (+en}ENRICH(-en)
4 On journey playfully greet juggler (9) TREGETOUR {T{GREET*}OUR} (Correction - {GREET*}{TOUR} - See comments)
5 Minor stroke, pity, take heart (5) PETIT {PET}{pITy}
7 One who is not on the take? (5) GIVER [CD]
8 Sprinkler for seasoning stale shark at sea (4,6) SALT SHAKER*
13 Stamps and checks eating utensils (10) CHOPSTICKS {CHOPS}{TICKS}
16 But for Peter switching position with Charlie, would be
pregnant! (9) EXPECTING EX{-c+p}PE(-p+c)CTING
17 Viewers for upmarket car, hence top folded before start of show
(9) AUDIENCES {AUDI{hENCE}{S}
18 Songlike love note with jerk disturbs friend (8) POETICAL {P{O}{E}{TIC}AL}
21 Note in cap has direction to remain still (6) FREEZE {F{RE}EZ}{E}
23 Fish always found in lake? Quite the contrary (5) ELVER {E{L}VER}
24 Smooth small squares (5) EVENS {EVEN}{S}
26 Public official’s son invading pitch (4) TSAR {T{S}AR}
2 Warden in China receives me royally to reciprocate assistance (9) CUSTODIAN {C{US}{TO}{DIA<=}N} Anno for US not clear
ReplyDeleteME royally = US
I still don't get it??
DeleteRoyalty speak of themselves in the plural.
DeleteWhen a queen is not amused, she would say "We are not amused" (instead of "I am not amused").
Delete'We' in that sentence is known as the 'royal pronoun'.
Okay I get it now
Delete6 Blank frame, movie coming up? (8) OBLIVION Anno pending
ReplyDeleteDD
OBLIVION is an upcoming sci-fi movie.
Thanks Sandhya
ReplyDeleteTake
ReplyDeleteBalanced lady in the fifties (5) L(EVE)L
Just an example of the setter's superb cluemanship.
Concise, clear, with smooth surface reading. Quite plausible too. Nothing bizarre about it.
If you evoked an image of a heavy man balancing a lady in the 50-59 age group (as I did or as Kishore might have), you betray your sense of humour.
Actually. the statement refers to a woman in her fifties (probably when people begin to lose the grip over their senses) still retaining her balance of mind.
There are other clues as well to appreciate.
Most, if not all, of the new crop of setters - the singular ones - are doing well, don't you think so?
The new crop of setters are definitely keeping us on our toes
DeleteSingular ones?
DeleteCV means those new setters who have a submission of 1 per cycle
DeleteBy singulars, I thought of their being bachelors...
Delete+1 for the excellent puzzle.
ReplyDelete19 Instrument to scale originally oversized drawing, blow up? (10) PANTOGRAPH [E]
I suspect there is more going on here.
Instrument to scale = def
originally oversized = o
drawing = graph
blow = pant
although I'm not a fan of "up" to indicate that "blow" goes to the front.
Thanks Bhavan, I didn't spot that though I was wondering about the 'blow up'
DeleteWould you agree if it was 'blow west'?
DeleteAgree absolutely with the new (?) setters keeping solvers on toes. Setting the bar high?
A couple of doubts:
ReplyDelete5 A: Species: SP?
3D: Anno not clear. Loaded: RICH. What's EN and Nut?
sp.
Delete▶ abbreviation species (usually singular).
en/nut
Half the width of an em
em
(printing) a unit of measurement used in typesetting
Neat puzzle. Well worded, without use of superfluous words.
ReplyDeleteA couple of small issues:
STAMP : CHOPS? and in
4 D: Is an indicator missed for GREET* to come into TOUR? Or is it:IN /During instead of ON?
OED
Deletestamp = chop comes from the Hindi word "chap" the seal used in postal services
4D: GREET* + TOUR with "on" being a perfectly valid indicator for a down clue where A on B can be taken as BA
Thanks. Saw Veer's reply prior to replying here. Silly not to have seen the obvious.
Delete+1 for nice puzzle. The clues were challenging and I thought fair enough though they did not yield on a couple that went unsolved before the blog came up. My COD was LEVEL - very nice and economical use of words I thought.
ReplyDeleteTangential question: does anyone else have trouble typing a reply using any of the iOS / Android devices? When I do that from an iPad or iphone I find that the blog is quite finicky about letting me post.
Not sure what kinda problem you got, but some times I'm not able to use backspace on my ipad. If I've to delete a line or a word, I've to refresh the page or close the window, which can be really tedious.
DeleteExactly that but not sometimes though - seems to be all the time. Infact it seems to not like it anytime I move off the Reply window to say copy a clue or something. Never happens on a computer but does this on the iOS devices without fail.
DeleteYep, it can be really frustrating you know. I might have used my ipad about 5-6 times and had this problem like 2 or 3 times. This was enough to keep me away from the device (at least for posting here).
Delete'Playfully' is the indicator.
ReplyDeleteRaghunath, I interpreted TEGRETOUR as {TEGRE*}TOUR, with the word "ON" in the clue serving as indicator to place TOUR (journey) "on" "GREET*".
ReplyDeleteThat's right Veer, I've amended the anno accordingly
DeleteThanks, Veer. You're right. I went by the anno put up.
ReplyDeleteGood crossword. No superfluous words like Raghunath said except SURPLUS, I suppose.
ReplyDelete'We' in that sentence is known as the 'royal pronoun'.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to that in Hindi, where royals use 'Hum' instead of 'mai'
Really nice, challenging one today. Learnt a few new things along the way like the nut/en connection.
ReplyDeleteCan someone pl. explain 3D- enrich?
ReplyDeleteSee Raghunaths 9:23 above and Bhavans reply at 9:32
DeleteSingular setters are really singular in excellence!
ReplyDeleteThank you ol. Somehow missed it.
ReplyDeleteA good puzzle, but I find some minor chinks.
ReplyDelete10A: 'The' is superfluous. L=Fifty and not 'The fifty'.
20A: 'Gives' is too weak to be a hidden indicator.
1D: WA=State - is this Western Australia? Seems unfair and arbitrary if so.
16D: 'For' is out of place, we need a 'with' or simply a comma. 'Excepting' [with/,] P switching position with C.
18D: +1 for using 'disturbs' for containment. That was innovative.
2D: A minor point: 'receives' must be 'receiving' for the clue to be grammatical.
12A: Also I can't get 12A's surface: should there an apostrophe? (partners' pubs?). I don't get the point of ! as well.
Delete10A - I think is perfectly fine with fifties giving the two Ls
Delete20A - Perfectly fine in my opinion
1D - WA - Washington
16D - Excepting = But for seems okay to me
2D also looks fine to me
Hello Col! Your comment on 16D leaves me wondering whether 'excepting' could equate to 'but for' in a sentence. Let us see if the setter has an example :)
DeleteBut for XYZ everyone was in class.
Delete16 But for Peter switching position with Charlie, would be pregnant! (9) EXPECTING
DeleteThe freedictionary shows except = but for. Does not mention about excepting, probably applies here too.
Is the sentence OK? Who would be pregnant, as the 'with' before Charlie(if it's a girl) excludes her being pregnant.
Sorry for coming in so late, it's been a series of late nights. Thanks Col for the clarifications, I feel so too. WA was intended to be Washington State. One can question if NY and CA are also OK I suppose. Anyway it was a smallish word which I felt could be easily unscrambled, I didn't feel it was unfair to the solver.
DeleteAs regards excepting, I am reproducing in whole the entry from Oxford Dictionary.
QUOTE
Definition of excepting
preposition
formal
except for; apart from:
excepting a scratched door, the car was in good condition
UNQUOTE
I think you can safely substitute 'but for' without any problems.
I definitely can't understand the query on 12A. Partners is used as a transitive verb (in the surface), so where's the question of an apostrophe? In the cryptic reading there is no link word at all.
Glad that the puzzle was generally liked, that's the only reward for the setter
What about 4D? Surface wise the original clue is okay. But cryptic wise is it grammatical? I'm not too sure.
ReplyDeleteJourney (TOUR) on "playful" greet (TREGE) = TREGETOUR seems better IMO than Journey (TOUR) on "playfully" greet (TREGE) = TREGETOUR. What do you think?
That's a valid point, VJ. But generally it is considered acceptable to place adverbial and adjectival anagram indicators on either side of the fodder. It is not OK as such, but accepted even in The Times and offers a lot of flexibility to the setter.
DeleteSee Bhavans 9:44
DeleteI also took WA to mean Western Australia, but did not think it to be unfair. If we can use American states why not Australian? Bhavan should be happy at least!
ReplyDeleteNice point, Sir! In THC, I think it will be good if setters limit themselves to abbreviations for Indian states and explicitly specify 'American' or 'Australian' when mentioning cities of other countries. A bit of leeway is fine, but I guess you could always find some city in the world for each one of the 26C2 2-letter combinations available - and that is very unfair!
DeleteWashington WA is for Washington State and not Washington City, which is referred to as Washington DC
DeleteShyam, Good to hear from you. I know you mean well but sometimes I feel we hold our homegrown setters to a much higher standard than is required. In a recent London Times or Guardian puzzle I tried my hand on, a clue referred to a town in Texas called Amarillo and the clue had no indication that it was an American city (loosely termed as city because its population is less than 200,000 and is only the 14th largest city in Texas). If we use the Times or Guardian as some sort of standard and is allowed there, given it is a British pub. referring to a American town, I don't see a reason we cannot do so. Besides we ought to give the setter a little leeway - grammatical correctness can be strictly viewed but if we are onerous in defining to a "T" the clue could be too boring.
ReplyDeleteOverall, if I were to characterize the current crop of setters, they seem to have a very good grasp of cluemanship by and large and are responsive to critique. I shudder to think of the old days when half the crosswords a month were pure tripe. I am not so good at parsing adjectival / adverbial usages like you are but you certainly make valid points there, but I also think we should allow them some room to be obscure within bounds as well..
Hello Veer, seeing you in crosswordland after a couple of years, I guess! Long time indeed. Fully agree with all you had to say - what I really intended was there are some interesting grey areas in clue-writing: Can AL/RON be clued as 'Boy'?, Can ZM stand for 'country' because it is Zambia's internet domain name?, etc. The city example is also one such.
DeleteIt is best to leave this to setter's discretion, but from the setters would do well to dwell on these points before taking a stance. Expecting regular comments from you :)
I know.. these internet domain and SMSese abbreviations catch me out more often than not as well. Partly my fault maybe, as I not good enough to make the transition between various setters' style and newspaper styles quickly - it often takes me a few clues before I "get" it. I am not sure how to think about these new fangled techniques though. They do get me but so do the really old references in other puzzles like Horatio Hornblower or some 1920's vaudeville act. I just can't seem to know enough like some of the others here and elsewhere. Yesterday there was a clue for a small town called Gretna Green in Scotland, which if you did not know was a border town famous for runaway weddings, straight and otherwise in the early part of the century, you were SOL with the clue. I have come to the conclusion that I am just not knowledgeable enough for some of these things - not a great answer for me but some truth to it as I find that quite a few of the really good solvers have been doing it for many more years than I have.
ReplyDeleteI am on the same page. One does find a brusque 'Film' or 'Book' in clues standing for some arbit movie or book - happens often especially in Everyman's crossword. This is at least one area where The Times itself is a bad yardstick - I can't help cringing when I see 'boy' or 'girl' in a clue standing for a name and this does happen quite often there!
Delete