INSTRUCTIONS
1. Two answers per commenter.
2. Clue to be copy pasted with the answer.
3. Annotations to be compulsorily provided with the answer.
4. Solution grid will be uploaded at 8:30 AM tomorrow.
THE SKELETON CROSSWORD
In the skeleton crossword, the black squares and clue numbers have to be filled in as well as the words. Four black squares and four clue numbers have been inserted to give you a start. The black squares form a symmetrical pattern; the top half matches the bottom, and the two sides correspond. You can fill in 12 more squares at once to correspond with those given. You will also have to work out the enumeration after you figure out the grid.
ACROSS
1 Two men being arrested
5 Pure Catholic on speed
8 Letter from the taxman, say
9 Unorthodox organ sound
10 Duped El Salvador deity!
12 Bar not opened at any time
13 Suit missing its end or middle
14 Insult from Labour’s leader - Rene’s on about it!
15 A student joining a school sadly
16 Head-hunt, slightly routine
17 Second wife - a northern bird
20 Helper holding sulphur in reserve
21 Boat lacking heat and dirty
22 Eggs from above, we hear
23 Stupid person wearing a jacket
24 Soldier girl getting careless
1 Two men being arrested
5 Pure Catholic on speed
8 Letter from the taxman, say
9 Unorthodox organ sound
10 Duped El Salvador deity!
12 Bar not opened at any time
13 Suit missing its end or middle
14 Insult from Labour’s leader - Rene’s on about it!
15 A student joining a school sadly
16 Head-hunt, slightly routine
17 Second wife - a northern bird
20 Helper holding sulphur in reserve
21 Boat lacking heat and dirty
22 Eggs from above, we hear
23 Stupid person wearing a jacket
24 Soldier girl getting careless
DOWN
2 Trendy agent not working
3 Nice family by Dartmouth
4 Rum poets read in despair
5 Future monarch, perhaps
6 Hurt beginner in great pain
7 Game or drunken come-ons
9 Bomb almost planted by a country
11 Tough call in a pig’s place
18 Type of tree with grand wood
19 A date with a married man
2 Trendy agent not working
3 Nice family by Dartmouth
4 Rum poets read in despair
5 Future monarch, perhaps
6 Hurt beginner in great pain
7 Game or drunken come-ons
9 Bomb almost planted by a country
11 Tough call in a pig’s place
18 Type of tree with grand wood
19 A date with a married man
It might be better to specify if the grid is 15x15 or 15x11
ReplyDeleteIt is 15 X 11
DeleteWorking without above info and cold solving
ReplyDelete17 Second wife - a northern bird S W A N
20 Helper holding sulphur in reserve A(S)IDE
Sunday Express skeleton crosswords have this unusual size.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteACROSS
1 Two men // being arrested (NICK)(ED)
DOWN
3 Nice // family / by Dartmouth (KIN)(D)
Cold solving is fine, but figuring out the grid and fitting in the clues is an exercise by itself.
ReplyDeleteI had to go in for that in view of the uncertainty of the grid specs. Am now on the fitting exercise. ;-)
DeleteDeepak
ReplyDeleteWhen once members put down the all the answers, the solution is out.
Please allow me to create the filled-in grid and if I succeed I will send you the grid image.
This I will do by 730 am tomorrow.
Others too may try to do it.
The publication of the filled-in grid can wait. You may perhaps ask members how many of them managed to create the filled-in grid.
Raju had already sent me the solution grid which I have saved as an image. However you could send me the one you create as that will be better than the scanned one
Delete9A Unorthodox organ sound
ReplyDeleteGROAN (ORGAN*)
Def sound
9 Unorthodox organ sound
ReplyDeleteAns: GROAN (organ*)
Late by 5 Minutes.
ReplyDeleteSubstituting
12 Bar not opened at any time
Ans: CLOSED (DD)
Lakshmi,
DeleteThat is not correct
Yes Sir, I saw the correct answer here sometime back. I will try some other clue.
Delete8 Letter from the taxman, say
ReplyDeleteAns: THETA (THE TAxman)
LV, You are in the right direction, but the answer has an enu of only 3
DeleteThanks Kishore for the enu.
DeleteETA (thE TAxman)
It is not easy for me to cold solve without enu.First time I am trying this type of xword!
DeleteOh, dont worry all of us are using the same vessel
DeleteI could figure out the enu only because I had done 22a
Delete15A A student joining a school sadly
ReplyDeleteALAS A(L)(A)(S)
Def Sadly
My CoD:
ReplyDelete5dn Future monarch, perhaps
Definitely ;-)
Delete2Dn Trendy agent not working {IN}{OPERATIVE}
ReplyDeletetrendy IN
agent OPERATIVE
Defn: not working INOPERATIVE
7Dn Game or drunken come-ons {TIDDLY}{WINKS}
drunken TIDDLY
come-ons WINKS
Defn: game - TIDDLYWINKS
(This is a game in which the object is to snap small disks of bone, ivory or the like, from a flat surface into a small cup or basket)
NR, are you related to Raghavan?
DeleteTime to play 7d, having completed this puzzle
ReplyDeleteVenkatesh,
ReplyDeletePlease refrain from giving out the enumeration of unsolved clues. It may be a cakewalk for you but it is not so for others who are trying to learn things. You have already given your quota, so if you find someones answer is totally way off you can just mention it rather than giving out the correct answer and exceeding your quota and since it is a cakewalk for you, you must have solved everything in the first 5 minutes I presume.
I have deleted your comments accordingly.
Great going, folks !! Very happy to see the response being so good. I thought, something like this entirely different will bring in some fresh air to the blog.
ReplyDeleteI know that it is a pain at the wrong place to fix the numbers and build up a grid. What else are ye-all doing on a Sunday, anyway? hahaha. Sorry indeed to the respective spouses of those solvers who were preoccupied to even have the morning coffee !!
I shall send in another acrostic puzzle, a combination of numbers and clues where your eyes have to keep flitting up and down. Any takers, Col?
I am game. Thanks, Raju, for today's puzzle which was well worth the time spent on it ( I would say a good one hour or so, not including breaks - as the Col. said, I took a couple of breaks instead of breaking my head)
DeleteCol. I am not able to fit 16A in the grid. Am I missing something.
ReplyDeleteYour answer may not be correct
DeletePlease ignore... I got my mistake
DeleteAs the Col. has rightly said, I cannot give you the answer or enu right now. Give me your word and anno, and I can tell you if you are right. The correct word fits perfectly.
DeleteThanks Kishore... I filled some black squares incorrectly...
DeleteCOL,
ReplyDeleteUmamaheswar without 'h' afters please ! As it si my name spells long and is a tongue-twister, with many changing my gender to the fairer sex by spelling it Uma Maheswar !!
We have no choice in our parentage and names ?
Sorry, since corrected
Delete6D Hurt beginner in great pain
ReplyDeleteIs it ACHE {H in ACE(great)}?
Yes
DeleteThe answer is correct. Have you prepared the grid or are you just cold solving? Cold solving without the enumeration may not always give you the right answer.
DeleteI have prepared the grid ,even then it is tough for me.I will try after sometime.
DeleteEven if one has not got the whole grid, it is possible to make some deductions. Since the grid is stated to be symmetric along two axes, it is clear that the enus if written in a straight line are palindromic. This surely applies for the Across clues. In this particular case there an even number of across clues,so the second half of the palindromic number will be a mirror image of the first half. If the number of across clues were odd, then the central digit would not have a duplicate, ie, it would be unique and in the centre of the palindrome. In case of down clues, there will be usually be no such palindromic number. However, the numbers would be in pairs, though not in any particualr order, except when there are an odd number of down clues, in which case there will be down clue right in the middle column, where the number of columns is odd.
DeleteKishore,
DeleteI think you would have confused the already confused, some more!!!
Not much, only slightly:-). Just joking.
DeleteCol sir,
I have solved some clues. I cannot post those here to check whether they are correct (because I have already given 2 answers).Shall send them to your e-mail? Just curious.
Yes you can
DeleteSir,
Deletesolved across: 14,21,22,24
down:4,11,19
Started on this rather late, but got hooked on quite quick. My two cents:
ReplyDelete16A: Head-hunt, slightly routine (5): HABIT, ie, h+a bit
10A: Duped El Salvador deity (5): HAD+ES
Duped giving 'had'? Like in I had him?
ReplyDeleteI had him might have different connotations, and then who's been had?!
Delete9D- Grenada
ReplyDeleteDef.- Country
Bomb almost- grenad(e)
planted by a- a
5A- Chaste
ReplyDeletePure- Def.
Catholic-C
Speed- haste
12A (-n)EVER
ReplyDelete13A HEART (-s)
Suresh,
ReplyDeleteI have my doubts about 13A. It does not fit in with answers already given and accepted.Also, going by grid symmetry it has to be a 4 letter word to go with 12A-Ever (I think this is right)What is the function of 'or middle'?
Paddy, Suresh is correct on 13a and the symmetry too is fine. 12a and 13a are not pairs in the symmetry.
DeletePadmanabhan has committed the same mistake I had
DeleteMy two
ReplyDelete21A - Boat lacking heat and dirty - DING(-h)Y
11D - Tough call in a pig's place - {ST{RING}Y}
Message from Ajeesh
ReplyDelete24 Soldier girl getting careless RE MISS (6)
6 Hurt beginner in great pain AC(H)E (4)
23 AC Stupid person wearing a jacket (6) JERKIN
ReplyDelete5 DN Future monarch, perhaps (11) CATERPILLAR
12A (-n)EVER. I thought it was (-L)EVER, where BAR: LEVER. I suppose both annos could be right.
22 AC Eggs from above, we hear : OVA (~OVER)
ReplyDelete14 Insult from Labour’s leader - Rene’s on about it! - S(L)UR
ReplyDeleteInsult - def.
Labour's leader - L
Rene's on - Rene is Frenchman; the Fr. word for 'on' is 'sur'.
about it - inserticator
so S(L)UR
Deepak: Will send the sol grid later this evening.
***Twice today,a fter writing my Comment, I lost the connection before Blogger would accept it. The OVA answer has now been superseded by another post. Will try to compensate. .
CV, don't worry about sending grid, I have sent it to Deepak.
Delete20 Helper holding sulphur in reserve - A(S)IDE
ReplyDeleteI would say 'in reserve' is the def.
Cf. We have kept it aside. /We have kept it in reserve.
4 Rum poets read in despair : DESPERATION {poets read in}*
ReplyDelete4D
Delete19 A date with a married man : ADAM {A} {D}{A}{M}
ReplyDelete19D
Delete5 DN entered by me.
ReplyDeleteMy mistake
DeleteThat leaves only 18D
ReplyDeleteThanks Raju for the lovely crossword. First time I am doing a skeleton
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be surprised if more skeletons tumble out of Raju's cupboard.
DeleteI don't have grave doubts about that happening.
DeleteDead funny!
DeleteThanks to Raju and Col for this skeleton puzzle
ReplyDelete18D TEAK? (E)
ReplyDeleteAnswer is correct, anno requires work
DeleteKishore
ReplyDeleteI had some prob myself.
Is 'tea' a plant or a tree?
Shrub would be more like it.
DeleteTea tree oil comes from Tea trees see the link TEA TREE
ReplyDeleteSo the anno is {TEA}{K}
DeleteYou can see full grown tea trees in Sims Park, Coonoor. It is only because in plantations they are trimmed frequently that they remain bushes.
Delete@ Colonel: Thanks to you and Raju sir for this xword.Enjoyed it!
ReplyDelete@ Kishore : Thanks for giving tips about the grid.
Oh, that's fine. But this was the first time I did this type too. The only advantage was that long back when I had more time and patience, I used to try to do the ET crossie without looking at the grid and try to figure out the grid based on the words that I could solve. This used to work about once in four days and other days I had to resort to using the grid.
DeleteColonel, I resent it ;-)
ReplyDeleteYou may resent it but the others didn't get it :-))
DeleteI didn't. Wait. Kishore re-sent the filled grid after changes. I think I have decoded correctly.
ReplyDeleteBingo, Paddy, partly. Yes, it was resent, but no changes were made. The image placed in the mail had gone west, so I made it an attachment in the second mail.
DeleteThank you Col. & Raju and everybody else who made it a lively Sunday here.
ReplyDeleteI have the only problem of placing 14A-Slur- in the grid.
5D- caterpillar was the crowning piece today!
Col. has made p(f)of "others did not get it". When are we going to get it?
ReplyDeletePadmanabhan,
Delete@ 8:57 It's already uploaded in the main post
@ 8:55 See the main post for how it fits
Read as "p(f)un" of...
ReplyDeleteMy grid is complete. Quite an effort today. Thank you Raju.
Glad to see such an overwhelming and enthusiastic response. Kishore: CV and Suresh: So lpong as ye-all are there in good spirits to exorcise the ghost in the grid, skeletons can tumble down out of the cupboard and I;m dead serious !!
ReplyDeleteThanks also to the Col for having let this come in and to those whose Sunday I could successfully spoil . Hahah
Off to Bombay and Madras for 10 days. Will be in Madras from 25th to 28th . Will be glad to meet other bloggers, time and the American Embassy permitting.
Happy giveing flesh and body to the skeletopn crossies.
0025 hrs Monday