Thursday 7 March 2013

No 10714, Thursday 07 Mar 13, Skulldugger

I am yet to get familiar with Skulduggers cluing style. As usual he has me tied up in knots!!

ACROSS
1   They ensure a clean slate — a white one for every quarter (6) WIPERS {W}{1}{PER}{S}
4   Count, abandoning England, follows behind Charles the First (6) CENSUS {C}{ENSUeS}
9   Rats! Deliverance days truncated! (4) ?O?S (Addendum - DOBS - Date OBirth'S - See comments)
10 Stirred fruit compotes after removing pips to make small confectionaries (5,5) PETIT FOURS {FRUIT+comPOTES}* How does 'removing pips' mean removing 'com' from compotes? (Addendum see comments)
11 The beau monde’s a black bunch (3,3) JET SET {JET} {SET}
12 Marking register at Hotel Grand (8) CHECKING {CHECK-IN}{G}
13 When one was green and ate greens? (5,4) SALAD DAYS [DD]
15 Reportedly fitting measure (4) METE (~meet)
16 Kanjiras peculiarity: ringing sound (4) RASP [T]
17 Period without bloodshed (9) PEACETIME [E]
21 Yesterday, Arcturus’ board-members okayed leading duos’ annual publication (8) YEARBOOK {YEar}{ARcturus}{BOard}{OKayed}
22 The French players appeared before the Englishman’s home (6) CASTLE {CAST}{LE} Only Englishmen live in castles??
24 Amateur traveller’s first crossing over the dateline’s intoxicating (10) DILETTANTE {T+T+DATELINE}*
25 Short high jumpers (4) (Addendum - ROOS [CD] - See comments)
26 Grown man? Not entirely true. It’s ambiguous (6) MATURE {MAn+TRUE}*
27 Suit up. Extreme batting change on the cards (6) BEDECK BE{DECK} Anno not clear {Addendum - {B}{E}{DECK} - See comments}

DOWN
1   Seek the favour of my Indian club in Sydney (7) WOOMERA {WOO}{MERA}
2   Job openings for newspapers (5) POSTS [DD]
3   Well-known queen to be appointed needs no introduction (7) REPUTED {eR}{dEPUTED}
5   Admission for exceptional pre-teens with no second thoughts (6) ENTREE pRE-TEENs
6   Most sturdy, solid retailer carries a bit of everything (9) STOCKIEST {STOCKI{E}ST}
7   Extraordinary rendition of St. Anger (7) STRANGE*
8   Prying into other people’s affairs: what Edward VI had to do following switch after Henry’s end (13) (Addendum - STICKYBEAKING {STICK}{Y}{BE A KING} - See comments)
14 Spongy kebabs or Bento boxes (9) ABSORBENT [T]
16 Booze-guzzling, gossipy old woman drinking in one’s element (7) RHENIUM {R{HEN}{1}UM}
18 Look askance at pupil’s condition (7) COCKEYE [DD]
19 A thousand head of buffalo annihilated? Rubbish! (7) MULLOCK {M}{bULLOCK}
20 Chopper regularly carried the European leaders (6) COPTER {ChOpP{T}{E}eR}
23 This might get strong returns (5) SHARE ? (Addendum - SURGE SERVE [CD] - See comments)

84 comments:

  1. 1 Seek the favour of my Indian club in Sydney (7) W

    WOO MERA
    woo= seek favour of
    my Indian= mera
    club in Sydney=def

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I got that at the stroke of 8:30!!

      Delete
    2. Woomera in Sydney would have been more apt rather than club in Sydney

      Delete
  2. 22 The French players appeared before the Englishman’s home (6) CASTLE {CAST}{LE} Only Englishmen live in castles??

    Prob based on
    An Englishman's home is his castle

    ReplyDelete
  3. 27 Suit up. Extreme batting change on the cards (6) BEDECK BE{DECK} Anno not clear

    I took extreme Batting changE as B and E
    Cards = Deck

    ReplyDelete
  4. 27 Suit up. Extreme batting change on the cards (6) BEDECK BE{DECK} Anno not clear

    Extreme= ends of "batting change"=be
    cards=deck

    ReplyDelete
  5. 25 Short high jumpers (4)

    Given the Australian connections today I am betting this is a CD

    ROOS

    short for Kangaroos, high jumpers

    ReplyDelete
  6. 10 Stirred fruit compotes after removing pips to make small confectionaries (5,5) PETIT FOURS {FRUIT+comPOTES}*How does 'removing pips' mean removing 'com' from copotes?

    FRUIT (-com) POTES
    com = pits : centre of FRUITCOMPOTES

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's PIPS and not PITS in the clue. I suppose by PIPS Sk... means CENTRE. I am not convinced by the clue though.

      Delete
    2. Sorry, I meant to write PIPS.

      Delete
    3. Well, pip means seed...

      but as you said, I am not very ok with using this for a couple of words bunched together. Same thing happened in 27 too

      Delete
    4. Going from pips to pits (free dictionary lists seed as one of the meanings of pit) and then extrapolating pits to "central part" seems too far-fetched to me. But I guess that's the only explanation.

      Delete
  7. 23 This might get strong returns (5) SHARE ?

    SURGE ?

    a SURGE on the stock market can get you good returns

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A surge in the sea waves can return you strongly, too

      Delete
  8. 8D STICKYBEAKING
    (STICK)(Y)(BE A KING)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well done RR. Used only down under, so some indicator would have helped.

      Delete
    2. Bravo, RR

      Quite a few Aussie terms here
      Woomera
      Roos
      Mullock
      Stickybeaking

      and the date line too

      Delete
    3. The clue reads "what Edward VI had to do following switch after Henry’s end"
      So that becomes
      what Edward VI had to do = BE A KING
      following
      switch = STICK
      after
      Henry’s end = Y

      Which would become {Y}{STICK}{BE A KING}

      Delete
    4. @RR: Good one!
      I got the word, but was stuck with the anno!

      Delete
  9. Another overreach effort by Skulldugger and I'm not saying it because I was stumped all over, that appears to be my general take.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Replies
    1. Some sort of Australian rat, in the plural?

      Delete
    2. It might be OOPS, which is an exclamation of messing up something, like rats. But I am yet to fully get it.

      Delete
    3. I had (-w)EEKS at first but deleted it as it didn't fit

      Delete
    4. Yes, I had seen that before I posted my WOOMERA, and then saw that suddenly woomera had come in and 9a was dropped. Exactly at 830

      Delete
    5. Woomera waghaira waghaira... Woh mera chai ka pyala nahin!

      Delete
    6. Wah Janaab! Der se aaye, par durust aaye!

      Deliverance days ka kuch gyan bhi dijiye...

      Delete
    7. Woe mera bhi chai ka pyala nahin

      Delete
    8. Dec 22, 1939 as per Jinnah's call

      Delete
    9. Aapne Girija ke ghar pe kuch to suna hoga is ke baare mein...

      Delete
    10. Kishore Saab, 'Jab sun-ne wale bolne lagte hain, toh qayamat aayegi...'

      Delete
    11. 9:30 Girze mein toh bahut saara suna hai, lekin Girija meri purani padosan thi, janaab!

      Delete
  11. Hum intezar karenge tera qayamat tak, khuda kare ke kayamat ho aur /

    or deliverance days aa jaye

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh Lord, deliver us from this bombardment of shaayari...

      Delete
    2. Matthew 7:7

      Delete
    3. The devil quoting the scripture, huh?

      Delete
  12. Ye mera shayar nahi :-) ( Skulldugger started all this with 'mera')

    ReplyDelete
  13. Surface reading seems to have taken a beating all over.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Agree with Richard's 9.22. Not my cup of tea either.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When my wife serves me tea, I always mutter "This is not my cup of tea. This is not my cup of tea" under my breath (so she may not hear it) but I always drink it. Thus my marriage has survived for more than 40 years.

      Delete
    2. Great! For a happy married life, the husband should always have the last word, saying 'Sorry!"...

      Delete
  15. Back home with access to the Internet.

    The col is defeated by

    9 Rats! Deliverance days truncated! (4) ?O?S

    but he has carefully given us the word pattern. We are grateful to him.

    So we could do a word search with relevant software.

    But the snag is, this is a noun in plural form or a verb with the -s termination. How many word pattern search software give inflected forms of words? Maybe all or some do, but suppose the noun/verb is a rare word, will the sw throw it up?

    (to be continued)

    (giving some time for others to work it out if possible)

    ReplyDelete
  16. 9 Rats! Deliverance days truncated! (4) ?O?S

    Rats! This must be the def, for it's at the beginning. The word/words at the end is/are not promising.
    Look at the EM after the word rats.
    So 'Rats!' is more likely to be a noun than a verb.
    In what context would you exclaim 'Rats!"
    When the rodents crawl all over the place?
    An interjection to express your annoyance?
    (to be continued)

    ReplyDelete
  17. But, what if it is a verb?

    Rat as a verb means 'to desert'.

    If somebody rats, they change sides with ulterior motives or for some unworthy cause.

    If somebody rats, they may just be hunting or catching rats. In my second-floor flat, my wife does! She is not a cat!

    (to be continued)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Wow! such a lot of research for a four letter word!!!

    ReplyDelete
  19. 9 Rats! Deliverance days truncated! (4) ?O?S

    The learned men above (they are all learned men) are talking of deliverance in its religious sense. But in a cryptic crossword clue, words should never be taken at their face value.

    Could deliverance be used in the simple sense of 'parturition'? Did I say 'simple sense'?

    (to be continued)

    ReplyDelete
  20. Could it be 'GOES'? As in 'to desert'? Long shot, and not really apt, but I would appreciate your opinions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rita,

      It's not GOES.

      My exegesis (Richard?) will continue. I am going out for a while. Will come back to this soon

      Delete
    2. 'Deliverance' leads us to Gods (why 's'?)So does the EM, but rats? I give up.

      Delete
  21. 23D This might get strong returns (5)

    I had this as SERVE as in Lawn Tennis "serve" getting strong returns....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But Skulldugger has hinted at another Aussie word. Strong returns of serve are a rarity,isn't it?

      Delete
    2. 9's the ozword. Sridhar's right on 23.

      Delete
  22. Skullduggers 11:01 which got deleted when I deleted his earlier mail which he deleted is repeated below

    @ Deepak's 8.55 :It depends on how you choose to read it. If you read it as - what Edward VI had to do following switch after (Henry’s end), then you indeed get the ystickbeaking, but if you read it as - what Edward VI had to do following (switch after Henry’s end), then stickybeaking is obtained.



    Surge for 23 is incorrect. CV's dance of thought on 9 is fascinating, so I'll leave it to his linguistic forensics. I will say however, that it is another Aussie term

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Whichever way you look at it it's still {Y}{STICK}

      Please enlighten me on the difference between

      switch after (Henry's end)
      and
      (switch after Henry's end)

      Delete
    2. Yeah, looking at it again I confess I am in the dark about this and can shed no light on the matter. Apologies to both Deepak and to the world at large.

      Delete
    3. Apologies not required, mistakes happen.

      Delete
  23. (taking up the thread)

    9 Rats! Deliverance days truncated! (4) ?O?S

    So deliverance = parturition = birth

    deliverance days - what could they be? birthdays? birth days? birth dates? dates of birth?

    (to be continued)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CV, I must say you have everyone waiting with bated breath for a four letter word!!!

      Delete
    2. Our expert from Down Under is on vacation else we would have got the result long ago I presume

      Delete
  24. 9 Rats! Deliverance days truncated! (4) ?O?S

    We have looked at 'rats', 'deliverance', 'deliverance days'. There is this word 'truncated'.

    Deliverance days truncated?

    What, do we have the emergence of a pre-term baby? (Talking of this, Narasiah has written a story in Tamil about a female child that decides to arrive on this planet some months earlier than usual. It is included in "From Out of Clay and a few other stories of Narasiah" translated in English by C. G. Rishikesh (Palaniappa Brothers, Peter's Road, Royapettah, Chennai 600 014, published in January 2013).

    'Truncated' could mean 'abbreviated'. So dates of birth abbreviated gives us DsOB?

    No, we generally have DOB, that is, date of birth. So dates of birth is DOBs.

    How do we write it in the grid?

    DOBS.

    But what's DOBS got to do with Rats?

    (to be continued)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Skulldugger at 11:31 has indicated that it is an Aussie term

      Delete
    2. So DOBS it is

      This is what Wiktionary has

      dob (third-person singular simple present dobs, present participle dobbing, simple past and past participle dobbed)

      (slang, chiefly Australia) To report (a person) to someone in authority for a wrongdoing.

      I’ll dob on you if you break in.
      You dobbed me in! — I never did!

      Delete
  25. I now betake myself from the computer chair and repair to the bookshelf where there is an array of dictionaries.

    Chambers: dob (Austr colloq) (usually with in) to inform on, to betray

    It also records

    dob abbrev: date of birth

    Let's turn to COD

    dob v. (dobbed, dobbing) Austral/NZ informal inform against

    So our answer is DOBS.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clap clap clap, unfortunately we don't have the smileys here, like on PP's hub

      Delete
    2. I appreciate CV's detailed explanation of the thinking process behind the solving the clue much more than the clue itself.

      Delete
  26. @ CV Sir,
    Wow! What an explanation.Very clear and simple.wow!

    ReplyDelete
  27. CV you can now turn your attention to 23D, since Skulldugger says SURGE is incorrect.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Col. 23D is SERVE as per Skull dugger.You may accordingly change the original entry.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Well if SERVE is the answer it is a very poor clue by all standards, in my opinion, and considering the standards that Skulldugger has.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Tough one this and of course, enjoyable. Cud not finish a few.

    ReplyDelete
  31. 6 Most sturdy, solid retailer carries a bit of everything (9) STOCKIEST {STOCKI{E}ST}

    Why the word Solid. Feel this is superfluous and misleading. Strictly speaking a retailer is not a stockist. Setter's licence I think.

    20 Chopper regularly carried the European leaders (6) COPTER {ChOpP{T}{E}eR}

    What sort of clue is this? &LIT?

    ReplyDelete
  32. Last month several other setters were there after KKK before Skulldugger appeared...

    ReplyDelete
  33. Whew! what a crossword! I must confess my slate was very clean (very little filled up)!

    While the annos and comments have helped me understand many of the clues a couple are still puzzling.

    1) 24A: Amateur traveller’s first crossing over the dateline’s intoxicating ; Traveller's first gives us a "T"; where does the second "T" come from?

    2) 15A: Is "meet" a synonym of "fitting"? Somehow that did not seem to gel...

    Can someone throw some light?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Traveller's (two of them) so T & T

      Delete
    2. Col: how can traveller's with an apostrophe give a plural? And how does 'over' work, when TT is inside? Me not convinced

      Delete
    3. T is from 'The' or else the is superfluous. There seems to be nothing wrong with 'over', meaning T crosses over into T + DATELINE*

      Delete
    4. Apostrophe for surface reading purposes

      Delete
  34. Phew. Was left with a few when I decided to give it a break and come to the blog. Interesting discussions here, DOBS thesis quite enlightening.

    Quite a few good clues and calling for lateral thinking, so great job there. I guess comments have been already made about a bit of setter's license, eg 8D. In similar vein, I did not like 4D: 'follows behind'. Even if grammatically OK, seemed a bit redundant, and the surface suffered. Like some other clues, might have even left 'follows' to do double duty!

    @Sridhar 1:45 - 15A: Yes 'meet' is fitting, or appropriate. Re 24A: I think it is crossing, but this is again double duty?

    ReplyDelete
  35. Message from Ajeesh

    Hi Col,

    From that long list

    t: cross
    t: crossed
    So second T is from crossing?? :)

    24 Amateur traveller’s first crossing over the dateline’s intoxicating (10) DILETTANTE {T+T+DATELINE}*

    Thanks
    Ajeesh

    ReplyDelete
  36. Copy pasted from Mrs PP's Hub

    Comment by CLUELESS
    QUOTE
    Re today's crossword:
    the dictionary defines SKULDUGGERY as VERBAL MISREPRESENTATION.
    I wish to respond with its synonym = JIGGERY-POKERY.
    UNQUOTE

    ReplyDelete

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