Nice opener from Neyartha. Transportation theme? Tricycle, Locomotion, Road, Ship, Sedan, Sled. Noticed some paired words: Main, Cross (familiar to Bangaloreans); Recruit, Court-Martialled; Bedizen, Bewitch
ACROSS
ACROSS
7 Ron discarded incorrectly built bike for kids (8) TRICYCLE (INCORRECTLY-RON)*
9 Is the moon difficult to sight when here? (6) APOGEE CD
10 Progress in crazy movement? (10) LOCOMOTION (LOCO+MOTION)
12 Work of the leaders of the Olympic players under suspension (4) OPUS (O P U S)
13 Informal meal with my German-Chinese dish (4,4) CHOW MEIN (Chow is informal word for meal and Mein is 'my' in German)
16 Gaudily dress up Ben after hiding Diana’s last letter to Edward (7) BEDIZEN (BE(DI Z E)N)
18 Enlist // a novice (7) RECRUIT 2 The recruit may end up being 5d
20 Oriental excited by exclamation of surprise at the retreat appearance shows high spirits (8) EUPHORIA (E+UP+HO+AIR<)
21 Indiscretion makes Henry replace the apprentice on the steamer (4) SHIP (SLIP-L+H) I almost thought it could be SLIP (SHIP-H=L), which also fits. But thought better of it on second thoughts)
23 Vocally complained about the margin (4) SIDE (~sighed)
24 Sea urchin found in a beach toy in Arkansas (4,6) SAND DOLLAR (SAND DOLL AR)
25 Push the good man left in the shade (6) HUSTLE (ST+L inside HUE)
26 Large eel entertains the English coming back with a liquor constituent (8) CONGENER (CONGER outside EN<, which makes it CONGE(NE<)R. Dropping the coming back, it would be CONG(EN)ER. New word for me. My spell check also underlined it.
DOWN
1 Minister needs no introduction to incendiarism (5) pARSON
2 Skills needed to transcribe caliph’s comments (15) ACCOMPLISHMENTS (CALIPHS COMMENTS)*
3 Net raised with a desire to capture (7) BEWITCH (WEB< ITCH)
4 The remaining part is the most important (4) MAIN (T)
5 Tried in the armed forces and let admiral free after chase (5-10) COURT-MARTIALLED (COURT+ (LET ADMIRAL)*) My CoD
6 Couple of 50s thrown away by philatelist suffering from a liver disease (9) HEPATITIS (PHILATELIST-L-L)*
8 Start to go over and become angry (5) CROSS 2 Is start necessary? Or am I missing something?
14 Run up debts after trouble with advancing the ball (3) OWE (WOE with O moved up)
15 Being destitute, engineer prunes internal promissory note (9) PENURIOUS (PRUNES+IOU)*
17 Mistake to be king for a long time (3) ERR (ERA-A+R)
19 Flatbread given by the cheating revolutionary employed in a financial institution (7) BANNOCK (BANK around CON<)
21 Type of chair// in a car (5) SEDAN 2
22 Truth without any embellishments? (5) NAKED CD
I had 11A as ROAD(~rowed)
ReplyDelete11 Speaker’s rallied on the way (4) ROAD (ORAD)*
ReplyDeleteI saw this as ~rode
Rally = ride = Deliberately provoke by mocking or poking fun (N Amer)
I suspect Bhavan is on the correct track, Deepak.
ReplyDeleteI too think it is RODE. Moreover, I suppose Neyartha would not resort to any indirect anagrams.
ReplyDelete19 Flatbread given by the cheating revolutionary employed in a financial institution (7) BANNOCK
Think it should not be cheating as this would give CONNING.
@Raghu I read both cheating and con as adjectives, but CV's explanation of seeing both as nouns works too
DeleteI suppose it could be seen that way, as cheating is preceded by 'the', so it cannot be a verb form. But I was misled here, by Neyartha's use (usually) of articles which aren't needed.
DeleteSee BRB. cheat1 gives 'cheating' as n.
ReplyDeleteFrom that we can derive con, n.
Conning too is a n. as found in con 4 in BRB.
Some -ing formations are nouns apart from gerund or whatever the term is.
Thanks. I looked it up in www.thefreedictionary.com: Cheating as an act of deception.
DeleteWould have been better as
ReplyDeleteFlat bread given by the revolutionary cheat employed in a financial institution
I had the exact same words as an alternative.
Delete"Flat bread given by the cheat coming up in a fiancial institution"
DeleteI dont see why 'revolutionary' is needed as an anind (it is only a reversal of con)except to mislead the solver
To misled is the intention of the setter. Or else, all this discussion would not have taken place!
DeleteThere is no Anind in the clue. It's reversal as pointed out by you.
DeleteWe have been talking about 'Indianising' (If I may say so)THC. But words like Bannock, sand dollar go against the grain. Of course new words are a must and most welcome. But in such cases it would be helpful if the wordplay comes to our rescue. This is just a random thought and no offence meant to the setter.
ReplyDeleteBarri.g a few out-of-currency words like 13,24 &26a the puzzle was generally nice.
ReplyDeleteFor 8D, I had the following anno:
ReplyDeleteover = across
Start to go => take off 'a'
Def: angry == cross
Nice one from Neyartha.
That's it.
DeleteAnno nicely done.
ReplyDeleteCol & Kishore:
ReplyDeleteI too realized after a print out that yesterdate's Special had some missing clues after 17 down. When IO sat down to do it today, I had to go back and found them sneaked in !
Thanks Col. It would also be nice to know who's who as a compiler for these specials. and a final solution grid.
Good puzzle.
Col: Did you get my message sending two puzzles for the follwoing sundays?
You sent only one (Five eights) which I will be publishing on 31 Mar
DeleteCompilers names are given only if the compiler discloses it himself/herself. Yesterday Filler disclosed himself as Anand KB. I can send you the solution grid separately if you want it.
DeleteNo thanks. I have already solved it. It was for future I was enquiring.
DeleteNo thanks. I have already solved it. It was for future I was enquiring.
Delete