The usual bag of enjoyable cryptricks from Textrous even if there are an inordinately high number of anagrams.
ACROSS
1 Old chair reassembled in a club (7) ARCHAIC (CHAIR* inside A C)
5 Properly made tie-ups have nothing in a sorry state (7) PITEOUS (TIE-UPS* outside O)
9 Bring together a group of nuns with no time and energy (7) CONVENE (CONVENt + E)
10 Dab with dots and spots finally before drink (7) STIPPLE (S + TIPPLE)
11 Dry firmament has a hint of rain (5) SARKY (SKY outside A R)
12 Ten photos snapped at once (2-3-4) ON-THE-SPOT (TEN PHOTOS)*
13 Princess captivated by nameless foreign Casanovas (6,3) LADIES, MEN (DI inside NAMELESS*) Extra S in anagram fodder?
15 Overlook abridged copy (5) FORGE (FORGEt)
16 Scholars returned sappers’ weapon (5) SABRE (BAS<= + RE)
18 Musicians able to make come-back in street (5,4) STEEL, BAND (ABLE<= inside ST END?)
21 Harmless crush on cousin consumed you in the end (9) INNOCUOUS (ON COUSIN* outside U)
24 Fancy English used in short theatrical piece (5) DREAM (E inside DRAMa)
25 Come before difficult red tape (7) PREDATE (RED TAPE)*
26 Old criminal I met in person (3-4) ONE-TIME (I MET* inside ONE)
27 Native American vessel caught in torrential rain (7) RUSSIAN (USS inside RAIN*)
28 Gives up on // places without any water (7) DESERTS (DD)
DOWN
1 Charge and bill us in California (7) ACCUSAL (AC + US inside CAL)
2 Collected little money on date (7) CENTRED (CENT + RE + D)
3 Gas neatly sprayed around church before start of service (9) ACETYLENE (NEATLY* outside CE + E) Did Textrous mean end of service?
4 Firm about communist belief (5) CREDO (CO outside RED)
5 Perhaps brought over by angsty teens (4,5) PAST, TENSE (PAST + TEENS*)
6 Boring ceremony followed the conclusion of feast (5) TRITE (RITE after T)
7 Theoretically ahead of article (2,5) ON, PAPER (ON + PAPER)
8 Cover a dish, eat healthy bites (7) SHEATHE (T)
14 Badly manage one’s exotic grove in Minnesota (9) MISGOVERN (1'S + GROVE* inside MN)
15 Plump groom’s formal suit (4,5) FULL, DRESS (FULL + DRESS)
16 Lose one’s balance through a piece of footwear (7) SLIPPER (SLIP + PER)
17 Crazy king involved in foolish mistakes (7) BONKERS (K inside BONERS)
19 An innkeeper takes out hot egg for a studio (7) ATELIER (A +hoTELIER)
20 Say disrespectful things about men’s extraordinary lack of intelligence (7) DIMNESS (DISS outside MEN*)
22 Fur on a beast (5) COATI (COAT + I)
23 A weapon brought up many fights (5) SWORD (D + ROWS)<=
ACROSS
1 Old chair reassembled in a club (7) ARCHAIC (CHAIR* inside A C)
5 Properly made tie-ups have nothing in a sorry state (7) PITEOUS (TIE-UPS* outside O)
9 Bring together a group of nuns with no time and energy (7) CONVENE (CONVEN
10 Dab with dots and spots finally before drink (7) STIPPLE (S + TIPPLE)
11 Dry firmament has a hint of rain (5) SARKY (SKY outside A R)
12 Ten photos snapped at once (2-3-4) ON-THE-SPOT (TEN PHOTOS)*
13 Princess captivated by nameless foreign Casanovas (6,3) LADIES, MEN (DI inside NAMELESS*) Extra S in anagram fodder?
15 Overlook abridged copy (5) FORGE (FORGE
16 Scholars returned sappers’ weapon (5) SABRE (BAS<= + RE)
18 Musicians able to make come-back in street (5,4) STEEL, BAND (ABLE<= inside ST END?)
24 Fancy English used in short theatrical piece (5) DREAM (E inside DRAM
25 Come before difficult red tape (7) PREDATE (RED TAPE)*
26 Old criminal I met in person (3-4) ONE-TIME (I MET* inside ONE)
27 Native American vessel caught in torrential rain (7) RUSSIAN (USS inside RAIN*)
28 Gives up on // places without any water (7) DESERTS (DD)
DOWN
1 Charge and bill us in California (7) ACCUSAL (AC + US inside CAL)
2 Collected little money on date (7) CENTRED (CENT + RE + D)
3 Gas neatly sprayed around church before start of service (9) ACETYLENE (NEATLY* outside CE + E) Did Textrous mean end of service?
4 Firm about communist belief (5) CREDO (CO outside RED)
5 Perhaps brought over by angsty teens (4,5) PAST, TENSE (PAST + TEENS*)
6 Boring ceremony followed the conclusion of feast (5) TRITE (RITE after T)
7 Theoretically ahead of article (2,5) ON, PAPER (ON + PAPER)
8 Cover a dish, eat healthy bites (7) SHEATHE (T)
14 Badly manage one’s exotic grove in Minnesota (9) MISGOVERN (1'S + GROVE* inside MN)
15 Plump groom’s formal suit (4,5) FULL, DRESS (FULL + DRESS)
16 Lose one’s balance through a piece of footwear (7) SLIPPER (SLIP + PER)
17 Crazy king involved in foolish mistakes (7) BONKERS (K inside BONERS)
19 An innkeeper takes out hot egg for a studio (7) ATELIER (A +
20 Say disrespectful things about men’s extraordinary lack of intelligence (7) DIMNESS (DISS outside MEN*)
22 Fur on a beast (5) COATI (COAT + I)
Some crossword setters, in their submissions, put down annotations with the answers to clues. Perhaps this conscious entering of the various elements in wordplay alerts them to any such mistake as in 'service' in this crossword.
ReplyDeleteIdeally, if any crossword is pre-solved by a person other than the setter, it's possible that such basic mistakes in an otherwise excellent crossword with neat clueing will be detected.
But then how many setters can have the luxury of a test solver?
There is no need for a test solver if the crossword is solved at the publisher's end. But then how many Indian publications use original crosswords and how many of them have a 'crossword editor'?
Even a horrid mistake in the byline is yet to be corrected!
Another mistake in 13a?
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone follow Mint crossword regularly? How does it fare in correctness?
From the few I had solved a couple of times, I did notice that there were similar problems with extra letters, wrong enumerations etc
DeleteAgain that underlines the need for Indian publications that use original crosswords must see the reason for a 'crossword editor' in employment.
DeleteA national paper that has a weekday crossword cannot continue to ignore this vital necessity.
Crossword editor would certainly be great. At a minimum, "consistently accepting corrections from the setter" would be a first good step. Far too often, as noted from comments in this blog, we have seen cases where corrections did not make it.
DeleteIs native an adequate def for Russian?
ReplyDeleteEagerness about having Russians & Americans in the same clue is understandable.
ReplyDeleteThis may sound like nitpicking.
ReplyDelete12ac - Ten photos snapped at once (2-3-4) ON-THE-SPOT (TEN PHOTOS)*
Since 'at once' is in adverbial context, are the hyphens necessary? The phrase only when used as an adjective rquires hyphens, like an on-the-spot inquiry. I feel it should have been (2,3,4)
CV, can you please clarify?
You're absolutely right!
ReplyDeleteWedding anniversary greetings to Colonel Deepak Gopinath and Gitaji. Also to Kishore and Gira on reaching a milestone.
ReplyDeleteKishore and Gita please, lest there should be any misunderstanding over P P aur Woh!
DeleteRichard why is one Gita Gitaji and the other just Gita :-)
DeleteSpouse of the boss, after all!
DeleteTextrous does not make these mistakes usually, not sure what went wrong. Enjoyable one nonetheless.
ReplyDelete"Native" def for Russian seemed inadequate to me (@Suresh: 9:59)
13 AC is a blunder as the whole clue has to be framed differently by having an 's' less, whereas 2 DN needs a bit of tweaking for ot to work.
ReplyDeleteVery nice surfaces in quite a few of the clues, although one wouldn't want them at the cost of sloppy cryptic reading, naturally. (Of course, we don't yet know how much of the sloppiness should be attributed to the setter and how much to the people at the Crossword Desk at TH.)
ReplyDelete