Sunday 2 June 2013

Special, Sunday 02 Jun 13, Balderdash


1. Each commenter can give three answers with annotations.
2. Answers to the additional clues marked as North, West, East and South are also part of the quota of three.

Left, Right, Left ....

As you will see, this is an unorthodox grid because:-

1. The four corner areas do not have any connection with each other (or so it seems).
2. There is a central area unlinked to the above.
c3. There are a few squares which apparently do not form part of any word to be filled in. These have been filled up in advance since they do are unlinked.

Proceed in the usual way you solve your puzzles.

The part below is not essential to or compulsory for solving the puzzle. However, it can offer an extra twist.

Once you solve the entire puzzle, you will notice:-
1. There are four crosses in the grid. If you start from the square to the north of any cross, and go around the cross either from the left or from the right, up to the square to the south of that cross, you will get two words of 5 letters each which are similar to each other in structure and spelling but differ very slightly.
2. A similar variation may also be seen in the squares diagonally adjacent to the central square.

Alternatively, you may want to solve the words around the crosses first, before attempting to solve the regular clues.

For doing this the clues are:
North: Chap is penniless (5)
West:  Weak beat (5)
East: Insipid pattern (5)
South: Colourless gap (5)

Each of these clues has two definitions and no wordplay. The two answers have exactly the same spelling except for one letter. One answer goes round the cross from the left and the other from the right, though not necessarily in the same order as given in the clue.


ACROSS       
7   Ivy-league university where maize is placed in front of tailors' four feet (7)
8   Food for an unending body of soldiers (7)
9   Make a monk give up his habit (7)
10 King, before dark times, created jumpers (7)
11 Rearrange file for a period till death (4)
14 Be complicit in a crime to beat revolutionary (4)
15 This, when old, may be seen on top of flagpoles in the U.S. (5)
18 Expand outward and erupt suddenly (5)
21 Energy, money and a bit of daring can get you an expensive metal (4)
22 God with zero noise (4)
23 Strange dialect's stronghold  (7)
25 Engineers mould and form into new pattern (7)
27 Off and on football tournament held in honour of Malaysian independence (7)
28 Extra cloth stitched with thin material seems like arranging to an auditor (1,6)

DOWN        
1   This when ingrown may lead to elation? (7)
2   Remodelling earring made him more mad (7)
3   Bar endlessly and form a group (4)
4   Latin American labourer is an office assistant in India (4)
5   Glossal sounds made by Mulligan after dropping some money and running around (7)
6   Wing component made by dad after consuming some egg (7)
12 Furtively, at first, saw disembowelled lady twice (5)
13 Big number right in the centre (5)
16 Initially Zambian iodine was modified and charged (7)
17 Personal identification documents that are like greetings for a Muslim festival (2,5)
19 North has no right to make gin cocktail from scratch (7)
20 Frigid wind can pin you both ways. Good! (7)
24 Scared sounds made by females during geek shows (4)
26 Without opening hardish sort of vegetable (6)
Correction - 26 Dock and put back thin slippery fishes (4)

60 comments:

  1. My 3
    9A - UNFROCK [CD]
    10A - {K}{NIGHTS}
    28A - A LINING (~aligning)

    ReplyDelete
  2. 22A God with zero noise (4) {O}{DIN}
    4D Latin American labourer is an office assistant in India (4) PEON [2]
    6D Wing component made by dad after consuming some egg (7) F(E)ATHER

    ReplyDelete
  3. My three (Remembering my childhood classmate Maitri :))

    14A BETA (BEAT*)
    21A GOLD {GO}{L}{D}
    23D CITADEL (DIALECT*)

    ReplyDelete
  4. 23A - Citadel (dialect)*
    1D - Toenail (elation)*
    26D - Radish (h)ardish*

    ReplyDelete
  5. Comp for 23A

    16D - Ionized (Z + Iodine*)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Afterdark: 26D is 4 letters
    Richard: 14A is ABET (Defn: be complicit in a crime)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Venkatesh. I noticed the typo and wanted to correct it at once. But then there was this ever-obliging power failure. I have mentioned the correction above.

      Delete
  7. Richard I don't think 14A is correct.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I didn't see the grid Venkatesh. But enu says 6. :(

    ReplyDelete
  9. 11A LIFE (FILE*)
    Def period till death

    ReplyDelete
  10. 19D NOTHING (NORTH-R + GIN*)
    Def From scratch

    ReplyDelete
  11. 11A Rearrange file for a period till death (4) LIFE (FILE)*

    ReplyDelete
  12. Sorry friends, the clue for 26 down is:

    26 Decapitate and put back thin slippery fishes (4)

    Requesting the Colonel to kindly correct the same in the main post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BD: Wouldn't 'Put back and decapitate thin..' fit the sequence?

      Delete
    2. So i get one more chance :)

      Delete
    3. Venkatesh is correct. Shoddy replacement on my part.The clue should be:

      26 Dock and put back thin slippery fishes (4)

      Thanks in advance to the Colonel for helping me out again.

      Delete
  13. 2D Remodelling earring made him more mad (7) ANGRIER (EARRING)*

    ReplyDelete
  14. Comp for 26D. 8A - Regimen - regimen(t)

    ReplyDelete
  15. 3D Bar endlessly and form a group (4) BLOC(K)

    ReplyDelete
  16. 5D
    Glossal sounds made by Mulligan after dropping some money and running around (7)-LINGUAL(MULLIGAN-M)*

    ReplyDelete
  17. 27 A: MERDEKA [2]
    12 D: S LY LY
    20 D: ->NIP PIN G

    ReplyDelete
  18. 7A-CORNELL {CORN}{ELL}
    24D-EEKS G EEK S HOWS

    ReplyDelete
  19. 25A Engineers mould and form into new pattern (7) RESHAPE (RE+SHAPE)

    ReplyDelete
  20. Leftovers

    Across - 15, & 18
    Down - 13, & 26

    ReplyDelete
  21. Also, North, East, West and South

    ReplyDelete
  22. 15a GLORY CD
    18a FLARE 2
    26d EELS (SLEEk<)

    ReplyDelete
  23. That wraps the normal clues. Now for the abnormal ones, and the relationship with the puzzle/grid.

    PS: Kishore seems to be surrounded by Bald men.

    ReplyDelete
  24. The grid has stand-alone grids within but then it has been seeded with words in a very methodical and carefully designed manner. Congrats.

    The instruction says: 1. There are four crosses in the grid. If you start from the square to the north of any cross, and go around the cross either from the left or from the right, up to the square to the south of that cross, you will get two words of 5 letters each which are similar to each other in structure and spelling but differ very slightly. (Emphasis added)

    I am not sure if it is 5 letters.

    Anyway my observation:

    North: BLKE/BRKE

    South: BLAK/BRAK

    East: FLIL/FRIL

    West: BLND/BRND

    Also noted is L R and L R in rows 7 and 9 forming the square
    LOR
    Y_O
    LAR

    The title Left, Right, Left suggests Ls and Rs are placed appropriately to a column.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You've left out the 3rd letter in all cases

      Delete

    2. North: BROKE/BLOKE

      South: BREAK/BLEAK

      East: FRAIL/FLAIL

      West: BRAND/BLAND

      Delete
  25. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Just now I noticed that we had to solve four Bridge Players' clues.

    North: Chap is penniless (5) BL[a]KE
    West: Weak beat (5) FL[a]IL
    East: Insipid pattern (5) BL[a]ND
    South: Colourless gap (5)BL[a]CK

    Note that in each case A is to be dropped.

    At first I wrote BL[o]KE but after the three latter answers changed it to BL[a]KE

    Now I understand that the enu 5 is in a way correct. Earlier I was merely looking at the gridfills.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Revised answers

    North: Chap is penniless (5) BLAKE/BROKE
    West: Weak beat (5) FRAIL/FLAIL
    East: Insipid pattern (5) BLAND/BRAND
    South: Colourless gap (5 BLEAK/BREAK

    The gridfills are too clever by half.

    ReplyDelete
  28. The instruction says: 1. There are four crosses in the grid. If you start from the square to the north of any cross, and go around the cross either from the left or from the right, up to the square to the south of that cross, you will get two words of 5 letters each which are similar to each other in structure and spelling but differ very slightly.

    I think the above instruction needs some revision.

    Try:

    The instruction says: 1. There are four crosses in the grid. If you start from the square to the north of any cross, and go around the cross either from the left or from the right, up to the square to the south of that cross, you will get two strings of 4 letters each which are similar to each other in structure and spelling but differ very slightly.

    By inserting a fifth letter in each of the pairs, we get answers to the NEWS clues, each of which yields two answers.

    Balder Dash, please confirm. I am writing all this w/o too much of thinking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Blake, the poet, is also a chap.

      Delete
    2. Actually I first wrote BLAKE in the notepad. Then I realised it must be BLOKE. But when I wrote the post here, I did not enter BLOKE.

      Delete
    3. As per the instructions there is a difference of one letter only in the two words

      Delete
    4. Oh OK. I was too dazzled by the ingenuity displayed in this grid/puzzle that I did not look too closely into the minutiae.

      Delete
  29. Why was 'A' in East & West changed to L?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry. Overlooked the starting letter in the North of the cross is B

      Delete
  30. Chaturvasiji, the bridge clues, as you call them, are five letters each and the middle letter is also available in the complete grid. The only difference between the the two words is that the left word has L whereas the right word has R.

    And you are absolutely correct in your summation that the 7 and 9 columns have L and R respectively in all intersections except with row 4 and 14.

    The grid has stand-alone grids within but then it has been seeded with words in a very methodical and carefully designed manner. Congrats.
    The gridfills are too clever by half.


    While the second part of the above quote is usually not a compliment, I take it as one when it comes from CVji and when read with the first part.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Re the use of the expression "too clever by half" -

      I was talking only of "gridfills" - not the person who made them!

      Delete
  31. Kudos to Balderdash for putting up something interesting and not something which his handle means. The clues by themselves were quite straightforward.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now that I notice his name (in two parts) on the previous comment I may be mistaken in my assumption on what it conveys:)

      Delete
  32. Thanks, Raghunath. The ID creation insisted on a surname, and threfore I had to split it.

    Specal thanks to the Colonel for hosting a Balderdash puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
  33. 8a: REGIMEN-- Regiment truncated.

    10a. KNIGHT K-night-- Move in a chess

    22a: ODIN-- Zero --O-- noise__ DIN -- ODIN a norse God

    What's the logic of three clues per person? Why not free for all?

    Its a pity that I can't do this on line nor can I have a printer to access. I'd love to see the final result in prin for this unusual crossie.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Colonel may now give a link to the solution grid

      Delete
    2. Raju, if its free for all and if the first person posts all the answers what will the others do?

      Delete
    3. You can lay a time-limit and the solutions as a whole can be published ? Again, all of us solve the whole puzzle without fail and hence publishing it the next day should be in order I suppose?
      Of course, time-differences will come into play as we have several zones from where bloggers log on. I'd like to preserve a copy of this one in particular for my archives. Thanks and regards.

      Delete

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