ACROSS
1 Typical Information on a boy (7) GENERIC {GEN}{ERIC}
5 He is evil, cruel if agitated (7) LUCIFER*
9 Dark metal impregnated with mercury retrieved (5) NIGHT {NI{GH}T}<=
10 Fruit in broken crate in 19 (9) NECTARINE {N{CRATE*}INE}
12 Left vessel as slow in movement (5) LARGO {L}{ARGO}
13 It is fine to be in total chaos (4) TALC [T]
15 Raising a pet, one will become silent (8) TACITURN {TAC<=}{1}{TURN}
19 Direction to include home number (4) NINE {N{IN}E}
22 Pure sort of English money (5) RUPEE {PURE*}{E}
24 City will not allow girl Stephanite, for example (9) BANGALORE {BAN}{GAL}{ORE}
27 Daniel Arap Moi did review some of the language (5) IDIOM [T<=]
28 Original school had lost track for long (7) SEMINAL SEMINA(-ry+l)L
29 Make up with workers on time following month (7) AUGMENT {AUG}{MEN}{T}
DOWN
1 Perhaps leaving out a number is friendly (6) GENIAL LEAvING*
2 Fear the dark horse (9) NIGHTMARE {NIGHT}{MARE}
3 Poor fellow told to throw up (5) RETCH (~wretch)
4 Spies keep active kind of groups (9) CONSORTIA {C{ON}{SORT}IA}
5 Caught in a bait with money (5) LUCRE {LU{C}RE}
6 Cheat daily – shows upbringing from one’s birth (9) CHARLATAN {CHAR}LATAN<=}
7 Cheaper air fares partly enable return of the mendicant (5) FRIAR [T<=]
8 Drink up, it’s alright for a sprinter (6) REEBOK {REEB<=}{OK}
14 Crept in to building and it locked (6,3) COTTER PIN*
16 Plant can allude to pot (9) CALENDULA*
17 Make it arbitrary with some money, some interest (compound)
(9) RANDOMISE {RAND}{SOME+I}*
21 Loner boy is back with the girl (6) HERMIT {HER}{MIT<=}
23 Some festival in a temple town on the first of May (5) PURIM {PURI}{M}
24 Herb arranges security around head of state (5) BASIL {BA{S}IL}
25 Copying a sound (5) APING {A}{PING}
Sunday Special stock running out. Contributions invited, especially from budding setters
ReplyDeletedear col,
Deletecould you pls give some more info on "Sunday Special?'' - have no idea.
wish to be a "budding setter" - (not to confuse with any breed of hunting dogs!!).
regards,
CLUELESS
Sudarshan,
DeleteSunday Specials are the Crosswords that I publish on my blog at 10:30 AM on Sunday. These CW's are set by budding setters or anyone else who wants to have a go at setting crosswords. Quite a few have tried out there skills, at setting, here and later graduated to setting for The HINDU.
In case you are keen send me your CW and I will go through it before publishing it here. I need a .jpg image of the grid that you will be using and the clues in a word format file
14D - I have been hearing this for decades. Always thought it to be homophonic QUARTER PIN! ;-(
ReplyDeleteLearning all the time...
This reminds me on an incident when my youngest brother was around 10 years old. He came and asked me what cotter-minus was. I was nonplussed and asked him where he had seen that word. When he brought his geometry book, I realised he was referring to co-terminus
DeleteThe illustration for 14d shows, imo, split pins, which are also called cotter pins in the US. In UK, I think cotter pins are the type we used to have on our bicycle pedal cranks, which were more of an elongated bolt, with a flat part of the shank, so that it could be fitted in only one way, to prevent it from turning.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotter_%28pin%29
In Air Force we used to call them "Split Pins"
Delete26 Making Puris as soon as possible, with equal speed (4,5) PARI PASSU {PURIS+ASAP}
ReplyDeleteMay I know please, what is the indicator for taking first letters of "as soon as possible" for ASAP ?
I think ASAP has been a universally accepted abbreviation. It was being used in telegrams, and more commonly in SMS parlance.
Deletenow more commonly, I mean.
DeleteThanks, Richard.
DeleteNW corner was pretty dark, wht with 2 (K)nights guarding it.
ReplyDeleteBeing a pure vegetarian, 11A & 18A eluded me!!
They didn't elude you, you couldn't digest them ;-)
DeleteMaking no bones about it...:-)
DeleteCol.,
DeleteDigestion comes after consumption!
Col.,
DeleteDigestion comes after consumption!
Easy crossword today
ReplyDelete10A, Is it 19 or 9?
ReplyDeleteA bit of dubious math here:
Delete19=9
The ref is to clue 19, which when solved results in NINE
No aspersions in above on Arden's math skills ;-)
DeleteWill the finale of IXL be only for the finalists listed or is it open for those others outsiders also who participated but failed to reach the top? just for the fun of solving? Will it be round 9?
ReplyDeleteThis is a repeat of my enquiry in the Sunday Special blog, lest it was overlooked .
Good luck to all the participants and especially fellow-bloggies here . Bring home the bacon !!:
The organiser has replied to someone at the IXL site that anyone is free to attend the final. Whether they will be permitted to participate, I do not know.
ReplyDeleteOf course! The event will be open to anyone.
DeleteIf Raju wants to know if the participants who are in positions lower than 10 would be allowed to participate in the live solving contest, the answer can only be 'no'.
Yes, ten is a small number as participants but then doesn't quiz programs have , it is a I It is a pity that details are lacking as of now - how many crosswords do the participants have to solve? What is the max time given? Shouldn't the solving be on paper? If there is a tie, how is going to be resolved? By another CWD or some rapid-fire clues for cold-solving?
If the event has to attract some crowd there must be some side events in which visitors can take part. There is no info on this.
If it is done on computers like the online rounds, then the time stamp of the correct entries will ensure that ties do not occur, IMO. If they have multiple rounds, in 'the deciding round' where, say, there are 3 prizes, the computer can declare the round closed as soon as 3 all correct entries are confirmed.
DeleteThey already have a software in place to compare solvers' answers with their own and rank the same, so nothing new is required.
DeleteGood red herrings from Arden today. Enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteClues of my day: AITCHBONE, MEATBLL, RANDOMISE and PARI PASSU- for the last one, one could only think of POST HASTE !
ReplyDeleteIf I were organizing this program, Here is how I would do it
Have it in a quiz like format. Clues getting passed from participant to another.
At the start , there is only the empty grid & the first contestant chooses one of the clues she would like to take a crack at. At that point the clue is revealed & she has a fixed time to answer it and if the answer is right, she gets points, else answer passes to the next participant and so on. If no one can answer it, the clue goes to the audience.
Once the first clue is solved, the person sitting next to the person who solved it, get the chance to decide which clue he would like to take a crack at. The round goes on till the crossword is solved. Depending on time , we could have multiple rounds with each round starting with the first clue going to the person next to the one who solved the last clue in the previous round.
This ensures 1) There is plenty for the audience to do 2) It is fair 3) Solvers can be asked to explain how they got the answer, which should help in educating the audience
A couple of misleadning link words in 11A and 18A threw me off for a bit ('about', in both cases).
ReplyDeleteThanks, CV, Deepak and Ramesh. My query was not that I wanted to participate. Will it be on line like all other previous eight rounds? in which case, non-participants can also attempt, though not in the race. Again, there is a lot of ambiguity in the way the competition is to be carried out, especially when it is one of a kind .They ought to specify and and also clarify as to how the final decision will be taken for the winner. I agree, they rights of the Management are unquestionable and should be final. We will wait and see. My only wish is to see what type of crossword would be put up for the finalists. Why could it not be like all the precious 8 rounds on line? A bit confusing to me ! Whichever way it comes out,. I'd like to slove it for my own satisfaction. .
ReplyDeleteRamesh and others
ReplyDeleteI am of the opinion that the final must be for the finalists and on paper with three crosswords to be solved and the winner decided by the highest score and some other side events need to be organised for the visitors, who I guess will be mostly from within the city. Participation from other entrants in the runup will be very little.
I would like to mention that I have conducted crossword quizzes exactly on the lines Ramesh says in a couple of local college, including women's college.
Several years ago I participated in a Doordarshan crossword quiz (on the solvers' side) that was broadcast by the Chennai station. The quiz master was a retd IAS officer who later was a THC setter for a couple of years.
Later a much more sophisticated crossword quiz was broadcast from Bombay on national TV.
There used to be one Crossword Quiz show hosted by Kitu Gidwani way back in the 90s.
DeleteDo you remember the show I'm referring to?Were the puzzles of good quality?
I was too young and was not really into cryptic crosswords back then. Jus' curious
After the event CrypticSIngh can put up the competition puzzles on their website for interactive solving by others.
ReplyDeleteI lucked out on 6D. I got NATAL => LATAN from upbringing from one's birth. Where did CHAR come from? I guessed the full word but would like to know.
ReplyDeleteCHAR (charwoman) is a very common word for a daily cleaning worker in crosswords.
DeleteExtract from latest update on the IXL final.
ReplyDelete"Sharing details of the IXL 2013 finals, Singh said a preliminary round would be conducted. It would have questions based on quiz, aptitude and crossword clue making and solving.
Four contenders would be eliminated in it. The top six would qualify for the grand finale.
“The grand finale would be played in a bit different way and would be interactive in nature,” Singh said, adding that its details would be sent to participants soon. The winner of the competition would be awarded with “Mentathlete” trophy."