Sunday 1 December 2013

Special, Sunday 01 Dec 2013, Afterdark


Three answers per commenter upto 6 PM. With annotations of course.

Across
1  Happy judge with empty bottle (6)
4  Rallies around behind Asian with respect (6)
9  Beginning with a state's refusal to revert (4)
10  Abridged tale of Bermudas on conservative (5,5)
11  Loose top sister wore had a complaint (6)
12  Meandering case American frames old university with... (8)
13  Prominent nose for leader besieging Channel Islands (9)
15  Change Virginia railway (4)
16  Damages camouflaged by Myanmar soldiers (4)
17  Wandered mare ended in a whirlpool (9)
21  Inspect deviant seer's vault (8)
22  Entertain appeal on Superintendent Engineer (6)
24  Blunder COO made in the making of Swiss dish (6,4)
25  Setter emerges from brook, with nothing in place for a drum (4)
26  A type of clue resulting in a rage (6)
27  Bird eats each hour inside cage (6

Down
1  Our neighbour, just one house away! (7)
2  Planet sites lack energy (5)
3  Helps mule sit uncomfortably on top seat (7)
5  Planet looks like upturned teapot (6)
6  Outwardly needle short solicitor on the company (9)
7  Happy surroundings for tailless dog in the planet (7)
8  Reptile case ordered for a type of cat (13)
14  Publican displays craft in a binge (9)
16  Mole may develop into a disease (7)
18  Superannuate wild asura; for a change send him to another planet (7)
19  Greek character's chapped lips sealed by time (7)
20  Old city at the rear end of the planet (6)
23  Broken heart on the ground (5)

To attempt the crossword using Acroslite follow the link ADB11

Enjoy.

50 comments:

  1. 19d Greek character's chapped lips sealed by time (7) E(PSIL*)ON
    20d Old city at the rear end of the planet (6) UR [ahem] ANUS
    23d Broken heart on the ground (5) EARTH*

    ReplyDelete
  2. Afterdark will not be available today to answer queries on this CW as he is travelling in some interior parts of the country so he may not get internet access.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My 3

    15A - {VA}{RY}
    7D - {MER{CU(-r)}RY}
    16A - MARS [T]

    ReplyDelete
  4. IXL Final to be held on 21 Dec 2013 at TERI Auditorium, Domlur, Bangalore.
    I presume it will be sometime in the evening as 21st is a Saturday.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Grabbing the easiest ones:

    11A - PTOSIS (top*+sis)
    17A - MEANDERED (mare ended*)
    16D - MYELOMA (mole may*)

    ReplyDelete
  6. 24A CORDON BLEU anagrams of Blunder+COO

    ReplyDelete
  7. 16D Myeloma(mole May)
    17A Meandered (mare ended)
    2a Plant(-E) synonym for site

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Usha-akka, 17A and 16D were provided by me five minutes ahead of you. :-)

      Delete
    2. Didn't see your entry on my screen while posting (paying the price for a slow connection and itchy fingers) ,sorry!:)
      I seem to have got 2a wrong too:(

      Delete
  8. 18A anagram of ( SUPERANNUATE - ASURA) - NEPTUNE

    ReplyDelete
  9. Taking raincheck, but noting this planetary one has come on the day MOM has left earth orbit and the Sunday TH contains MIM which could arguably be expanded to Mars- Indian Mission

    ReplyDelete
  10. 2  D Planet sites lack energy (5)
    VENUS (VENUES - E)

    ReplyDelete
  11. 3D- ASSISTS
    Def.-helps
    Mule-ass
    Sit uncomfortably-sis*-ist
    Top seat- S

    10A- short story
    Abridged tale- Def.
    Bermudas- shorts
    Conservative- Tory

    22a- Please
    Entertain- Def.
    Appeal- Plea (thank God it is not 'it' again!)
    Sup.Engineer-SE

    ReplyDelete
  12. A full hearted hurray for AD for celebrating the Mars mission with a planetary special.

    ReplyDelete
  13. 1 A Happy judge with empty bottle (6)
    JOVIAL (JO)(VIAL)
    def Happy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Should it not be (J)(O) vial?
      I take it as - Judge-G, empty-O, vial- bottle.

      Delete
  14. 13 Prominent nose for leader besieging Channel Islands (9) {PRO}{BOS(CI)S}
    DOWN
    8 Reptile case ordered for a type of cat (13) {TORTOISE}{SHELL}
    14 Publican displays craft in a binge (9) {B(ART)ENDER}

    ReplyDelete
  15. Replies
    1. Tortoiseshell is a type of cat that is black, white, brown, and orange.

      Delete
  16. Thank you Venkatesh. News to me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Welcome. Many cultures believe that cats of this coloration bring good luck. In USA, they are also called money cats. The Japanese Maneki Neko figurine is almost always a calico cat (largely white with tortoiseshell patches).

      Further reading and pictures available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortoiseshell_cat

      Delete
  17. 26A A type of clue resulting in a rage (6) ACROSS (A CROSS)

    ReplyDelete
  18. There is a lot of superstition about cats, particularly black cats. I remember the dig made at it by Groucho Marx-
    "A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere'!

    ReplyDelete
  19. 12A Meandering case American frames old university with... (8) TORTUOUS ( TORT OU US Def :meandering)

    ReplyDelete
  20. 5 D Planet looks like upturned teapot (6) SATURN ( AS<- +T+ URN)

    ReplyDelete
  21. The IXL Leadership Board is up now. The top 10 include 6 from Bangalore, 2 from Mumbai and one each from Kolkata and Delhi.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Remaining clues
    Across 9,25
    Down

    ReplyDelete
  23. 9A UP ON<
    25A RO(-I+O)LL
    6D ENTOURAGE Not sure of anno

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Suresh, my take on 6D:

      ENRAGE (=needle, v.,) containing TOU (tout = solicitor, shortened).

      I hope it makes sense.

      Delete
  24. Joining very late. Nothing left. Disappointed :- (

    ReplyDelete
  25. Replies
    1. Can someone confirm my anno for 6D @ 6:07 in response to Suresh 5:41?

      Delete
    2. I think, it does make sense but confirmation from a veteran solver will be much better than mine !

      Delete
  26. 6 Outwardly needle short solicitor on the company (9)

    Needle = Enrage
    Short solicitor = TOU (-T)
    Entourage = group or company

    EN(TOU)RAGE

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I provided the same anno at 6:07. Glad that an expert has confirmed it as wished by MB at 6:23..

      Delete
    2. Sorry Richard, I had not noticed your anno at 6.07 and I am not an expert.

      Delete
    3. The anno is OK. But my thought was whether 'on' is an acceptable link. Any opinions?

      Delete
  27. The finalist in IXL are

    MOHSIN AHMED (BANGALORE) 763
    S. VENKATESH (NEW DELHI) 725
    SHACHII MANIK (MUMBAI) 719
    BHARATI (MUMBAI) 691
    KISHORE M (BANGALORE) 664
    VINOD RAMAN (BANGALORE) 662
    DEEPAK GOPINATH (BANGALORE) 657
    SHUCHISMITA UPADHYAY (BANGALORE) 633
    RAHMAT ALI (KOLKATA) 604
    PADMANABHAN.K. (BANGALORE) 538

    ReplyDelete
  28. Of these I think one is the owner of this blog and four have been members/ regular or irregular commenters from before IXL. That means the blog attracted some of the best solvers to it.

    ReplyDelete
  29. I may add that of them two have contributed to THC and one other is an amateur setter.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Well, Bangalore is well-represented, so well-represented that IXL is held in that city.
    Still I am not sure if the city can be called the crossword capital of our contry.
    I have long before said that Bangalore shops used to stock crossword collections that Chennai shopd did not have and I used to pick up books during my visits there in the Seventies.
    Bangalore paper DH has and used to have only a weekly crossword set by an Indian.
    And unlike Bombay the city never had commuters solving original crosswords from afternoon tabloids.
    Maybe when it was still a pensioners' paradise old fogeys with plenty of time solved crosswords and looked for new material in the UK-published books.
    Now as many computer geeks are there in the so-called Silicon Valley of India perhaps the tradition of expert solvers residing there continues.

    ReplyDelete
  31. CV 9:35 pm

    6D Outwardly needle short solicitor for company (9)?

    ReplyDelete
  32. Yes, this works!
    I must have said above that I liked the use of 'outwardly' as a c/c ind.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Will 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?

    ReplyDelete

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