Great clues today with fantastic anagrams and surfaces.
ACROSS
1 Secretary's attempt to make dough (6) PASTRY {PA'S}{TRY}
4 Gemstones in suit (8) DIAMONDS [DD]
10 Drinks drop of tea in wood in the Holy Land (9) PALESTINE {P{ALES}{T}INE}
11 Such music is constant during party? (5) DISCO {D{IS}{C}O}
12 Tonight, a telling off in a London Tube station (7,4,4) NOTTING HILL GATE*
13 Musical instruction from an eminent Florentine (7) ANDANTE {AN}{DANTE}
15 Sufficient to answer demand in the noughties (6) ENOUGH [T]
17 A service attended by elderly poet (6) ARNOLD {A}{RN}{OLD}
19 Lad went swimming in marshy area (7) WETLAND*
21 Golden sands - name changed in novel (6,3,6) ANGELS AND DEMONS*
23 Gather in place to dine (5) PLEAT {PL}{EAT}
24 Musical work, formerly spoken start to elegy (9) PASTORALE {PAST}{ORAL}{E}
25 Police officer gets near criminal (8) SERGEANT*
26 Plans to include large models (6) IDEALS {IDEA{L}S}
DOWN
1 Foppish type to pay a quick call on one who talks foolishly at length (8) POPINJAY {POP IN}{JAY}
2 Part company in Adriatic port (5) SPLIT [DD]
3 USA-run lotteries, awfully chancy business (7,8) RUSSIAN ROULETTE* Fantastic anagram!
5 List that is full of incorrect times (7) ITEMISE {I{TIMES*}E}
6 "In the Mood" a fiddler rearranged - that's easy listening (6-2-3-4) MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD*
Hear this by a band with this name
7 Lots again suffering homesickness (9) NOSTALGIA*
8 One who points out a worthless group of people? (6) SHOWER [DD]
9 Free one individual (6) SINGLE [MD]
14 Terribly rude urge I suppressed, as required by etiquette (2,7) DE RIGUEUR {DE R{I}GUEUR*}
16 Greek hero's trek cut short by us (8) ODYESSEUS ODYESS(-y+us)US
18 Notice old man in study, poker-faced (7) DEADPAN {DE{AD}{PA}N}
19 Heading for workshop that is most spacious (6) WIDEST {W}{ID EST}
20 French writer penning page in college grounds (6) CAMPUS {CAM{P}US}
22 Some from a haunted place in Nebraska (5) OMAHA [T]
Mohsin and Shuchi rule the roost at IXL
ReplyDeleteWell done. All the best everyone.
DeleteAll the best for today, everyone!
ReplyDeleteWell done Shachii you're up to Number 11 overall
Delete+1
DeleteWow! You're aggregating the scores? Thanks!!
DeleteDuh! I just saw the overall leaderboard! ;)
DeleteNo Duh! moment. I had aggregated it before they did it :-)
DeleteLast year I had done the same and once, when they put up the aggr. list, I pointed out a couple of totalling errors (not in my scores). So looks like that part is manual.
DeleteThat can be called a "Summer shower":) - once an auditor....:):)
DeleteFine, as long as you don't call it 'The Indian summer of an Uncle"
DeleteWell done Moshin.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes to all participants today.
Col.,
I am happy THCC participants continue to score well. Keep up the good work.
THCCcommenters in top 10
Delete1 - MOHSIN
2 - SHUCHI
3 - ANISH
5 - RAMESH J
6 - ABHAY
7 - SOWMYA
9 - SURESH
10 - VINAYAK
e&oe
Congrats Mohsin, Shuchi and Anish:) for taking the top spots. Thanks colonel for watching out for us. Looks like this time they only deducted points for wrong answers unlike Round 1
ReplyDeleteDid anyone encounter problems in saving or submitting answers this time?
ReplyDeleteI did not dare to save. Only submitted
ReplyDeleteDid the submission go through immediately or did you have to try multiple times?
DeleteImmediate. But don't expect to get a high score this time. I had to do a sortie to drop my wife somewhere. Also doubtful on 1A
DeleteJust finished today's after struggling with NW corner. Doubtful about 1 Across though I feel I'm right. Getting to be tougher than the last. Still, I took about 40 minuutes. Fair enough. Still finding it difficult to go filling block by block. Can the organizers not make it friendlier using Acrosslite, given that time, here, is of the essence?
ReplyDeleteCongrats, Mohsin and Shuchi for leading us THCC bloggers ! THCC Zindabad !!
ReplyDeleteI wonder whether the solutions can be verified? To clear one's doubts? Like Suresh's doubt about 1 across. Earlier, there used to be a solution to compare with your submission. How does one get on to it?
ReplyDeleteThe solutions will come up on every Saturday with the updated leaderboard. If you click on solutions after logging in you will get your submission with the solution. If you do so today you can see your submission and solution for Round 1 & 2
DeleteThey can be verified, but only after the last date for submission
DeleteDeepak & Suresh:but only after the last date for submission !! Thanks, I know this. I merely wanted to k now the procees to get at it !!
DeleteHave you figured it out from the Col's Comment?
DeleteIf not -
Log in
When you get the page, see buttons on top with letters in caps and red.
Click on SOLUTIONS.
When you get the page, see round by round buttons again on top. Click on any.
Finished rounds will have the setter's sol grid and yours. Wrong letters, if any, in your grid will be reddened to match your face's colour.
Unfinished round will have only your sol grid. Setter's sol grid can be seen on Sunday.
How can you expect the correct solution to show up when the competition is still on and the closing date is one week away.
Thanks CV: Step by step, like a good preceptor that you are !! Duh ! likeDeepak says, for your presumption that I can expect the solution on the same day !!
DeleteThis time I did the puzzle in one go at noon after I returned home from an outing.
ReplyDeleteNo insuperable difficulties.
I saved three or four times but each time I got the saved grid. Submit was accepted in one attempt.
I realised this week that you needn't click on a cell but you can move the cursor by using the arrow key.
Well, well, in one slot there is a trap whether intended by the setter or not.
Congrats Moshin Ahmed. Got some points despite a mistake in 2nd round (Speed thrills but kills). In 3rd round did not want to commit a mistake, so took more time and submitted in 50 minutes. 1A also with its cryptic content falls easily. I could not find any trap as mentioned by CVji. He may probably reveal it next Sunday. All the best to everyone.
ReplyDeleteHow's the quality of clues in these IXL crosswords? Are they comparable to the kind of puzzles we find on TH? Who sets them?
ReplyDeleteVJ: Fairly easy but with pitfalls and minefields to be wary of !! The time- bound submission does put some solvers at a disadvantage, though ! How soon is soon enough?
DeleteI , of course,am for not competing but completing !!
Press release IXL
ReplyDeleteISRO’s GRAMMATICAL FEAT
21 year old scientist wins the second weekly round of Indian Crossword League 2014
Patna, 28th September 2014: Indian crossword enthusiasts all across the globe had their fingers crossed as the results of the second weekly round of the Indian Crossword League 2014 were to be announced. At 11:00 am IST the results were announced and so was the leaderboard after the end of the second week.
Young scientist from ISRO, Mohsin Ahmed clinched the top slot after giving the perfectly accurate solutions in the minimum time. The Second slot was earned by Vinod Raman, a software engineer from Bangalore, whereas Vinoo Sanjay of Mumbai stood third in the second weekly round of the Indian crossword League 2014.
The nation very recently witnessed the ISRO’s mars marvel, a young scientist from the organization securing the top slot at the IXL 2014 has come as a cherry on the top. Mohsin Ahmed is a 21 year old scientist from Bangalore who has been solving crosswords for the last 15 years. Having learned the art of solving crossword puzzles from his mother, Mohsin gives his feat’s credit to her. Mohsin was the runner up at the IXL 2013.
The overall ranking after the end of the 2 weekly rounds has put Mohsin as the leader of the Indian Crossword League 2014 with Suchismita Upadhyay, an engineer with her roots in Bihar but based in Bangalore at the second slot and Anish from Ernakulam at the 3rd slot.
IXL 2014 is a competition of cryptic crossword and the event has been organised by Patna-based civil society initiative Extra C. It had organised the first season of the crossword competition in 2013, which marked the centenary year of the crossword.
“Entry of new names in the leader board is really a very heartening feeling as the main purpose of organising the event is to popularize the game of crossword across the country as it not only tests the command of English and general knowledge awareness but also is a kind of tool which sharpens skills like lateral and out of box thinking,” senior IAS officer and the brain behind the event Vivek Kumar Singh said.
Singh has to his credit a book titled ‘Understanding cryptic crosswords’ the second edition of which was launched recently.
The remark of the seasoned bureaucrat appears correct when one peruses the overall leader board after second weekly round. Though some well known names like – Kishore M, Mohsin Ahmed and Shuchismita Upadhyay – who were finalists of previous year are there at the top but fresh names like Anish, Lahar Appaih and Abhay Phandis do indicate that the crossword fever has started taking the country in its grip.
Two non-resident Indians – Parasenjit Sarkar (Singapore) and Sowmya Ramkumar (Manama) - too have made it to the leader board. Unlike past year when the competition was open for Indians only, the current season of IXL has allowed participation of non-resident Indians as well.
“This is just the beginning and we hope that a keener competition would be witnessed in the remaining nine weeks of the online competition,” IXL director (legal and PR) Kushagra Singh said.
IXL 2014, which got underway on September 14, would witness ten online rounds and the top ten scorers would qualify for the finals which would be an offline competition to be held on December 21.
Please allow me to make a digression: spchennai, a regular THC solver in my thread in The Hub has promoted his weekly Tamil crosswords to weekly pastime. They are challenging and interesting. Today's puzzle:
ReplyDeletehttp://sparthasarathy.biz/crosswords/apaku78.html
May their tribe prosper and flourish !
Delete