A Beaut from Afterdark. I could sense a link between 10a(as Gibrael), 1d (as Musa), 2d and part of 11a (ALI) along with parts of clues with Iran, a couple of messengers (both divine and from father's company), Muslim leaders and magic carpets ... but I am not sure if this is what AD has up his sleeve ...
Across
9 Outdoor work primarily excites Keralite perhaps (4-3) OPEN AIR (OP E NAIR)
Things like Golf, perhaps ...
10 God, 'Animal ate the bishop', said the divine messenger (7) GABRIEL (G, B in ARIEL)
Gabriel and Ariel are both angels ...
11 Sustain fighter and soldiers with a bit of tequila (7) ALIMENT (ALI MEN T
Remembered the one word song: an early version and a later one. Bring out your salt, guys. Time to take a lick at it
12 In fact, hugging one veteran is immaturity (7) NAIVETY (NAY hugging I VET)
13 Merchants caught Henry and the French robbers heartlessly (9) CHANDLERS (C H AND LE R
15 Go around stirring with a rod out to find excrement of birds (5) GUANO (GOAROUND-ROD)* Does 'a rod out' mean 'a rod' to be dropped? Then we'll be short an A ...
Remember Ace Ventura and Shikaka? Well, that was bats, anyhow ...
16 Rome at odds with Vatican on gangster's eviction (7) REMOVAL (ROME* V AL)
19 Hide party-drug taken before in a fabric (7) DOESKIN (DO E SKIN)
20 Don Pedro initially at, say Pondicherry, had a ball with Napoleon (3-2) PUT ON (P UT O N) My COD because of Don Pedro who hides the definition perfectly, but not sure of N for Napoleon
21 Significant other, in a frenzy, removed torn nightie in parts (9) FRACTIONS (SIGNIFICANT OTHER - NIGHTIE)* Awesome abstraction of the nightie
25 Spirits with Midas touch playing inside (7) DAIMONS (MIDAS* with ON inside)
A F Ritchie puzzles could sometimes be really demonic ...
26 Travelling? No. Half of Madras is closed at first (7) NOMADIC (NO MAD I C)
28 Magic carpets seen in rainbows, perhaps (7) SPECTRA (CARPETS)*
29 From 1200 to 300 BCE, Iran had nothing to worry with Spain (4,3) IRON AGE ((IR O NAG E
Down
1 Many missed a cosmic design pattern (6) MOSAIC (A COSMIC-C)*
2 Muslim leader emerges first above pandemonium at a sacred city (6) MEDINA (M E DIN A)
Bill Gates lives there
3 Messenger is from father's company (4) PAGE (PA G
4 Squirm in the company of redhead in England (6) WRITHE (R in WITH E)
5 Struggled earlier, end is disrupted (8) AGONISED (AGO ENDIS*)
6 Reduction in margin debt worked out (10) ABRIDGMENT (MARGIN DEBT)*
7 Collect baked cakes in a barrel (4,4) WINE CASK (WIN CAKES*)
8 Minimize the importance of police chief, discard... (4,4) PLAY DOWN (P LAY DOWN)
14 ...say, furniture made with diamond found on road and harbours (10) DAVENPORTS (D AVE 'N' PORTS)
16 Fastest strike at ODI/Test without captains (8) RAPIDEST (RAP
17 Determinants' partner found in textbook? (8) MATRICES (CD - GK maths as in this example)
18 In the time between life and death, self-pain is absurd (8) LIFESPAN (SELFPAIN)*
22 For starters, a pulmonologist never entertains infant cases pertaining to breathlessness (6) APNEIC (A P N E I C -Acrostic)
23 Unfashionable to withhold hatred inside (3-3) OLD HAT (T)
24 Woman took the bill, model has the perfumed bag (6) SACHET (SHE takes AC, T)
27 Crazy women endlessly make cat's sound (4) MEOW (WOME
GRID
For those who missed it yesterday, here are some snaps from the Impromptu S&B Gathering. Nice to see the 'Who's who' of IXL
For those who missed it yesterday, here are some snaps from the Impromptu S&B Gathering. Nice to see the 'Who's who' of IXL
15 Go around stirring with a rod out to find excrement of birds (5) GUANO (GOAROUND-ROD)* Does 'a rod out' mean 'a rod' to be dropped? Then we'll be short an A ...
ReplyDeleteGO AROUND* - A ROD = GUANO
We will not be short of an A.
DeleteSandhya if you deleted the A then from where did it reappear in the answer?
DeleteOops, sorry!
DeleteIt would have been okay as
ReplyDeleteGo round stirring with the rod out to find excrement of birds (5)
New post on 'Crossword Bloggers Jargon' at Crossword Unclued
ReplyDeleteNice one AD.
ReplyDeleteApart from the issues raised earlier, not convinced with Davenport clue.
Thank you for the photos taken at the impromptu and letting us 'meet' the who's who's. Agree and equally excited about the young and energetic setters. We are assured of quality CW's.Way to go!
ReplyDeleteNice cw except for a nit with 18D Life is a part of def and answer. Maybe itr was meant to be 'birth and death'.
ReplyDeleteIt was. This and a few other changes I made, unfortunately was not carried out. But no one to blame. Got to be correct first time. :)
DeleteTell me again
DeleteEnjoyed the CW. Thank you Shrikanth.
ReplyDelete21A- Def.-in parts- to be highlighted.
Way to go, thnks
ReplyDeleteThere is something in the gridfills, but I could not detect it
ReplyDeleteI could finish the crossword by 515 as I got the paper early at CMBT. Put tote sack first for wine cask but Gabriel helped me
ReplyDeleteA good puzzle overall...
ReplyDeletethanks AD :) ...
Could anybody detect what is special in the gridfills?
ReplyDeleteDeepak
ReplyDeleteI didn't solve this crossword.
After your nudge, I looked at the solution grid.
After staring at it for sometime, I think I have found something. But I am not sure if that is what AD had in his mind.
My finding:
If we string together some letters in the unchecked cells in some rows/columns, we get three-letter words.
In rows
HID
PEP
PEE
In columns
MOON (reading upwards)
ROC (-do-)
GIN(-do)
Names
IAN
HEEP (reading from right to left)
No that's not right. You have to take a look at all the words individually. now that's a big hint
DeleteOne may find the same alphabet appearing twice, side by side. eg. MM, AA, TT, SS, HH
ReplyDeleteNo, not right
DeleteCapitals ?
ReplyDeleteNairobi Lima New Delhi and so on
ReplyDeleteSomething to do with across words on the left having consecutive letters?
ReplyDeleteOPENAIR - NOP
ALIMENT - LMN
CHANDLERS - CDE
PUTON - NOP
DAIMONS - MNO
SPECTRA - RST
?
Another hint. It is something that has not been attempted previously, so look for something different
ReplyDeleteHints are not helpful :-(
DeleteI am totally in dark! Can't see anything!! :-(
DeleteAgonised over Gabriel & Guano, the two that I didn't get & now agonising over the special gridfill
ReplyDeleteIt is so mysterious that I wonder if afterdark himself knows what it is
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteHe seems to be a smiling assassin!
DeleteLook at each word individually and then see if you can see anything similar in the other words. All words have this feature
ReplyDeleteIs it to do with the enumeration?...
ReplyDeleteall across clue answers have odd number of letters since 'across' has an odd number of letters...
while all down clue answers have even number of letters since 'down' has an even number of letters?..
The suspense is killing!
ReplyDeleteSomething like coitus interruptus is going on here.
ReplyDeleteDo you now get what I meant in one of my earlier comments?
DeleteAll gridfills have at least 2 vowels?
ReplyDeleteNo letter repeated in any answer
ReplyDeleteNice idea and well-executed! : ) ..
DeleteWell spotted, Suresh garu!
DeleteExcellent
DeleteAlas! What a tube light I am! It has not dawned on me yet! More detailed description, please!
DeleteHere is one more tube light :(
DeleteNone of the answers have the same letter occuring twice. Do not know how to make it clearer
DeleteThis is how Ajeesh explained it to
DeleteINDIA has two I's , but OMAN has only one A - A is not repeated in Oman unlike I in India occurs twice .
Thanks a lot Ajeesh & Suresh !
DeleteBrilliant of you to have spotted it Deepak
ReplyDeleteDid you have any inside info of something special in the grid, Deepak?
DeleteI never spotted it, I gave up and AD told me what it was
DeleteHe did not give you all the hints you gave us, I guess.
DeleteNo, he just asked me if I noticed anything in the grid and asked me to look at the answers only. I gave up after trying for an hour
DeleteGreat work, Afterdark! What next?! :)
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Rengaswami for winning last week's anagram puzzle of New Indian Express. Second in a month? He can open a Parker jotter-pen shop !!
ReplyDeleteI remember lines from an old English (Indian) song: Sleeveless blouse..what next?...blouseless sleeves?....
ReplyDeleteJust peeping in and thankfully was not in suspense at all and saved (or Had I missed all the fun?) Nice spotting Suresh.
ReplyDeleteCGB ob blouses-
Candian tennis player Raonic is wearing a spl. type of sleeve to protect his arm and to relieve the tedium started putting some designs on them and it led to messages that you see on T shirts. The craze has caught on and that is a shirtless/ blouseless sleeve!
Col./ Kishore,
ReplyDeleteCan one of you post a filled up grid for easy viewing by all of us? Also it will be on record in the blog.
Paddy,
DeleteWhy do you need filled up grid? We used to have it earlier but gave it up as it was just a waste of storage space. Nowadays the filled up grid is provided only in unusual cases like a Nina.
Ok. But I asked since it is something similar. Also, I thought instead of having a link to a blank grid, let us have it for a spl. filled grid.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete25A - Is 'touch' the anagrind? If so, how?
ReplyDelete17D - "Partner" misled me. :(
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteTouch = injure slightly. Seems fine as an anagrind
DeleteShould precede the fodder ?
DeleteYes.
DeleteThanks, Ramesh.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, 'injure' alone is given as a meaning in Chambers 21st online. Until now I've always interpreted "I didn't touch him" as "I didn't [even] touch him [, let alone do something worse]."