Saturday 11 July 2015

No 11444, Saturday 11 Jul 2015, Anon


I have a few questions today.

Across

1 End to end permits for the sickly (6) SALLOW {(+S)ALLOW(-s)} 
4 Red wine not in musical instrument (6) CLARET {CLARinET}
9 Religious leader, one who leaves Miami in a riot (4) IMAM {MIAMi}*
10 Chance discovery of final archaeologist at Auroville ruins (10) TROUVAILLE {T+AUROVILLE}*
11 Pseudonym like mine nothing odd for pygmy (6) ANONYM {ANON}{pYgMy}
12 Head of university appreciating mutiny (8) UPRISING {U}{PRaISING} How is the 'a' prised out? {U}{PRISING} See comments
13 Hospital attendants warrant perjury (9) ORDERLIES {ORDER}{LIES}
15 Elevate, speak highly of the headless (5) RAISE {pRAISE}
16 Reluctant student to promise… (5) LOATH {L}{OATH}
18 … groom is a balanced lad (9) STABLEBOY {STABLE}{BOY}
22 Acrobat gets cut open in public house (8) BALANCER {BA{LANCE}R}
23 Fanciful Biblical books removed by Greek vernacular (6) ROMAIC {ROMAntIC}
25 What a visitor does at the door // seems familiar (5,1,4) RINGS A BELL (DD)
26 Said another way on podium (4) DAIS {SAID}*
27 Prompts girl to be in the nude at sea initially (6) NUDGES {NUD{G}E}{Sea}
28 Invites question on odd scion (4,2) ASKS IN {ASK{S cIoN} 

Down

1 Change of side at conference is important (8) SEMINAR {SEMINA(-l+R)} Seems to lead to Seminal 
2 Some ailments aliments have threshold (5) LIMEN (T) Printer's devil - Should have been aliments
3 Choose one graduate student as the best (7) OPTIMAL {OPT}{I}{MA}{L}
5 Inhabitants shaving from front to back (6) LIVERS {(-s)LIVER(+S)}
6 Restore hold on country (9) REINSTATE {REIN}{STATE}
7 Faculties have beer in explosive surroundings at first (7) TALENTS {T{ALE}NT}{S}
8 TV programs arising from editor’s acumen (13) DOCUMENTARIES {EDITOR'S ACUMEN}*
14 Antagonized by headless lunatic protecting saint (9) ESTRANGED {dE{ST}RANGED}
17 Undertaking for every missing address (7) ORATION {OpeRATION} For every=Per not Pe
19 Heists left Bruges in turmoil (7) BURGLES {L+BURGES}*
20 View love of detective, needing no introduction to alliance (7) OPINION {O}{PI}{uNION}
21 I reported to the wise man during this cold period (3,3) ICE AGE {I}{~SAGE}
24 Looking back, I’m grief stricken about legendary king (5) MIDAS {MI<=}{DAS<=}


Reference list

One=I, Student=L(From learner}, Biblical books=NT(From New Testament), Girl=G
Side=L,Side=R,One=I,Graduate=MA(Master of Arts), Student=L, Explosive=TNT, Saint=St, Left=L, Love=O, Detective=PI(Private Investigator)

Color/Font Scheme

Definition,Solution,Component letters,Anagram Indicator,C/C indicator,Reversal Indicator,Hidden word IndicatorLetter Pick indicator,Deletion Indicator,Homophone Indicator,Movement Indicator

GRID

24 comments:

  1. A beautiful puzzle. 2Dn 'ailments' should be 'aliments' I think. My first take on 1Dn was SEMINAL. Overall an enjoyable CW. Thank you Anon. :-)))

    ReplyDelete
  2. 12 Head of university appreciating mutiny (8) UPRISING {U}{PRaISING} How is the 'a' prised out?

    {U}{PRISING}
    Prising: appreciating

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. Updated the annotation

      Delete
    2. Not able find the reference to Prise=Appreciate. While Appreciate = Prize & Prise can also be spelt as prize, but the meaning still remains - to pry open

      Delete
    3. Ramesh is right. Seems to be a problem with the clue

      Delete
    4. Sandhya, any source for prising=appreciating? As Ramesh points out, "prise" and "prize" can be used interchangeably only in the sense of "prising open"; when using "prize" in the sense of appreciate or value, "prise" is not an alternative spelling.

      Ramesh, I think you should retain your original comment against the clue.

      Delete
    5. Oops, you'll are right Ramesh & Abhay!

      Delete
  3. Seminal held me up at orderlies and I lost my samosas :((((

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  4. Otherwise I repeated a Col

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  5. In Chennai edition enum for seminar/l given as 8. Mistake was at Hindu side or otherwise?

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  6. I was not serendipitous enough to get 'Trouvaille'. Ramesh's link leads me to Mariam Webster and from my desktop I don't get free trial. I don't find it in Chambers and Free dictionary gives meaning as invention and no 'chance' there. Looks to be a French word. Any help?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Oxford dictionary defines it as a lucky find; the Collins dictionary (available online) defines it as a windfall.

      Delete
    2. The best way to hunt for meaning is to use a search engine (google/bing etc).I usually link to freedictionary, but today I changed search engines (from google to bing) & bing seemed to prefer Merriam-Webster. Are others having the same issue of opening links to meanings?

      Delete
    3. Tried on desktop & ran into the same issue that Paddy pointed out. Updated links to point to OED.

      Delete
    4. Thank you Ramesh. If you remember right, the same issue cropped up once before,when Ajish confirmed it. Desktop days are nearing its end like chequebooks and a few other things like Richard pointed out.

      Delete
  7. Many good clues (especially liked the linked pair at 16a and 18a!) accompanied by too many questionable ones (my apologies if I am missing something in any of the clues mentioned below):

    - equating prising and appreciating in 12a;
    - defining documentaries as "TV programs" (they predate the invention of TV and are very much an independent genre) without any indication of it being just an example;
    - the homophone indicator in 21d being separated from the fodder by "to the";
    - the fodder being separated from the decapitation indicator by "of the" in 15a;
    - the clue for 1d clearly leading to SEMINAL while the answer, given the cross at 13a, can only be SEMINAR.

    The obvious typo at 2dn, while the newspaper's responsibility rather than the setter's, doesn't help matters! :(

    Thanks to Anon and Ramesh.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I think clues should be reasonably plausible. 4, 12, 13, 15, & 7d could have been written differently.
    I did like 25a, 3, 6, 23d

    ReplyDelete
  9. A minor variant of one of the words in this crossword appears in the Guardian's prize puzzle today - the clue reads:

    Coax Nixon to admit lying in the end? (5)

    I found it a very good clue, with Paul's trademark borderline naughtiness on display!

    14a in that puzzle seems to share the difficulty pointed out by Ramesh in 17d in this puzzle - here it is the clue wrongly suggesting deletion of an R, there it is the clue providing one O more than the answer needs!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Abhay, just saw yesterday's blog and this your comment. Had done the puzzle by Paul. I think 14a in that is fine. I can e-mail you offline if you wish.

      Agree whole heartedly on the example you've given above - it took me ages to figure out the wordplay despite being sure of the answer!

      Incidentally, I have never submitted. Has anyone done so?

      Delete
  10. Suresh and Abhay

    Please permit me to point out that it is a generally accepted convention that answers to clues of live prize crosswords are not revealed in public forums. I do realise that the Comments are vague and couched in guarded language, yet...

    One or two days ago in another UK crossword (I don't remember the source) there was a similar letter trouble.

    Such mistakes arising out of our eye taking in letters is quite human. Unless the wordplay is written on paper and the components are checked, these mistakes will arise.

    The printed version of a famous UK setter's clue was defective and when we commenters pointed it out, he conceded our point.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Point taken, CV. Since I was solving it as a regular crossword rather than as an entry, it slipped my mind that it is indeed a live contest still! I have deleted my post that contained the answer.

      Delete
    2. Using my admin powers, I have deleted a Comment by Suresh.
      Done in the interests of well-accepted conventions.

      Delete
  11. Around 6 am I was casually searching for the Hindu Crossword in Google and it displayed Col's THCC with July 12 crossword solved with the initial remarks 'bit of toughie' and i AC clue and solution. Naturally, Col has solved the grid (around 6 am) and keep the same ready for uploading at 8.30. But Google shows that also. But the website was showing only the 11th July crossword.

    ReplyDelete

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