In anticipation of IXL-2015, our new setter Vachana has prepared a 13x13, as practice for the online rounds.
OnlyTwo answers per commenter, as this is a 13x13, (Annotations compulsory) till 6 PM.
Bouquets and brickbats welcome.
ACROSS
1 Opinion seeker in camera (4,6)
8 Place to be with a boy and poem (5)
9 Hugh's mirthful lad (7)
10 Spielberg's plunderers (7)
11 Month alien formed a group (5)
12 Key batsman beginning innings (6)
14 Newspaperman in bed I torpedoed (6)
17 Kyoto's refurbished? Capital! (5)
19 The happy Italian loses pounds in fast pace (7)
21 Are these suits used by tourists in Kanha? (7)
22 ___ ___, as a strict disciplinarian might say (2,3)
23 Acrobat raced, prone to swaying smartly (4,6)
DOWN
2 Icon is there at last to adore (7)
3 Wife with husband and prior. At what place? (5)
4 Tax one man's mail (6)
5 No domestic help backing daughter's shape (7)
6 Boy to throw up machine (5)
7 Puzzling yum stories (10)
8 She helps you when you're high (3,7)
13 Selfish journey? (3,4)
15 Slogan for new brand of gelatin (7)
16 Drinks the journalist accepted have run out (6)
18 Fakir turned non-believer (5)
20 Lenin's torn clothes (5)
Across Lite version can be accessed at VACHANA 1
Enjoy.
17A TOKYO*
ReplyDelete18D KAFIR*
18D. KAFIR*
ReplyDelete17A. TOKYO*
11A. OCT ET
Debasmita the quota is 2 per head, luckily two have already been solved so you can take one more
DeleteSorry missed the note. Not compensating for the ones already done
Delete11A:OCTET(OCT+ET)
ReplyDelete12A:OPENER DD
1A. View finder CD
ReplyDelete10a. Raiders CD
Thanks Vachana :)
Delete1A is {VIEW} {FINDER}
Delete22a NO IFS (CD)
ReplyDelete7d MYSTERIOUS (yum stories)*
Nice double duty by puzzling in 7d! Thanks for the puzzle and the witty clues, Vachana.
21ac : SAFARIS [DD]
ReplyDelete22ac : NO IFS [FIB]
For 22ac replacement
ReplyDelete8ac : ABODE {A}{B}{ODE}
5 No domestic help backing daughter's shape (7) - DIAMOND {NO MAID}<< + D, def = shape
ReplyDelete13 Selfish journey? (3,4) EGO TRIP (CD)
My 2
ReplyDelete4D - {1}{M}{POST}
9A - {PLAY}{BOY}
Simple and elegant debut puzzle. Enjoyed solving it. Thank you Vachana. :)
ReplyDeleteMaking up for the two already answered..
ReplyDelete4D: IMPOST(I)(M)(POST)
20A:LINEN:(LENIN)*
Why 2? Your OPENER at 10:43 was not taken earlier
DeleteApologies Col...Didnt notice..was cold solving & from my cell phone...
Delete15D TAGLINE {GELATIN}*
ReplyDelete16D LAPSED {LAPS}{ED}
Welcome, Vachana!
ReplyDelete23 Acrobat // raced, prone to swaying smartly (4,6) ROPE DANCER*
ReplyDeleteDOWN)
7 Puzzling // yum stories (10) MYSTERIOUS*
2Dn (IDOL)(IS)([-ther]E)
ReplyDelete8Dn AIR HOSTESS (CD)
14A > EDITOR(T)
ReplyDelete3 D > WHERE (W)(H)(ERE)
Last two
ReplyDeleteAcross - 19
Down - 6
Welcome Vachana :)
ReplyDelete6 Boy to throw up machine (5)
ReplyDelete'machine' is likely to be the def.
'to' throw up must be wordplay for reversal of to, so OT
Boy? Sid? Tom? Ken? Bob? Rob?
Ah...
ROB OT
The answer is ROBOT.
19A ALLEGRO Meaning happy in Italian
ReplyDelete6D ROB OT<
What has losing pounds got to do in 19A?
DeleteThink the definition is 'fast pace' meaning ALLEGRO a musical term. Me too not able to connect 'losing pounds'
DeleteL'Allegro = Italian for the happy man
Deletelosing pounds = losing L (L can be used for singular pound or plural pounds. When it is GBPsign it is one pound, when it is GBPsign2 it is two pounds.
When L is removed, we get allegro - which I think is 'fast pace' in music.
This is my thinking.
I recall Milton's poems L'Allegro and Il Penseroso (Note: it's capital I and lower case el. In the font that is in the text box it looks like the roman number the second)
DeleteThanks CV Sir. Your explanation above clears my doubt.
DeleteNice Puzzle....good mix of clues...
ReplyDeleteI wish to thank Col Deepak Gopinath for showcasing the talent among budding crossword setters in our country.
ReplyDeleteSome three years into solving I turned to setting. That was sometime in the early Seventies but those were the days when we did not have Internet and solcial networking.
If any budding setter were to try his work on someone, it can only be among relatives or friends. Often there may not be any interested among them.
(People may throw cold water on your work. When I mentioned to a relative that my puzzle was published in The Evening News of London, he said it was Christmas time when people in the UK were in holiday mood totally away from work and so my puzzle must have had a lucky chance.)
Sending the work to newspapers or magazines in India will often be a futile exercise because most of the were using cheap syndicated items even if they had a puzzle section. Years later when a paper started an original crossword it was by the entrenched panel members with outsiders having no chance to break in.
So people like us had to wait for years before our work saw the light of day.
If I got a chance, it was only because a friend, a former colleague, in charge of a Christian youth magazine from Madras, knowing my interest in the game, invited me to contribute cryptic on a regular basis. This was in the Seventies.
Later if puzzles appeared in The Telegraph and Sportsworld, again it was because of 'contacts' - not that I ingratiated myself into them and cultivated them consciously but just that as I was a journalist they existed.
Much later when I was on the staff of a certain paper organisation, it was more than a decade before I became a member of the crossword setters' panel of that paper.
Things are not attained by sudden flight.
By the time iI had opened the blog after solving this baby-steps puzzle-- good start--- all the clues were gobbled up. Shows that alacrity and celerity is the essence . If this is a fore-runner for the ICL 2015, as seen in the caption, we are in for a good time and stiff competition. What news of the ICL?Any one going to Calcutta? ahem KOL-Kat Ta ?
ReplyDeleteGood job Vachana !
Raju Umamaheshwar,
ReplyDeleteWhen you register for the IXL 2015, on completion of the form and uploading photo, you will be asked for the verification code.
Simultaneously, you will receive an SMS on your mobile giving the OTP (One Time Password) of 4 digits.
This has to be entered for the verification code. Then, the system will confirm that you have been registered successfully.
Hope this helps.
Thanks Venateshji. I have done this and am still waiting for the verification code. When? has anyone received ?
DeleteGood show, Vachana
ReplyDeleteNice one Vachana
ReplyDelete