Sunday 13 September 2015

Special, Sunday 13 Sep 2015, Vachana


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.

38 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Debasmita the quota is 2 per head, luckily two have already been solved so you can take one more

      Delete
    2. Sorry missed the note. Not compensating for the ones already done

      Delete
  2. 11A:OCTET(OCT+ET)
    12A:OPENER DD

    ReplyDelete
  3. 1A. View finder CD
    10a. Raiders CD

    ReplyDelete
  4. 22a NO IFS (CD)
    7d MYSTERIOUS (yum stories)*

    Nice double duty by puzzling in 7d! Thanks for the puzzle and the witty clues, Vachana.

    ReplyDelete
  5. For 22ac replacement
    8ac : ABODE {A}{B}{ODE}

    ReplyDelete
  6. 5 No domestic help backing daughter's shape (7) - DIAMOND {NO MAID}<< + D, def = shape
    13 Selfish journey? (3,4) EGO TRIP (CD)

    ReplyDelete
  7. My 2
    4D - {1}{M}{POST}
    9A - {PLAY}{BOY}

    ReplyDelete
  8. Simple and elegant debut puzzle. Enjoyed solving it. Thank you Vachana. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Making up for the two already answered..
    4D: IMPOST(I)(M)(POST)
    20A:LINEN:(LENIN)*

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why 2? Your OPENER at 10:43 was not taken earlier

      Delete
    2. Apologies Col...Didnt notice..was cold solving & from my cell phone...

      Delete
  10. 15D TAGLINE {GELATIN}*
    16D LAPSED {LAPS}{ED}

    ReplyDelete
  11. 23 Acrobat // raced, prone to swaying smartly (4,6) ROPE DANCER*

    DOWN)
    7 Puzzling // yum stories (10) MYSTERIOUS*

    ReplyDelete
  12. 2Dn (IDOL)(IS)([-ther]E)
    8Dn AIR HOSTESS (CD)

    ReplyDelete
  13. 14A > EDITOR(T)
    3 D > WHERE (W)(H)(ERE)

    ReplyDelete
  14. 6 Boy to throw up machine (5)
    '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.

    ReplyDelete
  15. 19A ALLEGRO Meaning happy in Italian
    6D ROB OT<

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What has losing pounds got to do in 19A?

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    2. Think the definition is 'fast pace' meaning ALLEGRO a musical term. Me too not able to connect 'losing pounds'

      Delete
    3. L'Allegro = Italian for the happy man
      losing 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.

      Delete
    4. 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)

      Delete
    5. Thanks CV Sir. Your explanation above clears my doubt.

      Delete
  16. Nice Puzzle....good mix of clues...

    ReplyDelete
  17. I wish to thank Col Deepak Gopinath for showcasing the talent among budding crossword setters in our country.

    Some 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.

    ReplyDelete
  18. 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 ?

    Good job Vachana !

    ReplyDelete
  19. Raju Umamaheshwar,
    When 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Venateshji. I have done this and am still waiting for the verification code. When? has anyone received ?

      Delete

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