ACROSS
1 Black and white Greek character with a run out, to scour badly (11) CHIAROSCURO {CHI}{A}{RO}{SCOUR*} With some help from Google
9 French friend horribly nuts in front of a main disturbance (7) TSUNAMI {NUTS*}{AMI}
10 Fish possessed at harbour (7) HADDOCK {HAD}{DOCK}
12 Tear around lender's demand for what is due to him (9) REPAYMENT {RE{PAY ME}NT}
13 Staff hitting one small road after another (5) STAVE {ST}{AVE}
15 Doctor on First Street a scientist (9) PHYSICIST {PHYSIC}{1}{ST}
18 Content test is treated with contempt (9) SATISFIED {SAT}{IS}{FIED}
21 Regal rejected a tavern choice (5) LAGER <=
22 Two cricket fielders under the microscope? (5,4) COVER SLIP {COVER} {SLIP}
26 Make bad cutback with instrument (7) POLLUTE {POL<=}{LUTE}
27 When back, custom is to have meat product (7) SAUSAGE {SA<=}{USAGE}
28 Spread rumours, resulting in a dust-up? (4,3,4) DISH THE DIRT [C&DD]
DOWN
1 Tom is passing over SHAR's fresh purge (9) CATHARSIS {CAT}{SHAR*}{IS}
2 Condition to take cover without a bit of security (5) INURE IN
3 Forward, perhaps, on speech (9) READDRESS {RE}{ADDRESS}
4 Under disturbance, half-a-rupee laid out for foothold of a sort (7) STIRRUP {STIR}{R
5 One from France, by chance, in vacant Pondy, is sad (7) UNHAPPY {UN}{HAP}{P
6 In a strange manner, bod idly missed primaries (5) ODDLY {
7 Great tie — wrong knit (8) TOWERING*
8 Mini-play in second gear (4) SKIT {S}{KIT}
14 Man goes after fourth part of play with genuine effort (8) ACTIVELY {ACT}{IV}{ELY}
16 Disagreeable disposition caused by 19? (3,6) ILL NATURE [CD]
17 Raging, old city animal cut short in circus setting (9) TURBULENT {T{UR}{BUL
19 Complaint? I will take Sen's exposition (7) ILLNESS {I'LL}{SENS*}
20 Be seated below silly dope's place (7) DEPOSIT {DOPE*}{SIT}
22 That's the wear for work in church (4) COPE {C{OP}E} &lit
25 I, artist, to question one Baghdad native (5) IRAQI {I}{RA}{Q}{1}
Readers of a certain age will remember that The Illustrated Weekly of India had an art column by the title 'Chiaroscuro' written by A S Raman. Still earlier C R Mandy had a column by name Charivari, if I remember right.
ReplyDeleteHave a gander at this ... From Vinod, also, Raman ...
Deletehttp://chiaroscurism.blogspot.in/
Thank you for bringing back memories of the Illustrated Weekly. AS Raman was a culture vulture heavily into classical dances and undoubtedly a big yawn. Thank God Khuswant Singh came on.
DeleteThough I am one of the 'readers of a certain age', I only vaguely (after it is mentioned) remember the column.Just that it is a familiar word. I could not really place it.
ReplyDeleteHad to work hard today to get a few but enjoyed every bit of it. Came up short for pollute and put in scale for stave. happy to meet Prof. haddock!
A question to solvers
ReplyDeleteIn 16dn and 19 dn the letter string ILL is repeated.
Generally when we setters populate a grid with words we keep certain principles in mind - not to repeat a letter string within a single grid.
The repetition will become clear only when we go looking for any repetition. When we notice it, we often change an entry to remove the repetition. But sometimes the letter configuration might not allow a change unless you alter a whole lot of contiguous grid entries. At that time the setter may consciously allow the repetition and might link the clues for the two entries as has been done here.
My question is: do you as a solver notice the repetition of a letter string? Does that bother you too much? Would you think that the crossword is terrible?
Yes, I had a question mark in my mind about the repetition though they are connected. In the sense, I was wondering if I may be wrong. But far from....whatever the word.
DeleteYes I do notice a repetition of a letter string, but it does not bother me too much neither does it make the CW horrible or terrible.
DeleteOne does notice it & once having got 19D 1st you unconsciously say to yourself that 16D wouldnt have ill in it but on the other hand the clues are interconnected & seems logical to have "ill" in both of them!
Delete& these wouldnt make the puzzle "terrible"..the puzzle was brilliant!
yes of course noticed the repetition.. would not say it makes the puzzle terrible but I would have liked something else :) unless u were going for some theme .. which reminds me .. i see a glimmering of a theme but not enough to put em under one word.. :)
DeleteThe repetition did not bother me.
DeleteWhat bothered me, though was ELY to be derived from man. Thought it was a bit vague and the type of reference I do not enjoy.
It makes it .... f"ILL"able
DeleteI too noticed but it didn't bother me. But I filled in ILL MANNER for ILL NATURE and got stuck.
DeleteThough it had to be 'Coverslip' with crossings and cricket, I had to look up the dic, to get the meaning. Liked Stirrup,Haddock, Repayment, Turbulent to name a few.
ReplyDeleteLoved this 11 letter grid puzzle... 1A,10A,22A,28A..et al...a 7D creation
ReplyDeleteCould 15A have been clued like this, "Doctor,first a scientist"(9)?
was a bit distracted today as i solved so took a lil longer but was generally familiar.. had to pause at Cope.. since had no idea it was a garment :) but filled it in correctly..Gridman ji i think in a 17d mood? :) hee hee anyway thanks for the samosas..
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of the Captain on the HADDOCK clue.
ReplyDeleteThundering typhoons and blistering barnacles must be common in Vizag
DeleteI've even seen a chappie from those parts with a Rastapopolus hairstyle :)
DeleteNever seen anybody with that hairstyle.
DeleteWonder how a barnacle looks like
But I have seen a pointy-haired boss around these parts
DeleteTin Tin does not have pictures of Barnacles- only "Blistering Barnacles'-thrown around? Interesting ly, I came to know about Barnacles, blistering or not, only after reading Tin Tin.
DeletePut ACTIVISM in the place of ACTIVELY and lost on POLLUTE. Enjoyed solving the rest.
ReplyDeleteSee comments of an old commenter, Veer Dhandpani, who is appearing after a number of days, in yesterdays post.
ReplyDeleteInteresting Col. in more ways than one. He talks about 1,00,000 th visitor to the blog. He must have been one of the earliest bloggers when most of us may not have known about it.
ReplyDeleteYes he's not been seen for a few years now. His details are there in the THCC Members page at the link above
DeleteDetails about Veer Dhandapani is appearing in THCC Members link.
DeleteIn some cases, I am getting the word first, and then I am trying to analyze how it is fitting into the clue. Reverse process of solving a cryptic crossword. For example,adieu. Farewell itself is enough to give out the word and the clue becomes redundant. This happrns when the simple synonym look up can do the job more quickly than to put together all the clues and then have a eureka moment when the word is finally worked out. In my opinion, the unwritten rule that the solution word is the synonym of the first or the last word of the clue, in itself is the biggest clue, which is making the puzzle a little less cryptic.
ReplyDeleteThis happens all the time to all solvers. In some cases you get the solution first and then figure out the anno. In some cases it is the other way around. Nothing unususl about it.
DeleteInteresting write up. Distance (and of course time zone) keeps him away obviously. Thanks to e mail, for the contact.
ReplyDeleteJust because the crossword is an English language puzzle, is it proper to make it intentionally non-Indian? Often the clues are about churches, priests, their dresses, saints and sound very native to the UK and in some cases the USA. Can't it be done keeping Indians and the things that they can relate to, in mind? Of course, I am secular and not speaking about religion at all, but only requesting to "Indianize" the puzzle a bit more.
ReplyDeleteThC is very much Indianised these days, if you look carefully. Far from other syndicated CW's.
ReplyDeleteI shall answer the two questions raised by Unknown (I will be happy if he comes out of the shadows and becomes known to us). As for me, Chaturvasi is a pseudonym but I am also known by another pseudonym and real name.)
ReplyDeleteFirst, take the statement 'Just because the crossword is an English language puzzle, is it proper to make it intentionally non-Indian?'.
No THC setter makes his crossword 'intentionally non-Indian'. It is English language crossword and most of the times word breakups will allow only treatment with words from that language.
THC in in its beginning years - I would even say decades - had little Indianness about it. With justifiable pride I would say that it was I who first encouraged setters to impart Indianness and later when I became a setter myself I used it in many clues and introduced Indian words in gridfills as well. Following me others in recent years have been doing it increasingly.
At the same time all are aware that it must not be overdone. The motto must be - if there is a chance of adding an Indian flavour, go for it. In the past, other setters, notably Sankalak, had the Indian touch.
In this context let me repeat what I have said before. However much we try, the crosswords that we create will miss the wholesome British flavour that crosswords published in the UK inevitably have. In that sense our crosswords will be Indian.
In my opinion no crossword set by us is too English. It can never be.
English is english. I don't think any of the setters of the Hindu are intentionally making it non-Indian, though I do not know what non-Indian would mean when talking about the english language. Churches, priest and their dresses are there in India as well. I can understand if Unknown is referring to clues which use obscure english rivers, towns and states of the US, however there is no harm in using them to a limited extent. Setters of the CWs in The Hindu are all Indians and they definitely use words which have an Indian flavour, you cannot totally do away with foreign references for example even French, German and Spansih references are used. We should be open to all references as long as they are not too obscure
DeleteYes. And then North Indian and South Indian flavours.Enjoy the bright moments of the day and leave it at that.
DeleteI filled in 14D with fourth (iv) part of play (act) and filled in ely based on with genuine effort. But, what gives ELY? Could some one explain? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteEly=Man(a man's name)
DeleteThank you. I thought so too. But, I was not sure.
DeleteAs for the other question: In some cases, I am getting the word first, and then I am trying to analyse how it is fitting into the clue. Reverse process of solving a cryptic crossword.
ReplyDelete---
Nothing wrong. It is natural too.
In a typical 'quick',you may have different choices. Faced with Scheme (4) you have PLOT, PLAN ... Your placement of the answer is delayed until you get a crossing or two.
The very nature of a cryptic clue is to give you a def (Scheme) and also subsidiary indication that eliminates all other choices except the intended answer.
A good crossword clue may give you a disguised definition that doesn't suggest the answer until you have also worked out the components given in SI.
If you say the definitions of many clues even in my crosswords are rather straightforward and they are not as well concealed as they might be, I might agree. This makes the crossword easy.
Reverse engineering is quite natural generally when most of the crossings are in the word just leaps into your mind without even looking at the clue. It has happened to me at the IXL-13 finals where I had the word even before the clue came up
DeleteIf the definition is a description like bird or fish, and not a synonym, one would have a few 5housand choices. Even after considering the enu, it would be still a pretty long list, further pared down by the crossings. In such cases, unless one is looking up a list, word play takes you there faster
DeleteI think Sowndararajan uses the phrase 'chain clueing' for the clue type that is generally known by various terms such as charade, combination, word after word, etc. I like his coinage.
ReplyDeleteThanks everybody for your informative responses, you are all beautiful people with sharp intellects. I would like to know one more thing. What does the word samosa mean as used in this blog?
ReplyDeleteThere was this absolute darling of this blog, who does not visit here anymore, who would 'shriek' everytime there was a more difficult cw which she could not make much progress with workd like 'Terrible', 'horrible' etc.
DeleteThen there was this day there was an easy crossword which she completed and came up with an elated comment. " All done. Now time to go and have a coffee with samosas"/
So samosas have come to mean an easy crossword.
Not just an easy CW, but fully completed one, which for a few of us is still a not so regular event and hence a thrill. There have been easy days with 1/2 words which I could not get and so a miss/
Delete