Wednesday, 14 December 2016

No 11877, Wednesday 14 Dec 2016, Skulldugger


ACROSS
1   First admission at Victoria and Albert liable to be made free (9) AVAILABLE {Ad...n}{V}{A}{LIABLE*}
6   Extravagant advertisement for pastry (4) PUFF [DD]
8   Dangerous for college if leading original painters abandon pictorial representation (8) CRITICAL {C}{pICToRIAL}*
9   Scrutinise exercise stratagem (6) PERUSE {PE}{RUSE}
10 Delegation treacherous, titan perseveres (15) REPRESENTATIVES*
11 Digression from ideas I detailed (5) ASIDE [T]
13 Shafts "Special One" in Paris and smiles (8) SUNBEAMS {S}{UN}{BEAMS}
15 Match alternatives left for female contestants (8) LIGHTERS (-f+l)LIGHTERS
18 In recital, need trumpet (5) VAUNT (~want)
20 Archer's tactic is shattering marks (15) CHARACTERISTICS*
23 Engineer receiving advance gets suit (6) BECOME {BE}{COME}
24 Old fogey's building is around (8) DINOSAUR*
25 Shake pen (4) STIR [DD]
26 Revolutionary gentleman overwhelmed by distraught prudes lost for words (9) SURPRISED {SURP{RIS<=}ED*}

DOWN
1   Go along with eager insurgent (5) AGREE*
2   Modified treadle (7) ALTERED*
3   Clasps curls (5) LOCKS [DD]
4   Credits for columns beside rows (2-5) BY-LINES {BY}-{LINES}
5   Accounts find former flame unpretentious, simple initially (8) EXPLAINS {EX}{PLAIN}{Si...e}
6   Swinish policeman sent back to overcome resistance in Spain (7) PORCINE {PO{R}C<=}{IN}{E}
7   He might be working an angle! (9) FISHERMAN [CD]
12 Most paltry content in Maxwell's light estimates (9) SLIGHTEST [T]
14 Darjeeling and Assam, for instance, swamped with dear French instructors (8) TEACHERS {TEAS} over {CHER}
16 Protect port (7) HARBOUR [DD]
17 Small transmitter receives signal finally (7) SLENDER {S{s...aL}ENDER}
19 Musicians in Dire Straits (7) ARTISTS* &lit as well
21 Mental criminal decapitated (5) INNER sINNER
22 Can future university abide in hostile environment? (5) COULD {CO{U}LD}

GRID

15 comments:

  1. 15 Ac : Hindu print edition shows it as FIGHTERS, Sir!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Of course, LIGHTERS seems to be the correct answer.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 23 Engineer receiving advance gets suit (6) BECOME {BE}{COME}
    If 'receiving' is not a containment ind here, what is it called then, in this clue?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Superb xword!Loved the stirring wordplay..the two long ones were quite easy, they being anagrams, but had to work hard for others
    Special thanks to Col for sending the clues

    ReplyDelete
  5. Come for advance?
    13A- Needless apostrophe or should I say purposely misleading. Okay, when we talk about extra a, the, of etc.?
    The enu is
    S- special
    one in Paris- Un
    Smile- beam
    Then why club "Special one"?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Come = advance as in making progress
      Why club "special one"?I think just to throw us off track-a red herring

      Delete
    2. I thought go would be closer than come for advance.

      Delete
    3. e (1) : to advance toward accomplishment : come along (2) : to advance in a particular manner (3) : to advance, rise, or improve in rank or condition

      Delete
    4. Thank you Vasant- "sort of" convinced!

      Delete
  6. Too many anagrams, nine in all, partially and fully, six across and three down, made things easier to solve! Overall an entertaining puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It took time due to the Hindu paper's feature update problem today.
    Thanks to Col for timely assistance.
    The quick solve helped forget the difficulty. Thanks Skulldugger!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Didn't have to use any TREPAN for this CRANIOLOGIST's compilation. The 15 letter words were so easy, without having to use any anagram solver.!

    ReplyDelete

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