Monday 19 June 2017

No 12037, Monday 19 Jun 2017, Sunnet


ACROSS
1   Mould elsewhere expire in large numbers (3,3) DIE OFF {DIE} {OFF}
4   Drew attention to sister's plait and head regularly (8) STRESSED {S}{TRESS}{hEaD}
10 Reversal of measure to obliterate without force (5-4) VOLTE-FACE {VOLT}{EfFACE}
11 Chew a bit of camel's shoulder (5) CHUMP {Ca..l}{HUMP}
12 Half-hearted note to decline is sent back (5) TEPID {TE}{DIP<=}
13 Awareness of knight present on ridge (9) KNOWLEDGE {K}{NOW}{LEDGE}
14 Dropped boy at the end of old university (7) OMITTED {O}{MIT}{TED}
16 Tax responsibility (4) DUTY [DD]
19 Book of giving it away (4) GITA [T]
21 Reportedly swallows small fruits (7) BERRIES (~buries)
24 Special treatment for Carmine's rug (3-6) RED-CARPET {RED}-{CARPET}
25 Lake duck stops generating heat (5) TAHOE {O} in {HEAT}*
26 Join cell and point (5) UNITE {UNIT}{E}
27 Fancy revelries with attendants (9) RELIEVERS*
28 A smart use of opening (8) APERTURE {A}{PERT}{URE}
29 Strategic road builder takes New Zealand's low grade alloy (6) BRONZE {BRO}{NZ}{E}

DOWN
1   Commitment to back one inside county (8) DEVOTION {DEV{TO<=}{1}ON}
2   Measure police cadre's measurement system retrospectively... (8) ELLIPSIS {ELL}{IPS}{SI<=}
3   Pick up land (5) FIELD [DD]
5   Minimum support to initially establish control (7) TOEHOLD {TO}{Es...h}{HOLD}
6   Coal rates made one easier to take instead of a flight (9) ESCALATOR*
7   Muscle into ship's teams (6) SQUADS {S{QUAD}S}
8   Double cross after fall guy's left (6) DUPLEX {DUP{L}E}{X}
9   Journalist chasing money is evident (6) MARKED {MARK}{ED}
15 Al's one opponent in camp (9) TRIVALENT {T{RIVAL}ENT} Three Ones A,I,1 See comments
17 A film can be watched by you if you are past this (8) EIGHTEEN [CD]
18 Fool's an engineer and tax payer (8) ASSESSEE {ASSES}{SE}E Anno pending (Addendum - {ASS}{ESS}{EE} - See comments)
20 One who dreams of a steeple run (7) ASPIRER {A}{SPIRE}{R}
21 Daring answer for old fight (6) BATTLE B(-o+a)ATTLE
22 A host on radio — one with a warrior (6) ARJUNA {A}{RJ}{UN}{A}
23 Notice wrong recommendation (6) ADVICE {AD}{VICE}
25 It indicates possession by the Indian Railways (5) THEIR {THE}{IR}

GRID

28 comments:

  1. 15 Al's one opponent in camp (9) TRIVALENT {T{RIVAL}ENT} Three Ones A,I,1

    I felt the def referred to Aluminium's valency that's 3.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. l and 1 are always confusing in the blog font

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    2. No confusion in the print edition

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    3. Came across this clue in CCS by Manish Jhaveri
      Element represented in periodic table (9)

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    4. Aluminium from periodic tAbLe

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  2. Sunnet expounding on Gita.
    Loved 2D. Definition nicely done.
    17D again was a beautiful clue.
    Thanks Sunnet.

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  3. Yes, loved the simple def. of 17D.
    a doubt about 21D- How do we get bottle- from 'Daring'?

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  4. Is 'eigheen' (18 day war) also part of the theme?

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  5. Replies
    1. Well spotted. Expected from Sunnet, but did not notice.

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    2. Yes, Eighteen is part of the theme since Gita has 18 chapters.

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  6. 18d. If assess can mean a female ass and EE would be executive engineer

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  7. Thank you, Sunnet, for the Mahabharata touch.

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  8. Replies
    1. If it is 'Engineers' in stead of singular, it can be 2 SE's!

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  9. COL; I forgot to ask: In yesterday's Alpha-puzzle, when you gave the Acrosslite grid, alongside where numbers like !:!, 2:2 , 3:3, etc.What do they signify and where was the nee, to repeat the numbers, side by side? I wondered.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They signify nothing. I just put in the clue number there as clues could not be left blank while preparing the Across Lite text file

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    2. While preparing an Across Lite file (not for solving by any other person but just for a need of mine) I too have often cheated by putting in 'Rama' or some such word in every clue field to fulfil the requirement, instead of typing all the text involving a lot of keystrokes.That would finish the task that I wanted to do.

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    3. If they merely signified clue numbers , why not 1,2,3, etc instead of 1:! 2:" 3:£ etc ? It foxed me and I wondered they formed any additional instructions !

      CV: HA HA ! I'm reminded of a colleague of mine in Bombay, who used to annoy me by doing this in my blank grids with pen ( only erasers those days !) and even spilling outside the grid by letters as for him cryptic crosswords were arcane and it took me away from keeping company for his drinking sessions. He is alas no more !God bless his soul !

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  10. Nice theme from Sunnet today! Even "STRESSED" an ASPIRER (what Arjuna was in the beginning and what he became!) DIE OFF (the carnage in the war) can be part of the overall Mahabharatha theme :)
    For TRIVALENT, I think the def is "Al's one" (i.e. Aluminium is one - def by example)

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  11. The CBSE Cryptic Crossword Competition finals which was held in Dec last year is going to be telecast as a series for a week from today at 3 PM on DD National. Please watch.

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  12. Thanks for all the feedback folks
    For 18D, this is the anno I had in mind
    18 Fool's an engineer and tax payer (8) ASSESSEE
    Fool=Ass
    S=Ess
    An engineer EE
    And = Link Word
    Tax payer = Defn

    ReplyDelete
  13. I just completed this Sunnet and found a bit tough going. I liked 17 down - and 22 down immensely. Use of the letter A for an Adult certification and eighteen being the answer is rather clever cluing. Similarly, ARJUNA as a warrior is a typical Indian cryptic compiler's imaginative cluing. Hence , my contention that Indian compilers are leagues ahead of their counterparts elsewhere. Well done SUNNET

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