Satyen Nabar's Sun Spl analysed

▼

Saturday, 30 December 2017

No 12202, Saturday 30 Dec 2017, Anon

Across

1. Cambrian Jewish scholar initially tastes dish (5,6) WELSH RABBIT {WESLH} {RABBI}{Tastes}
9. Lac oozing in tree is cane syrup? (7)  TREACLE {TRE{LAC*}E}
10. Bit of nitrogen injected into quartz by paternal relative (6) AGNATE {AG{Nitrogen}ATE}
11. Portraits of criminal trapped in regular bins (5) ICONS {bI{CON}nS}
12. Disciple starts studying to undermine disdainful specialist (7) STUDENT {Studying}{To}{Undermine}{Disdainful}{ENT}
15. Starts brewing English Earl’s regular drink (4)  BEER (Acrostic)
16. In a riot, torch seams of ancient garments (10) STOMACHERS {TORCH+SEAMS}*
18. Bind criminal, demand removal of two ultras (10) CONSTIPATE {CON}[STIPulATE}
20. Place deputy, driving out lodger (4) LIEU {LIEUtenant}
23. Garment, torn, unsightly oddly lacking what? (7) LUNGYIS {UNSIGhtLY}*
24. Delight around bar (5) REVEL <=
26. Father’s reach cut short by knife (6) PARANG {PA}{RANGe}

27. Gin cocktail in lodges during batting sessions (7) INNINGS {INN{GIN*}S}
28. Embodiment of South American tribe starts residing at state (11) INCARNATION {INCA}{Residing}{NATION}

Down

2. Too much antique tax (6) EXCESS {EX}{CESS}
3. Looks the same either way (4) SEES <=>
4. Tries again to stem pet rat’s wanderings (10) REATTEMPTS {STEM+PET+RAT}*
5. Dish for newly married man (8) BENEDICT  (DD)
6. Violent in present, past, or future, say (7) INTENSE {IN}{TENSE}
7. Gesture past beer mug of American author (9) STEINBECK {BECK} after {STEIN}
8. Give from Spanish ballot (6) DEVOTE {DE}{VOTE}
13. Interfering, dealing with pining pets (8,2) STEPPING IN {PINING+PETS}*
14. Not having children is problem? Not so much (9) ISSUELESS {ISSUE}{LESS}
17. Wounded pragmatist leaves park oddly with marks (8) STIGMATA {prAGMATIST}*
19. American mathematician to name nun’s novel (7) NEUMANN {NAME+NUN}*
21. At home, pour out make up (6) INVENT {IN}{VENT}
22. Spanish general started fishing, managed firm (6) FRANCO {Fishing}{RAN}CO}
25. Roti torn to pieces in fight (4) RIOT {ROTI*}

Grid
at

25 comments:

  1. KARTHIK30 December 2017 at 08:50

    For rookies like me today's crossword by Anon was pleasant to solve. First time could get all the words in The Hindu Crossword

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ramki Krishnan30 December 2017 at 08:52

    Quite a few uncommon words for me today - thanks for the interesting grid, Anon! AGNATE, WELSH RABBIT, STOMACHERS were all solvable from wp and crossing letters.
    Got stuck in LUNGYIS - couple of doubts. a) Def should be Garments (plural) b) wordplay leads to UNSIGHTLY* - WA (oddly lacking in WhAt?) - HT are the even letters. What am I missing?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. sree_sree30 December 2017 at 08:56

      Oddly(regularly) has been even for long in THC. Torn is aanag indicator. Whether it should come after what or is it setter licensed is my doubt. Same with wounded in 17d.

      Delete
    2. sree_sree30 December 2017 at 08:59

      Garment is(also, usually) plural

      Delete
    3. Vasant30 December 2017 at 10:52

      My doubt was on the spelling..I had always written it as lungi!

      Delete
    4. Vasant30 December 2017 at 10:55

      There were a couple of Proper nouns too..The crackjaw mathematician and the beer mugged author but fairly clued as Ramki said.

      Delete
  3. KARTHIK30 December 2017 at 09:04

    A suggestion from rookie;
    Declare a month for rookies;
    Give simple and interesting grid like this for few days gradually increasing complexity;
    All rookies can learn fast of solving THC grids and maybe few might also become Gridman, Sunday, Sankalak, Arden and the like

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deepak Gopinath30 December 2017 at 19:15

      That is not a feasible proposition. One has to take the easy with the hard to become a good solver

      Delete
  4. Chaturvasi30 December 2017 at 09:08

    I think the convention is/should be...
    In oddly pick up/delet letters clues, letters 1,3,5 etc should suffer.
    In evenly, letters 2.4,6...
    regularly - any of the above.

    Don't know if I have broken this rule, if it is a rule. I may have... can't remember.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Suresh30 December 2017 at 12:43

      Right there. Some setters have been flouting it, I cannot recall who.

      Delete
  5. Mona Sogal30 December 2017 at 09:56

    Nice grid. Smooth :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. C.G. BHARGAV30 December 2017 at 11:43

    THE MOON IS DOWN.

    The moon was seen down the sky.
    Vicky stopped on the step. Ping in his phone can wait. Pa rang up to tell him...
    Let us go to the hotel near the seas to celebrate. It is today decorated in Carnations.

    Jonny Lever's back. No lew(d) dances.
    Movie which is to be screened is THE STING. Let us be, er go there. You can have your Rum in X's.
    The best thing is no ticket issue. Less said the better about that.
    As they reach the gates Vinod the stud
    enters.Soon more, in tens, in scores join the crowd.
    As SRK enters the song changes and the riot continues with lungyis distributed among the devoted fans.

    ReplyDelete
  7. C.G. BHARGAV30 December 2017 at 11:55

    Some solutions in an indirect way. Some as homophones. My count is 16.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Padmanabhan30 December 2017 at 13:01

      Franco, Icon (SRK) could have found a place.
      Dancing in lung(y)is?

      Delete
    2. C.G. BHARGAV30 December 2017 at 14:10

      The reference is to the lunghi dance song of course ( film: Chennai Express)

      Delete
  8. uryazhs30 December 2017 at 12:16

    Solved 14 today without help..

    ReplyDelete
  9. Padmanabhan30 December 2017 at 12:56

    Full completion is not far off.

    ReplyDelete
  10. PKPSwami30 December 2017 at 13:34

    Really amotivating type of puzzle especially for novice like us thanks to apt clues.Even words not in our passive vocab.easy to come by eg.26A,27&8D. To sum up our experience, a stroll in the park. Thanks Anon.

    ReplyDelete
  11. PKPSwami30 December 2017 at 13:40

    Typo.for 27 read as 22D.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Deepak Gopinath30 December 2017 at 16:17

    To my mind 15A is not an acrostic

    Starts brewing = B
    English = E
    Earl’s regular = E(-a)R(-l)
    drink - {B(-rewing)}{E}{E(-a)R(-l)} = BEER

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Vasant30 December 2017 at 17:32

      Wouldnt Starts and not start give it as an acrostic?

      Delete
  13. Padmanabhan30 December 2017 at 17:23

    This seems to be better than taking R from Regular.
    But the question remains whether the setter meant 'starts' to be only for brewing or as an acrostic indicator.

    ReplyDelete
  14. C.G. BHARGAV30 December 2017 at 17:48

    Perhaps a rare instance of a clue which lends itself to two different parsings.
    One incidental and the other coincidental....

    ReplyDelete

deepakgita@gmail.com