Wednesday 7 March 2018

No 12258, Wednesday 07 Mar 2018, xChequer


Answer and Anno for 11A left for a first-time commenter till 10AM.

ACROSS
7   He or she died? On the contrary, at home, secure (6) OBTAIN {OB}{AT<=}{IN}
 Shopping arcade, one in large complex stocking nearly everything (8) GALLERIA {1} in {LARGE}* over {ALl}
9   Spoilt brat losing head, never showing a bit of spine (8) VERTEBRA {BRAT+nEVER}*
10 Work with energy, keep employing force (6) EFFORT {E}{F{F}ORT}
11 Inspired by courage, edging in next to bear (5) ?T?N? (Addendum - STAND - {S{nexT}AND} - See comments)
12 Farmer's a sucker? (6) TILLER [DD]
14 Hurt wolf gaining ground, easy pickings (3-7,5) LOW-HANGING FRUIT*
17 When appeal in world body backfired, returns capital (6) NASSAU {AS}{SA} in {UN<=}
18 When deduced, case closed (5) ENDED [T]
22 One that terrifies sister in charge of ward (6) SCARER {S}{CARER}
23 No chum is suspicious to that extent (8) INSOMUCH*
24 Mr. Fixit's help worried many (8) HANDYMAN {HAND}{MANY*}
25 Water reservoir housed on ground (1,5) A TERRE [T] Couldn't find a link to this. Could only get 'pied-a-terre' See comments

DOWN
1   Protest new notice after job's done (9) OBJECTION {JOB}*{NOTICE}*
2   Rash desire, nothing new (6) WANTON {WANT}{O}{N}
3   Aristocrats in conversation — they can open doors (5) KNOBS (~nobs)
4   Cleanliness award for beach having low standard? (4,4) BLUE FLAG {BLUE}{FLAG}
Blaue Flagge 2007.jpg
By Roberta F., CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
5   Jack's fears are strange (8) SEAFARER*
6   Lie on wool, say (5) FIBRE {FIB}{RE}
8   Girl, initially one in fanatic trio, dancing for pleasure (13) GRATIFICATION {G}{FANATIC+TRIO} over {1}
13 Two of such in 10, essence of one such in 15 (4,5) FIVE SCORE {FIVES}{CORE}
15 Thugs instilling fear, having sacked area for centuries (8) HUNDREDS {HUN{DREaD}S}
16 Pet political remedies, in no way strange, ending in chaos (8) NOSTRUMS {NO}{ST}{RUM}{c..oS}
19 You may sing this? No. (6) NUMBER [DD]
20 Substitute for entrance exam about to be set up (3,2) ACT AS {SAT}{CA}<=
21 Pub shut, all staggered as expected (5) USUAL {pUb+ShUt+AlL}

GRID

21 comments:

  1. 25 Water reservoir housed on ground (1,5) A TERRE [T]

    http://www.dictionary.com/browse/a-terre: 1. on the ground.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Raghu, at the above link it says that there are no results for a-terre on the ground?

      Delete
    2. à terre
      [French a ter]
      Spell Syllables
      Word Origin
      adverb, Ballet.
      1.
      on the ground.

      Delete
    3. Only select http://www.dictionary.com/browse/a-terre. Not the whole sentence ;-)

      Delete
  2. 11a: stand - sand(courage)+t(edg....of next)
    (t inspired by sand)

    ReplyDelete
  3. à-terre in Fr, as you can guess from 'terrestrial', is on earth or ground.
    pied is foot, I think.
    Literally pied-à-terre means, as you know, a foot-hold or a temporary shelter

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just terre in french is ground. Where does the A come from?

      Delete
    2. A-terre is a ballet term, meaning 'on the ground'
      http://www.balletterms.net/a-terre

      Delete
    3. It is a preposition meaning on

      Delete
  4. 4d, 19d... many clues to love and admire... clue craftsmanship.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Came back to doing crosswords after a two day hiatus. Found this a lot easier and most enjoyable.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The hungry fox

    One day a fox was very hungry and wanted to somehow OBTAIN something to eat.
    Nothing can be got without EFFORT. So it started slowly moving in search of some food and just didn't STAND rooted in one place.
    IN SO MUCH as it was tired, it saw a garden of grapes at a distance. It dreamt of eating HUNDREDS (FIVE SCORE or C's or whatever the NUMBER) of sweet grapes.The search had ENDED.
    But alas! There were no LOW-HANGING FRUIT! The fox jumped several times in vain to get a few grapes at least. But GRATIFICATION was not to happen.
    Let this story not ACT AS an example for us with the USUAL excuse that the grapes are sour. Men can find other ways like hitting the fruit with a pole!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Fruits were def. reachable today!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Two of xChequer most enjoyable and easier than his usual

    ReplyDelete
  9. Deepak sir,

    21d. pl.let me know ....why can't be the word evenly instead of staggered?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Staggered sounds better in the clue. If you substitute it with evenly it would read pub shut all evenly as expected, which does not make any sense on the surface reading.

    From the cryptic angle 'staggered' is used in the sense of alternating periods like shift workers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't pub & staggering and together? Makes a superb surface,in my opinion.

      Delete
  11. Back on track after completing the backlogs of Monday & Tuesday puzzles.Both the puzzles were enjoyable. Anon's had a few new words while XChequer's was like today's-most entertaining!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Both yesterday's and today's grids from Bhala were very enjoyable - relatively easier too :) Had fun solving them.

    ReplyDelete

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