Wednesday 23 January 2019

No 12530, Wednesday 23 Jan 2019, Anon


ACROSS
1   Area of former enclosure (6) EXTENT {EX}{TENT}
4   Limit removed from skirts by commands (6) ORDERS bORDERS
9   Prima donna, eager, looks back (4) DIVA<=
10 Unfortunate weak book expert (10) LAMENTABLE {LAME}{NT}{ABLE}
11 Greek goddess, in those days, was in Armenia’s boundaries (6) ATHENA {Arme{THEN}niA}
12 Flowers for seamen on strike (8) ANEMONES*
13 Gold box of Sun god’s musical group (9) ORCHESTRA {OR}{CHEST}{RA}
15 Drive last carriage at station (5) CASTE {CAST}{c...gE}
16 Found out about crowd on the radio (5) HEARD (~herd)
18 Lady users affected without a doubt (9) ASSUREDLY*
22 Ancient writing system at first crass, homogeneous (8) CUNIFORM {Cr..s}{UNIFORM} The spelling should be CUNEIFORM
23 Passionate craftsmanship outside lair (6) ARDENT {AR{DEN}T}
25 Pagan menus reconstructed with gum (10) SANGAPENUM* Used an Anagram solver for this
26 Need riot in Shangri-La (4) EDEN*
27 Feels sorry for decapitated birds (6) EGRETS rEGRETS
28 Weird boy having better than even chance of winning (4-2) ODDS-ON {ODD}{SON}

DOWN
1   One who forces out last race winner (7) EVICTOR {racE}{VICTOR}
2   Feudal baron of Mumbai suburb (5) THANE [DD]
 New religious leaders, needing no introduction, at canals (7) NULLAHS {N}{mULLAHS}
5   At first, rage, ire of commando (6) RANGER {Rage}{ANGER}
6   Studied at Oriental research facility’s discourse (9) ELABORATE {E}{LAB}{ORATE}
7   Arresting foreigner in street corners (7) SALIENT {S{ALIEN}T}
8   Bans stammerer, resulting in shame (13) EMBARRASSMENT*
14 Sign of husband’s upturned undergarment in European nation (9) HARBINGER {H}{BRA<=}{IN}{GER}
17 Mimic bird belatedly (7) EMULATE {EMU}{LATE}
19 Without weapons, peacekeepers are inducting man, delinquents’ leader (7) UNARMED {UN}{AR{M}E}{De...t}
20 Light left aside, at first, for headless temp (7) LANTERN {L}{At}{iNTERN}
21 Little girl to shock darling (6) MOPPET {MOP}{PET}
24 Replace second stanza in songs with first line in fights (5) DUELS DUE(-t+l)LS

GRID

16 comments:

  1. 22a cuniform is accepted alternate spelling.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Definitely not accepted in Chambers/Collins. When the root of the word is cuneus, don't quite see how the alternate spelling can be acceptable, regardless of the fact that it may turn up in some internet search.
      From the orthopaedic point of view, if the 3 bones of the foot were referred to as Cuniform bones, it would certainly be considered incorrect!

      Delete
    2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20067146

      Delete
    3. https://archive.org/stream/chamberssetymolo00cham_0/chamberssetymolo00cham_0_djvu.txt

      Delete
    4. You seem to live on the internet...thanks but Ethiopian Med J is not exactly the Gold Standard. What I meant is you will not see it in a Textbook of Orthopaedics.

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    5. I hope you have not read any of those textbooks as well Prasad! :)
      I can almost visualise you entering a medical library to institute a search and come up with that one book to give validity to the word! :)

      Delete
    6. Well doc, I am an a small investor in one of those online medical consulting platforms (on the lines of webmd) out of blr.

      But my real interest is technology. Cuniform is a proposed format, as alternate to UTF, as an enabler of multilingual formats. That's how I knew the word.

      Delete
  2. The clue 11Ac for ATHENA was very innocuous. Liked it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 21d..........sweet child we can call it as moppet. today's clues seems to be new words. thanks to Anon.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Though the puzzle was not difficult found a few strange surfaces e.g. 10A,13A,22A(crass and homogenous?) 26A(thought you require peace in Shangri-la not riot!)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Go! I got it after 2hours struggle

    ReplyDelete
  6. Can 21d be also poppet - pop is more shock than mop

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But Moppet is closer to definition. So, in a Cryptic crossword Wordplay and definition are equally important.
      But your point is well taken and important

      Delete
    2. A shock of hair is known as a mop

      Delete

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