ACROSS
1 Oaf’s hair cut oddly in country (5,6) SOUTH AFRICA*
10 Look up to Bill in difficulties (6) ADMIRE {AD}{MIRE}
11 Experiment with case (5) TRIAL [DD]
12 Alien leaves, blows up gifts (7) DONATES D
15 Install end to end bundle (4) LOTS (-s)LOT(+s)S
16 United Nations, in chaos, declines those lacking official approval (10) UNLICENSED {UN}{DECLINES*}
18 Frightened by wound, journalist’s not at home (6,4) SCARED AWAY {SCAR}{ED} {AWAY}
20 Suppress Oriental curse (4) BANE {BAN}{E}
23 Weigh half of North African at toll (7) LIBRATE {LIB
24 Argue when left out from air travel (5) FIGHT F
26 Remove last bit from cocktail for Italian poet (6) MARINI MAR
27 Turkish hostels built from broken minarets, missing bit of neatness (7) IMARETS MI
28 Those who rent out revile sages mercilessly (5,6) LEASE GIVERS*
DOWN
2 Prophet first off boat (6) ORACLE
3 Bound to abnormal diet (4) TIED*
4 Doctor’s acclamation (lacks bit of caution) of body structure (10) ANATOMICAL AC
5 Aries summons, goes berserk (8) RAMPAGES {RAM}{PAGES}
6 Rugs for dear in vehicles (7) CARPETS {CAR{PET}S}
7 Allow Caucasian to record (9) WHITELIST {WHITE}{LIST}
8 Help fool regularly in situ (6) ASSIST {ASS}{I
13 Peacekeepers notice object during excavation (10) UNEARTHING {UN}{EAR}{THING}
14 Promote, bring it back from within counter (9) ADVERTISE {ADVER{IT<=}SE}
17 Abstains from choruses (8) REFRAINS [DD]
19 Clipped Adelaide-made instrument (7) ALIDADE ADELAID
22 Regular half of carnival operation (6) AFFAIR {
25 Leaders kept inventing electric vehicles in European capital (4) KIEV Acrostic
Reference List
Bill = AD, Journalist = ED, Oriental = E, Left = L, Right = R,
The BANE of SOUTH AFRICA is the UNLICENSED UNEARTHING of LOTS of gold and diamonds. The government has a WHITELIST of companies allowed to prospect, but REFRAINS from ADVERTISing it in the media. So, MARINI Kashchenko, an unscrupulous operator from the far away KIEV, Ukraine, was able to obtain a property from some LEASE GIVERS for a song and his men RAMPAGED the place looking for gold. They weren't SCARED AWAY even when an ORACLE from a nearby kraal predicted their doom and tried stopping them from digging. The whole AFFAIR became murky when the diggers stumbled upon the ANATOMICAL remains of a long dead Zulu man. The investigative media got to the bottom of the matter and found out that the dead man had had a FIGHT with the oracle about his charlatan practices. The oracle had taken him HOSTAGE and when his family refused to pay, with able ASSIST from his sidekicks, he TIED the dissenter up, wrapped him in CARPETS and had buried him alive. The oracle was brought to TRIAL but he was exonerated (you got to ADMIRE his hold over the vilagers) as no one came forward to give evidence. The experience of finding a corpse instead of gold was too much for even one as hardened as Kashchenko. He DONATEd the land to build a school for the village kids.
ReplyDeleteNice Tale, Doc!
Delete🙏🙏
DeleteDoctor, Your story reminder me Deadman's "chest" in Pirates movie
DeleteRocking as usual......nice one RKE!!!
DeleteThanks all
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DeleteHow to fill this puzzle? I'm from telangana, trying to learn english but to find one word also I fail. What do I need to fill this?? !! Can anyone please suggest me som
DeleteSandi. Good to know you are keen to solve crosswords.
DeleteKeep seeing the answers given daily and compare it with your understanding of interpretation
Also see the reference list for codes regularly used by setters.
Look at the left-hand side of this blog for clue types.
Once you get through this process we are sure you will be good solver in month's time.
Good luck
Col, I appreciate your efforts in going online on time, as always, despite your overseas travel.
ReplyDelete+1
Delete+2
Delete+3
Delete+4
Delete+5
Delete+6
DeleteThnk you all
DeleteLate in appreciating Col.'s call of duty. Habit never fails. You can even do things in absentia like Cv's chipping in for you with the Sunday Special.
DeleteJust logged in.
Crossword/Foreign news page was in a single sheet. Very easy and light to do the puzzle. Wish TH do the same whenever cut sheet is there in the publication.
ReplyDeleteThe Crossword is always on World page. Whether that page is a single sheet or not depends on the total page level of the day's paper and whether it's an odd number or even.
ReplyDeleteMy memory goes back to 80s when the grid was on the last page {top left}. I used to cut that portion for mobility.
DeleteMy family members used to ridicule me those days {as I straightaway go to the last page and look at the grid} for not bothering about the political situation
I too did the same way. every day I cut the CW grid by scale and went to factory where we use to chat with BITS -Pilani guys who are too keen for CW in the year 1994-96
DeleteKKR: You go a long way in solving crosswords. I started doing them fairly recently-2009.
DeleteProbably we both started at the same age?{if we minus the age gap}
DeleteI remember the days in 80s when The Hindu crossword puzzle appeared in the last page with religious discourse next to it. Also it was not a daily affair. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays only.
DeleteThose were the days when I used to think the words in crossword were in the paper (as in the same day paper). Had no clue of any grammar of solving. Just an initiative "this could be it". So ofcourse never really completed any.
DeleteKKR at 13:08: I don't think you are that old nor me that young. I think I really started late.
DeleteThat reminds, isn't it time for KKR ji ka setter profile on the blog.
DeletePrasad:+1
DeleteIt appeared three days in a week as stated above for some years when there was a shortage of newsprint because of restriction on imports and perhaps shortage in domestic production. The page level was reduced. Today the Sunday edition of a paper has 50 plus pages. But look at the comic strips they use. You can't read the text in the bubbles. Such is consumerist, advertorial, constructional, filmi and eventful supplements
ReplyDeleteVery much true. The Hindu paper was considered to be elite {in my area} and it's subscribers were less compared to IExp. IE paper's reporters {or the print section} was said to be callous as they abruptly close a report (probably due to column limitations). IE was quick to report big breaking news while TH used to follow wait-and-see policy.
DeleteMy first fight as president (I was the first batch of the govt college) of Jr college was to get TH into college library. It was so elite but was also the first advise to learn English and a must for civils aspirants.
DeleteAll in all,Th today is in a pathetic state compared to its glory days when they were the first airlift copies (internet,teleprinter etc. were not up) in their OWN plane to Coimbatore (and also probably to Bangalore) CV to confirm.
DeleteI have such old cuttings still to be solved !
ReplyDeleteWhat could be the percentage of solvers vis- a -vis the total readership ?
As the Hindu publishers do not care about the solvers, the number must have dwindled.
My humble estimate is 1% of any paper's circulation
DeleteRaju,
DeleteWhy don't you copies of a few to Col. for Sunday Specials> Most of us may not have solved them.
I volunteer to get them done in xl/PDF or even pure online html.
DeleteLove this exercise Prasad!
DeleteThat sounds good. Look forward to solving the old puzzles
DeleteI see today's mood is nostalgic.
ReplyDeleteSang air differently for Indian violin (7)
This was a clue from THC in the early 80's, which my elder brother asked me one day as he was solving. I got the answer more because I was well up on music and had never tried crosswords before. But that kindled my interest
Sarangi. Perhaps set by Admiral Ramdas, the 1st Hindu setter.
DeleteMy database has three clues for SARANGI that I wrote for THC over the years.
Delete1. Is a Gran playing the musical instrument? (7) (8787)
2. Is Ranga playing the instrument? (7) (7950)
3. Musical instrument to play "in" ragas? (7) (7556)
Don't know what I wI will do when the word crops up in a future puzzle.
Interestingly CV Sir all three clues are anagrams.perhaps a different Wordplay next time, a charade, a hidden word, etc?
DeleteSouth Africa called India for musical instrument (7)
DeleteRaga is northern musical instrument.
DeleteThe Hindu has a committed readership, it is said. Up till late 1980s the paper used to come to Vizag by Howrah Mail from Madras and used to be delivered only in the evening. On a particular day if the train was late we used get it the next day. We never complained but waited.
ReplyDeleteI distinctly remember copies of TH were sent by a hired car at around midnight for delivery to various towns en route to Neyveli (probably they had a larger readership there after the mines and power plant) I lived in Tindivanam,close to Villupuram, and used to get copies at crack of dawn.
DeleteIt was universal practice those days, till 2002-3 I think. Those delivery vehicles were fastest transport from hyd to nellore (my hometown) even with all the detours to delivery points. Got myself a presscard just to travel in those vehicles.
DeleteI never knew that the papers had different headlines depending upon the city. Once I had travelled from Hyd to my hometown. I compared casually the paper i brought from hyd with one locally and the headlines were totally different. I enquired with my paper guy who was my eldest brother's close friend. He enquired about this with another guy and asked us to look for star symbols.
DeleteCan anyone guess?
DeleteTH used to be sent by their own plane to Vijayawada before local edtion started.
DeleteTwo decades back i was in Singapore for a week on holiday. It was a big shock to me to see two {at least} local English daily papers. Can you imagine the number of pages each of them had? Not less than 60!!
DeleteItsI a very small country with almost no big political activities to be covered every day. It will certainly take a full day to read paper and probably by the time you finished the next day's paper would be ready!!!
No concern for newsprint to print this no-news paper!!!
Most pages that are common - front, edit, oped, world, business, sports, etc are centralised. They are made in CHN the head office and sent to printing centres. Some local pages - maybe two or three - will be made in different centres. So the headline for a particular story in Hyd edn may not be the same as in some other AP/Telegana city.
Delete.
Great Talepiece Dr.RKE.You seem to be doing one better every day. Pl. keep it up. We are eagerly awaiting.
ReplyDeleteI seem to have missed a lot of fun today.
ReplyDeletePaddy. I fear copyright issues in using old clippings. How the Col feels, I dont know.
ReplyDeleteRaju garu, copyright issues can haunt to any blog. I don't think the newspapers will take itseriouslyi considering the % of the solvers.
DeleteAtleast we can privately zove them
Pl read zove as solve,,,,🤣
DeleteI have read somewhere that if a blog publishes clues and gives answers there is no copyright infringement. If the clues are published with the blank grid by someone else somewhere it is. The other day I placed a puz herewith blank grid and clues. But I hold the copyright so there was no problem. But an intellectual property rights lawyer needs to clarify.t lawyer. Or we can ask Ilayaraja who zealously guards his rights, but never mind who wrote the song, wo played the instruments, etc.
Delete"1. There is no revenue loss to TH.
Delete1a. The blog owner isn't making any money out of it.
2. The source is being clearly published.
3. This blog is clearly an academic exercise that also promotes overall interest in crossword solving (market expansion is the word used).
4. There is no explicit bar on such activity.
5. TH actually encourages sharing through their online platforms."
Points from a friend in the profession from the other big house.
Also this is going to be decades old and we are,if anything,reviving interest. Remember TH used to publish some old articles under the heading 'Hindu 50 years ago'.
ReplyDeleteKKR,
ReplyDeleteI think the stars go from 1 onwards- lesser the star older the news. My father used to say there was even a dak edition (almost an evening paper) which used to leave the printers somewhere around 5 pm to catch trains leaving 7 pm onwards to various smaller towns en route.
Prasad,
I had travelled in those delivery vehicles from my native place to Chennai without a press card but with recommendations from the Governor,RBI/ President of India as the case may be!
You are correct, Paddy!
Delete