Solution to 12A has been deliberately left unsolved and is to be answered only by a non-regular/novice commenter, with proper annotation. Those who have answered earlier in the week, please give others a chance.
Reference List
Unknown = Z, Street = ST, Point = EVE, Points = N,S, Henry = H, French = FR, Old city = UR, Operation = OP, Indian = IN, Maiden = M, Queen = QU, Black = B, The in French = LE, Following = FOL
Dr RKE's TalePiece
ACROSS
1 Ancient Indians of unknown caste developed outside (6) AZTECS {A{Z}TECS*}
4 Classic message title (8) TEXTBOOK {TEXT}{BOOK}
10 Healer of that woman near Island Street (9) HERBALIST {HER}{BALI}{ST}
11 Old Portuguese territory nearly came back to Australia (5) MACAU {CAMe<=}{AU}
12 Point/Points to a fifty-fifty chance of winning (5) E?E?S (Addendum - EVENS {EVE}{N}{S} - See comments))
13 Again uncorking one gin per cocktail (9) REOPENING*
14 Early sign (7) INITIAL [DD]
16 Endlessly long time (4) YEAR YEARn
19 King has destroyed Henry (4) SHAH {HAS*}{H}
21 Extraordinary growth in chess rating held by my mother (7) MYELOMA {MY}{ELO}{MA}
24 Tory rings for flowers (9) BLUEBELLS {BLUE}{BELLS}
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25 Brand-new french net is without cover (5) FRESH {FR}{mESH}
26 Add the previous numbers to get a rowing team (5) EIGHT {2+6=8}
27 Cleaned blood on U.S. coins (9) DOUBLOONS*
28 Doctor stayed with us every third day of the week (8) TUESDAYS {STAYED+US}*
29 Liked to correct before (4,2) TOOK TO {TO}{OK}{TO}Second TO from? See comments
DOWN
1 Strong room on top of a house found around exotic Leh (8) ATHLETIC {AT{LEH*}TIC}
2 10 may use this in old city breaking complicated metric (8) TURMERIC {T{UR}MERIC*}
3 Excellent form (5) CLASS [DD]
5 Randomness of operation in admission (7) ENTROPY {ENTR{OP}Y}
6 Clement’s anger had.. (9) TEMPERATE {TEMPER}{ATE}
7 ..a goblin half hidden by flower (6) ORCHID {ORC}{HIDden}
8 Top of kite’s glued messily? That is an inelegant solution (6) KLUDGE {Kite}{GLUED*}
9 Replaced trim aluminium valve (6) MITRAL {TRIM*}{AL}
15 Settled Indian custom and excise duty initially (9) INHABITED {IN}{HABIT}{Ex...e}{Duty}
17 In pursuit of after school activity (8) HOMEWORK {HOME}{WORK}
18 Toughness of weathered chamois covering maiden (8) MACHISMO {MACHIS{M}O*}
20 Vacation time after Indian festival (7) HOLIDAY {DAY}<=>{HOLI}
21 Queen visiting some ruined place of worship (6) MOSQUE {MOS{QU}E*}
22 Without one having blackmailed (6) ABSENT {A}{B}{SENT}
23 Psychiatrist is taken to the French forest (6) JUNGLE {JUNG}{LE}
25 Leaf following one around (5) FOLIO {FOL}{1}{O}
1 Ancient Indians of unknown caste developed outside (6) AZTECS {A{Z}TECS*}
4 Classic message title (8) TEXTBOOK {TEXT}{BOOK}
10 Healer of that woman near Island Street (9) HERBALIST {HER}{BALI}{ST}
11 Old Portuguese territory nearly came back to Australia (5) MACAU {CAM
13 Again uncorking one gin per cocktail (9) REOPENING*
14 Early sign (7) INITIAL [DD]
16 Endlessly long time (4) YEAR YEAR
19 King has destroyed Henry (4) SHAH {HAS*}{H}
21 Extraordinary growth in chess rating held by my mother (7) MYELOMA {MY}{ELO}{MA}
24 Tory rings for flowers (9) BLUEBELLS {BLUE}{BELLS}
26 Add the previous numbers to get a rowing team (5) EIGHT {2+6=8}
27 Cleaned blood on U.S. coins (9) DOUBLOONS*
29 Liked to correct before (4,2) TOOK TO {TO}{OK}{TO}
DOWN
1 Strong room on top of a house found around exotic Leh (8) ATHLETIC {AT{LEH*}TIC}
2 10 may use this in old city breaking complicated metric (8) TURMERIC {T{UR}MERIC*}
3 Excellent form (5) CLASS [DD]
5 Randomness of operation in admission (7) ENTROPY {ENTR{OP}Y}
6 Clement’s anger had.. (9) TEMPERATE {TEMPER}{ATE}
7 ..a goblin half hidden by flower (6) ORCHID {ORC}{HID
9 Replaced trim aluminium valve (6) MITRAL {TRIM*}{AL}
17 In pursuit of after school activity (8) HOMEWORK {HOME}{WORK}
18 Toughness of weathered chamois covering maiden (8) MACHISMO {MACHIS{M}O*}
20 Vacation time after Indian festival (7) HOLIDAY {DAY}<=>{HOLI}
21 Queen visiting some ruined place of worship (6) MOSQUE {MOS{QU}E*}
22 Without one having blackmailed (6) ABSENT {A}{B}{SENT}
23 Psychiatrist is taken to the French forest (6) JUNGLE {JUNG}{LE}
25 Leaf following one around (5) FOLIO {FOL}{1}{O}
Unknown = Z, Street = ST, Point = EVE, Points = N,S, Henry = H, French = FR, Old city = UR, Operation = OP, Indian = IN, Maiden = M, Queen = QU, Black = B, The in French = LE, Following = FOL
Dr RKE's TalePiece
“CLASS, pay attention, your HOMEWORK is to write an essay on the AZTECS of Mexico. You should submit it on TUESDAY, neatly written on one side of a FOLIO sheet. Remember, from this academic YEAR, your class assignments will carry 25 marks and the final examination will be for 75 marks. So, please also inform your friends who may be ABSENT today to complete the task” said Nazreen SHAH, a history teacher in the BLUE BELLS High School, as she left the classroom.
Nazreen Shah was a FRESH appointee who came after a month of the school’s REOPENING following the summer HOLIDAY. The students of standard EIGHT immediately took a liking for her teaching method. She did not merely repeat whatever was in the TEXTBOOK, as their previous Ma’am would, but TOOK TO spinning an engaging story, mixing the facts in seamlessly. The students who hated studying history INITIALly, became her devoted fans. They EVEN began to love the challenge of unusual assignments she gave. They vied with each other to dig up unusual facts for the projects. For example, one student found out that the Aztec HERBALISTs prescribed a tonic of vanilla ORCHID and chocolate to improve the stamina and make them ATHLETIC. Another wrote “the JUNGLEs around the Rio Grande, provided a cover for some time to the native Aztecs, who fled from the great cities they had INHABITED for centuries, unable to face the persecution by the MACHISMO of the invading Spaniards”.
So, the class was sad to learn that this much-loved teacher would not come for some months. She had to have an operation for replacing her MITRAL valve, damaged by rheumatic fever in childhood. Their English teacher had taught them Alfred Tennyson’s lines “More things are wrought by prayer/ Than this world dreams of ”. Muslim boys, who had never been to a MOSQUE earlier, were seen praying there for their teacher. A Hindu girl tied up a piece of TURMERIC in a cloth and placed it in front of the Gods in the pooja room of her house and vowed to drop it at the temple, when her teacher got well. Some others KLUDGEd together a gift of a heart held in the palms and presented it to her. We sincerely hope that their prayers would not go in vain.
Nazreen Shah was a FRESH appointee who came after a month of the school’s REOPENING following the summer HOLIDAY. The students of standard EIGHT immediately took a liking for her teaching method. She did not merely repeat whatever was in the TEXTBOOK, as their previous Ma’am would, but TOOK TO spinning an engaging story, mixing the facts in seamlessly. The students who hated studying history INITIALly, became her devoted fans. They EVEN began to love the challenge of unusual assignments she gave. They vied with each other to dig up unusual facts for the projects. For example, one student found out that the Aztec HERBALISTs prescribed a tonic of vanilla ORCHID and chocolate to improve the stamina and make them ATHLETIC. Another wrote “the JUNGLEs around the Rio Grande, provided a cover for some time to the native Aztecs, who fled from the great cities they had INHABITED for centuries, unable to face the persecution by the MACHISMO of the invading Spaniards”.
So, the class was sad to learn that this much-loved teacher would not come for some months. She had to have an operation for replacing her MITRAL valve, damaged by rheumatic fever in childhood. Their English teacher had taught them Alfred Tennyson’s lines “More things are wrought by prayer/ Than this world dreams of ”. Muslim boys, who had never been to a MOSQUE earlier, were seen praying there for their teacher. A Hindu girl tied up a piece of TURMERIC in a cloth and placed it in front of the Gods in the pooja room of her house and vowed to drop it at the temple, when her teacher got well. Some others KLUDGEd together a gift of a heart held in the palms and presented it to her. We sincerely hope that their prayers would not go in vain.
29a British usage, before:to. "Ex:its five to ten (o clock)"
ReplyDelete29a to ok is correct before to
ReplyDelete12a EVENS...odds and evens.. 50 50 chance of winning
ReplyDeletePoint/ points...point by points also evens or draws. DD
Incorrect annotation Doctor it's not a DD
DeleteIs Nazreen Shah a double of Dr.RKE? (only for the story part)
ReplyDeleteThank you Ramesh for the engrossing time you gave us this morning. Precursor to early reopening of schools.
🤣🤣
Delete12a polls
ReplyDeletePlease mention your name. How can it be POLLS when the crossing letters are shown a E?E?S
DeleteThe island was getting ready for the event of the YEAR.
ReplyDeleteFRESH BLUEBELLS and exotic ORCHIDS could be seen in many places.
A HERBALIST was appointed to work EIGHT hours a day with TUESDAYS as his weekly off.
Ummer and his coterie had a MOSQUE all for themselves.
Everything was a CLASS in itself even to the extent of everyone being given TURMERIC milk instead of the customary tea.
The only odd thing was the presence of one SHAH. What was a history teacher doing in the island?
What happened next?
winning - Victory (V) ; point OR POINTS N,E,W,S ; EVENS
ReplyDeleteIncorrect
DeleteE(V)E(N)S .....for winning - Victory (V) and 'N' taken as point.
ReplyDeleteIncorrect
Delete12A (Eve)NS - Collins defines point as a synonym for Eve as a period immediately before an event. If it's the case one possible annotation could be (Eve)NS for point/points leading to the definition 'to a fifty-fifty chance of winning'
ReplyDeleteWell solved.
Delete+1
DeleteWell done CPC. Can we have the expansion of CPC
DeleteIt is CP Chandrasekar sir.
DeleteOk thanks
DeleteWith, of course N and S for the /points
ReplyDeleteI thought it might be like this- +ve/ -ve So ve could be 50/50.
ReplyDeleteE (ve) NS,with ENS being points.
Def. Chances of winning.
It's a challenging puzzle. credits goes to setter the way he derived. I was looking for the word "v" and since the winning can be considered as Victory, I taken it.
ReplyDelete21A: ELO may be added to the reference list. A chess rating system
ReplyDeleteThere is a link to ELO in the main post, it is embedded over the words 'chess rating'
DeleteThank you Dr.& Col. I knew ELO and so did not look up. Suddenly now I got a doubt if it is an acronym and got to know it is named after the inventor.
ReplyDelete