ACROSS
8 Cheat inspection preparing aids to stop smoking (8,7) NICOTINE PATCHES {CHEAT+INSPECTION*}
9 Tamper with a licentiate, relating to a prestigious degree (8) DOCTORAL {DOCTOR}{A}{L}
10 Fearful of a crime, one ousts unionist (6) AFRAID {A}{FRA(+I-u)D}
11 Breaking away from norm to replace new false tooth (9) DEPARTURE {DE(-n+PAR)TURE}
12 Golf club missing head say (5) UTTER {pUTTER}
15 Farm vehicle missing the last line by small hill (7) TRACTOR {TRACk}{TOR}
17 Proportionally divide gold in between idle chatter (7) PRORATE {PR{OR}ATE}
19 A notch by engineer is sharp (5) ACUTE {A}{CUT}{E}
20 Tap vendor damaged writing desk (9) DAVENPORT {TAP+VENDOR*}
23 Code zero (6) CIPHER (DD)
25 Sluggish batting performance by four Englishmen at first (8) INACTIVE {IN}{ACT}{IV}{Englishmen}
26 Extra fees paid with plan for training to improve one’s skill (9.6) REFRESHER COURSE {REFRESHER}{COURSE}
DOWN
1 Thick solution essentially cold, with electron and couple of charges (6) DIPOLE {DIP}{cOLd}{E}
2 Replaced torch, ran to old district (5,5) NORTH ARCOT {TORCH+RAN+TO}
3 Very independent bishop to restrict back and forth movement (9) VIBRATION {V}{I}{B}{RATION}
4 Travel partly with knowledge on city with fort (7) VELLORE {traVEL}{LORE}
5 Friend joins a king by river (5) PALAR {PAL}{A}{R}
6 Mark second vehicle (4) SCAR {S}{CAR}
7 Feel bitter about procuring identification for house physician (8) RESIDENT {RES{ID}ENT}
13 First off provoke a teetotaller missing last chance at small town (10) TIRUPATTUR {sTIR UP}{A}{T}{TURn} Teetotaller=T?
14 Fish smuggled into country by independent worker (9) FREELANCE {FR{EEL}ANCE}
16 Recreation on ship with a type of chair (8) RECLINER {REC}{LINER}
18 Queen favourite in industrial town (7) RANIPET {RANI}{PET}
21 Alter electric vehicle amidst growth (6) REVISE {R{EV}ISE}
22 Hundred cars could be damaged by this (5) CRASH {H+CARS*} &lit
24 Damage harbour agency (4) HARM {H}{ARM}
Colour/Font Scheme
8 Cheat inspection preparing aids to stop smoking (8,7) NICOTINE PATCHES {CHEAT+INSPECTION*}
9 Tamper with a licentiate, relating to a prestigious degree (8) DOCTORAL {DOCTOR}{A}{L}
10 Fearful of a crime, one ousts unionist (6) AFRAID {A}{FRA(+I-u)D}
11 Breaking away from norm to replace new false tooth (9) DEPARTURE {DE(-n+PAR)TURE}
12 Golf club missing head say (5) UTTER {
15 Farm vehicle missing the last line by small hill (7) TRACTOR {TRAC
17 Proportionally divide gold in between idle chatter (7) PRORATE {PR{OR}ATE}
19 A notch by engineer is sharp (5) ACUTE {A}{CUT}{E}
20 Tap vendor damaged writing desk (9) DAVENPORT {TAP+VENDOR*}
23 Code zero (6) CIPHER (DD)
25 Sluggish batting performance by four Englishmen at first (8) INACTIVE {IN}{ACT}{IV}{E
26 Extra fees paid with plan for training to improve one’s skill (9.6) REFRESHER COURSE {REFRESHER}{COURSE}
DOWN
1 Thick solution essentially cold, with electron and couple of charges (6) DIPOLE {DIP}{
2 Replaced torch, ran to old district (5,5) NORTH ARCOT {TORCH+RAN+TO}
3 Very independent bishop to restrict back and forth movement (9) VIBRATION {V}{I}{B}{RATION}
4 Travel partly with knowledge on city with fort (7) VELLORE {
5 Friend joins a king by river (5) PALAR {PAL}{A}{R}
6 Mark second vehicle (4) SCAR {S}{CAR}
7 Feel bitter about procuring identification for house physician (8) RESIDENT {RES{ID}ENT}
13 First off provoke a teetotaller missing last chance at small town (10) TIRUPATTUR {
14 Fish smuggled into country by independent worker (9) FREELANCE {FR{EEL}ANCE}
16 Recreation on ship with a type of chair (8) RECLINER {REC}{LINER}
18 Queen favourite in industrial town (7) RANIPET {RANI}{PET}
21 Alter electric vehicle amidst growth (6) REVISE {R{EV}ISE}
22 Hundred cars could be damaged by this (5) CRASH {H+CARS*} &lit
24 Damage harbour agency (4) HARM {H}{ARM}
Reference List
Licentiate=L, One=I, Unionist=U, New=N, Gold=Or, Engineer=E, Batiing=In, Four=IV
Electron=E, Very=V, Independent=I, Bishop=B, King=R, Second=S, Identification=Id, Recreation=Rec, Electric Vehicle=EV, Hundred=H, Harbour=H
Electron=E, Very=V, Independent=I, Bishop=B, King=R, Second=S, Identification=Id, Recreation=Rec, Electric Vehicle=EV, Hundred=H, Harbour=H
Definition, Solution, Component letters, Embedded links, Theme word, Anagram Indicator, C/C indicator, Reversal Indicator, Hidden word Indicator, Letter Pick indicator, Deletion Indicator, Homophone Indicator, Movement Indicator, Positional Indicator, Substitution, Indicator, Opposite indicator, Link/Connector, Extraneous
I had an unfair advantage sine I am a native of erstwhile South Arcot and in fact hesitating to put South or North (both fit the crossings) until I got palr,Vellore & Ranipet.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyable,but outsiders may struggle.
Didn't think about the last line.
DeleteEspecially Tirupattur.
DeleteNoticed the anagram for 2D much later.
DeletePaddy at 9:04 am
DeleteStruggle for me, an outsider! :(
North Arcot Dt. has been split into Tirupattur & Vellore districts recently.
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirupattur_district
Davenport- I knew it as a sofa cum bed. So hesitated and had to check,though it was an anagram.
ReplyDelete11A- T left out.
ReplyDeleteAdded
DeleteRather easy for a saturday crossword. Theme clues were rather interesting and gave me much joy reminding the days at my alma mater
ReplyDeleteVoorhees College?
DeleteThe handle suggests he is a doctor, so alma mater could be CMC.
DeleteYes,could be.
DeleteThank you Ramesh for the excellent blog.
ReplyDeleteA hard to solve puzzle.North Arcot, Vellore,Ranipet, Tirupattur .......foxed me.
ReplyDeleteFoxed whom? Your name please
Delete13D: Could it be annotated as below,
ReplyDelete(-s)TIRUP A TT UR(-i)
Where does URI come from?
DeleteNorth Arcot is familiar since we read about Arcot Nawabs in history; Vellore is well known for long for Christian Medical College&Hospital and now VIT; Palar and Ranipet could be easily derived from the clues. Problem is with Tiruputtur, though clue is revealing.
ReplyDeletenice puzzle by Lightning. Nice to see North arcot towns, Tituppatur, Ranipet, Vellore, Palar. 13D...struggled a lot to find.
ReplyDelete15a- Farm vehicle missing the last line by small hill. farm vehicle is Tractor.but word last line intend to small hill? i.e Track
Farm vehicle = TRACTOR
Deletemissing the last line = TRAC(-k)
by
small hill = TOR
Thanks Col.sir...well explained.
DeleteSorry about the botched clue in 13D, messed it up in the last min correction.
ReplyDeleteMy father (who was from Tirupattur) kept telling me it is spelt: Tiruppathur. At least that was how it was spelt on his passport !
When you attempt to write Tamil names in English,spellings could vary vastly. Can't help it. There is no right or wrong about it.
ReplyDeleteTrichinapally has scores of different spellings.
DeleteI had put in Tirupathur automatically (in my print edition) without trying to parse.
ReplyDeleteMy home town is Tindivanam in erstwhile South Arcot dt., but it is spelt with 'thi'in Tamil rather that 'Ti'.
ReplyDeleteA lot many spell my name as Vasanth. What's in a name?
DeleteThat is many from South. And many from North spell Basant.
DeleteI suppose it is because Tamil doesn't have a T but has Th.
DeleteTamil,very much,does have a T. It also has TH.
DeleteKa,sa(cha),ta,tha, pa,ra are some consonants in that order.
To be very frank, I checked up the spelling of your name from here when I wrote it the first time. Yes,people here would spell it with 'th'- that is how we write it in Tamil.
I do not agree that names can be spelt any way. There is an official spelling for everything cities people etc. Calcutta university used to standardise spellings of some common Bengali names like Chakrabarty (which incidentally had 39 different spellings in the telephone directory).
DeleteI don't know if they still do that. If they do it will lead to all kinds of problems for students going overseas, KYC etc.
Selling is important
That should read spelling not selling
DeleteIt is not always necessary what is officially followed is right- from the language point of view. Thiru is the equivalent of Sri/ Shri. But very often,we find names of towns and temples stating with 'Tiru..' in stead of Thiru, Typical example is Tirupathi.
DeleteEven This tirupathur is written in Tamil as 'thu' and not 'ttu'.After all,it is a Tamil name and should write it the way it is pronounced in Tamil.
Mettur is different from Tiruppathur- I mean the way it is pronounced.
Standardising Proper names would be very difficult. Shakespeare is written in many different ways. Thanjavur, Tanjavur or Tanjore? Tirrucharapalli. Tirruvanantpuram. Gaziabad, Orai, Pandey, etc.
DeleteThiruchirappalli was spelt as Trichnopoly since that is the best that Englishmen could do. It was then shortened to Trichu and now back to Tiruchirappalli. Politicians play a large part in deciding official names to display their loyalty to the language.
DeleteWhere we have a problem is in differentiating between ta & da,ka & ga etc. We go bu usage,but don't have 4 like Hindi.
ReplyDeleteMostly Ta tends to be pronounced as da. (eg) For a cart,we say vandi and not vanti though it is the same in writing.It is kattai vandi.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/tamil-nadu-wants-to-rename-over-1000-places-amid-a-pandemic-thats-snowballing-to-record-highs/articleshow/76319321.cms
DeleteThat's given up? After a reaction it's been sent for review, euphemism for closed.
DeleteNo idea boss
DeleteBtw Paddy , 31D is thatti vandi 😏
Yes,true. There are people with single point agenda.
ReplyDeleteVery enjoyable crossword yesterday. Tried very late in the evening, nice TN based words. And some elegant clues too....lightning keep striking. Thanks
ReplyDelete