Saturday, 15 July 2023

No 13918, Saturday 15 Jul 2023, Afterdark

ACROSS
9   Loving a party at club (7) ADORING {A}{DO}{RING}
10 Delhi uncle's exam is stiffest (7) TAUTEST {TAU}{TEST} Haryanvi uncle would have been more appropriate.
11 Friend's state in a bother (7) PALAVER {PAL}{AVER}
12 Hungry local seen in company of a woman of ill-repute (7) TROLLOP {TRO{LocaL}OP}
13 Toy robot at the end supplied current to move (5,4) TEDDY BEAR {r..oT}{EDDY}{BEAR}
15 Warmed some latte, added powdered weed (5) LEWED {La..e}{WEED*}
16 Outside of Rio, wild carnivores are found in tunnels (7) CAVERNS CArNiVoRES*
19 More merciless to break off with engineer (7) SEVERER {SEVER}{ER}
20 French essentially wear dark material (5) DENIM {D{{frENch}IM}
21 The blaze I created for the Queen (9) ELIZABETH*
25 Lion is essentially encaged, loses its original nature (7) IONISES [T]
26 Cat coils and rests inside fold of headgear (4,3) FLAT CAP {FL{CAT*}AP}
28 Plant/herb husband removed after grooming initially takes time (7) GERBERA {hERB}<=>{Gr...g} and {ERA}
29 Unpleasant person, after last of drinks gains control (7) SCORNER {d...kS}{CORNER}

DOWN
1   Warrior clan's upset, upset on rank (6) RAJPUT {JAR<=}{PUT}
2   Out with a weapon and commanded (6) BOWLED {BOW}{LED}
3   Son joins capital and prays (4) KIEV Anno pending or is something wrong here? (Addendum - KIEV+SON = INVOKES [CA] - See comments)
4   Marketplaces from the past era rebuilt (6) AGORAE {AGO}{ERA*}
5   By the sound of it, you are in America with ranks (8) STATURES {STAT{(~you're)UR}ES}
6   Playing viola, a guy finally tours country (10) YUGOSLAVIA {VIOLA+A+GUY+t..rS}*
7   It's more cowardly to shout at landlord pointlessly (8) YELLOWER {YELL}{OWnER}
8   Simpler to regularly tour in 8-footer? (8) STUPIDER {S{ToUr}PIDER}
14 Railway employee at Vepery end is on a road leading to Chennai Central Station to collect letter waiving rent (10) YARDMASTER {v...rY}{A}{RD}{MAS}{letTER}
16 Cocktail of cold gin and small greenish apples (8) CODLINGS {COLD+GIN}*{S}
17 Wine merchants are against accepting incompetent interns (8) VINTNERS {V}{INTERNS*}
18 Almost made sense to order with botanical dealer (8) SEEDSMAN {MADe+SENSE}*
22 Penetrate rain festival to hide (6) INFEST [T]
23 Perhaps former prisoners, by end of June have cross-country unions, half of them (2-4) EX-CONS {junE}{X}{CONSorts} (Addendum - {junE}{XC}{uniONS} - See comments)
24 Hard work and energy earns rupees for believers (6) HOPERS {H}{OP}{E}{RS}
27 Prophet's morning's only with saint (4) AMOS {AM}{O}{S}

Reference List
Party = DO, Delhi uncle = TAU, Engineer = ER, Husband = H, Point = N, Chennai Central Station = MAS, Small = S, Against = V, Hard = H, Cross-country = XC,  Energy = E, Only = O, Saint = S

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26 comments:

  1. Sree Sree15 July 2023 at 08:38

    3d think CA indicator is missing.
    Son+kiev = Invokes

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Vasant15 July 2023 at 13:03

      Wow!

      Delete
    2. Ramki Krishnan15 July 2023 at 13:06

      And the clue should have Invokes (not prays). Else it's an indirect CA.

      Delete
    3. Economizer15 July 2023 at 15:11

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    4. Deepak Gopinath15 July 2023 at 17:39

      Indirect anagrams are not acceptable. In a CA the Defintion need not be at the ends

      Delete
    5. Economizer15 July 2023 at 17:47

      I stand corrected...it appears this is an anagram without an anagram indicator. I agree this is not acceptable.

      Delete
  2. Abhishek Sridhar15 July 2023 at 09:28

    7d pointlessly could refer to refer to deletion of N or E or W. Heartlessly would have removed that ambiguity and would have fit the surface reading of the clue as well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jacob Brahmakulam15 July 2023 at 10:17

    10A Isn't Taau uncle in Hindi, pan-India; Father's elder brother.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sree Sree15 July 2023 at 10:20

      Its not pan-India. Technically not hindi.

      Delete
    2. Vasant15 July 2023 at 13:08

      I believe Tau is used informally in hindi (chacha and kaka are used formally)

      Delete
  4. Kolluru Koteswara Rao15 July 2023 at 12:14

    Hungry also means empty, hollow.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Padmanabhan15 July 2023 at 12:15

    devoid of contents

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ramesh Kosaraju 15 July 2023 at 14:34

    But for Q, it's a pangram

    ReplyDelete
  7. Economizer15 July 2023 at 15:12

    I think "hungry" is a fair indicator for removing letters from the middle of a word.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Economizer15 July 2023 at 15:24

    To quote the setter Azed:
    A good cryptic clue contains three elements:
    1. a precise definition
    2. a fair subsidiary indication
    3. nothing else

    With this in mind, it is worth asking what the role of "at" is in 9A ("Loving a party at club" - ADORING). What is the role of "supplied" in 13A ("Toy robot at the end supplied current to move" - TEDDY BEAR; furthermore BEAR is a dubious synonym for MOVE)? What is the role of "with" in 5D (By the sound of it, you are in America with ranks - STATURES)?

    Some well-crafted clues:
    7A Hungry local seen in company of a woman of ill repute (TROLLOP) - could be a Dr. X clue
    26A Cat coils and rests inside fold of headgear (FLAT CAP)
    2D Out with a weapon and commanded (BOWLED)
    8D "8-footer?" for SPIDER was nice wordplay and had me stumped as I was thinking of LADDER

    PALAVER and SEEDSMAN were new words to me and nice to know. PALABRA is Spanish for WORD.

    LEWED for lukewarm is my AD obscurity for the day, as it is apparently a dated usage as a verb as per various dictionaries.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Economizer15 July 2023 at 15:29

      Looking forward to solving Everyman on Sunday and the next THC rotation, hopefully it will be the venerable Doc.

      Delete
    2. maradnusro15 July 2023 at 15:51

      In sum, AWFUL cluing. I think I will skip Afterdark hereafter .

      Delete
    3. maradnusro15 July 2023 at 15:53

      AWFUL clueung. Terrible Will skip Afterdark's puzzle

      Delete
  9. Economizer15 July 2023 at 15:26

    @Col Sir, I think the correct anno for 23D is as follows
    23 Perhaps former prisoners, by end of June have cross-country unions, half of them (2-4) EX-CONS {(-jun)E}{XC}{(-uni)ONS}, where XC = CROSS COUNTRY and ONS = half of unions.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Padmanabhan15 July 2023 at 16:04

    I agree with you. But XC from cross country looks a little odd. Probably 'Ninety' would have been better? It may go with the surface also.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kolluru Koteswara Rao15 July 2023 at 16:29

      XC is X-country or cross-country in Oxford dictionary.

      Delete
    2. Prasanna Rao15 July 2023 at 17:02

      we often used this notation 'XC' for cross country pipeline in technical communications

      Delete
  11. Padmanabhan15 July 2023 at 16:41

    Oh! I don't remember to have come across earlier.

    ReplyDelete

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