Solution to 22D 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.
Open for anyone to answer, if not solved by 1 PM.
ACROSS
1 Frisk vehicle containing traces of valium and opium (6) CAVORT {CA{Va...m}{Op..m}RT}
5 Female writer (one among siblings) releases book about a grand forecourt (8) FRONTAGE {F}{bRONT{A}{G}E}
9 I cycled around munching a tasty eatable (8) DELICACY {I+CYCLED}* over A
10 Music-maker turned out in red (6) CLARET CLARinET
11 When one can say “Aye” to Congress? (3,2,7) AGE OF CONSENT [CD]
18 Element of oily fluid causing noise from pen? (4) OINK {Oily}{INK}
20 American President mostly gets charged when ignored (7,5) BRUSHED ASIDE {B{RUSHED}{AS}IDEn}
23 Singular chap leaving a grave (6) SOLEMN {SOLE}{MaN}
24 Interchange, finally cut off by policemen backing supremo (8) DICTATOR {ROTATe}{CID}<=
26 Venom-spewing poisonous lizards - extremely energetic nasties, basically (6) SPLEEN Acrostic
DOWN
2 Lying Bill assumes stand (4) ABED {A{BE}D}
3 Having eggs and duck soup blended with refined-oil-free ravioli (9) OVIPAROUS* {O+SOUP+RAVIoli}*
4 One dealing in retrospective of colour paintings (6) TRADER {RED}{ART}<=
5 Doctor had left one unoccupied luxury hospital confines - couple of females become very angry (3,3,3,6) FLY OFF THE HANDLE {HAD+LEFT+ONE+Lu..rY+H}* over {FF}
6 Working with business head, reviewed the initiation of robotic electric vehicle's detailed test (4-4) ONCE-OVER {ON}{CEO} with {Ro...c}{El...c}{Ve...e}<=
7 Catches bugs holding end of plier (5) TRAPS {T{p..eR}APS}
8 Source of vegetable protein in banger seen coming off (5,5) GREEN BEANS*
12 Protected area is sandy with primarily flora-less frozen, dirty earth (6,4) BUFFER ZONE {BUFf}{FROZEN*}{E}
15 About to be deprived of everything, wins 100 in photo finish (5,4) CLOSE CALL{C}{LOSE ALL} over {C}
16 Inherit land and building? Not I! (4,4) COME INTO {COME}{NOT+I}*
19 When travelling Copernicus avoids open show on stage with animals etc. (6) CIRCUS CopeRnICUS*
21 Requirements from Supreme Court covering training on closure of cases (5) SPECS {S{PE}C}{c..eS}
22 An ending in love stories of a traditional kind (4) ?O?E (Addendum - LORE - L or E - See comments) 'Ends of love, ... ' would have been better. See discussion in comments below.
Reference List
Book = B, Grand = G, Party = DO, Very loud = FF, Hotel = H, When = AS, Unknown = Y, Bill = AD, Fellow = F, Hospital = H, Earth = E, About = C, 100 = C, Training = PE
16D- Land= come= Arrive?
ReplyDeleteThat confusion arises when "scalar" instead of "vector".
DeleteCome down =land (flight landed)
Very true.
DeleteMy best showing in Avtaar CW's!
ReplyDelete👍
DeleteTrencher was new to me. Thank you Col. for the link. Could not make out from the picture.
ReplyDelete5D.neefs correction. Should read Doctor had left one unoccupied luxury hospital confines - couple of females become very angry (3,3,3,6). Sorry for the error
ReplyDeleteOnline version corrected
DeleteThanks for the correction. 5D was a very important clue to open up the grid, as the design was a left-to-right diagonal only connected in 3 spots.
DeleteBarring that problem, it is an excellent grid, comparable in difficulty and in quality to some of the tougher grids published in Guardian/Observer (like Genius and Prize puzzles). They are very clever clues with good grammar, inscrutable surfaces (i.e. it is difficult to guess at first what kind of wordplay is used), often having a flood of information and requiring more modifications than the average THC puzzle. Some of the deletion clues like 10A and 23A were unusually tough. 25A KETONE for "tetracycline" was tough even after googling. Even the 4- and 5-letter words were quite tough to solve, even after getting all the crossings. I have seen you workshop your clues on Facebook almost 10 years ago - I think it shows that practice makes the setter's mind sharper.
I feel that 3D and 21D, having subtractive anagrams, are fairer than the Combined Anagram device used by other THC setters as they explicitly name the operations the solver is required to do. In 6D, "business head" as CEO was tricky, as I had fixated on the letter B from 'business'. 4D was a nice reversed charade. I though "land" as COME in 16D was a nice touch, and 18A OINK was a funny clue. 17A was brilliant and 20A was also quite good. 15D was tough but rewarding to solve.
Ref: 1A I've never heard of a non-human object being "frisked". In 5D, the choice of "one" over "an" on the surface was a giveaway.
Elsewhere-
ReplyDeleteFigure found in middle of local? (7)
HUNDRED - middle of loCal
Delete👍
Delete22D-home ?-an ending in love stories of a traditional kind; CD?
ReplyDeleteNot CD. Hypatia kind of word play.
DeleteThanks!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNo point in this. Better not give. You are spoiling somebody else's chance. Col.'s rule is simple- either give with anno or don't give.
DeleteTaling it sinve its been long time.
ReplyDeleteAn ending in love is L or E.
LORE: stories .........
Excellent solve sir.....very hard to crack this. Gr8 sir
DeleteDoubt:: 'e' is the ending in love whereas 'l' is the beginning. Could it not be better if 'either ending ...' used in the clue.
DeleteEnd also means border/edge
DeleteI tried a lot for anno. either way I could not get the correct one. But the clue was too tricky. coz, it says 'ending' in love. so other than 'e' no possible letters. also, no deletion indicator. Well done sree-sree sir
DeleteEnd would mean one end and not both ends
DeleteMathematically, the statement "'L' OR 'E'" returns only one of the two 'ends of love'. Therefore, the clue is grammatically correct as is...either L or E is 'an ending in love'. As another grammatically correct example - neither L nor E is 'an ending' in the word "red". We would not say 'neither L nor E are endings in the word "red"'
DeleteIf AND is used, then we would say L and E are 'endings in love'.
It is a brilliant clue from the setter.
DeleteAgreed it is a good clue. But 'ending' is very specific. It cannot be starting. But ends (could be one of two) So, I Go with Col.- 'Ends of love'.
DeleteI too stand on Col.'s comment. Thank you Col.sir. for the clarification .
DeletePadmanabhan. Ends of lov? e would be L and E , right
DeleteAn:any
DeleteVery tricky and clever clue. Thanks for the anno Sree Sree, I couldn't put this one together.
DeleteI agree with Sreeni that "ends of love" would be "L AND E" which would not work
Another alternative could be
Delete(An ending in love)
edge of love - LorE
stories of a traditional kind(4)
👍
ReplyDeleteHard nut to crack today. Was happy that my perseverance paid off. Thank you Avtaar.
ReplyDeleteFinished Avtaar after 50 minutes. Was thrilled to get LORE. But couldn't anno KEYSTONE or FLY OFF THE HANDLE (clue not corrected in the print version).
ReplyDeleteThanx Sreeni for a taxing but solvable grid.
+1
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