ACROSS
1 Lad consumes insect... a little bit... (8) SMIDGEON {S{MIDGE}ON}
5 Indian freedom fighter had gin thrown away (6) GANDHI*
10 Locate small quantity (5) TRACE [DD]
11 Wrongly clued "Shed" for "Fixed time" (9) SCHEDULED*
12 Install tandoor in North America and worship for nine days (6) NOVENA {N{OVEN}A}
13 A member of early nomadic tribe shivered in yacht after commencement of storm (8) SCYTHIAN {IN+YACHT}*<=>{St..m}
15 Rock ocean vessel (5) CANOE*
17 Witnesses Oscar playing snooker around end of April (9) ONLOOKERS {O}{N{a..iL}LOOKERS}
19 Leader's identity papers concealed in gift (9) PRESIDENT {PRES{ID}ENT}
20 South African car crushed large spinal bones (5) SACRA {SA}{CAR*}
21 Inform and close (8) INTIMATE [DD]
23 Food stuffs made using organs from farmed animal, for starters, with a bit of lime and spice (6) OFFALS {Or...s}{From}{Fa...d}{An...s}{Lime}{Sp..e} Semi&lit
27 Spoilt brats also get three under par (9) ALBATROSS*
28 Metal block carried by warring Ottomans (5) INGOT [T]
29 Lure ward to go on frozen water (6) ENTICE {ENT}{ICE}
30 Think about blending cider, son (8) CONSIDER*
DOWN
1 Took seat amid soft cloth (5) SATIN {SAT}{IN}
2 Can invade violently before time (2,7) IN ADVANCE*
3 Endless energy arranged from natural and renewable sources (5) GREEN ENERGy
4 Remove dental surgeon travelling after leaving Greenland (4) OUST {denTal SUrgeOn}
6 Travelling India to US for hearings (9) AUDITIONS*
7 Wrongly lied about husband in union territory (5) DELHI {DEL{H}I*}
14 Get good ad composed to become aggressive (3,3,3) DOG EAT DOG*
15 Enthral short military officer at four with extraordinary serving of tea (9) CAPTIVATE {CAPT}{IV}{TEA*}
16 Mysterious giant mice running around (9) ENIGMATIC*
18 Swapped caged hen injured after swallowing spot marker (9) EXCHANGED [CAGED+HEN} over {X}
22 Country seen from Kunti Betta (5) TIBET [T]
24 Female becomes sick and does not succeed (5) FAILS {F}{AILS}
25 After dropping note, artiste tuned instrument (5) SITAR ARTISte*
Reference List
Oscar = O, Husband = H, Female = F, Note = E
Easy clues
ReplyDeleteA tad too easy.
Confirmed Bharath= India ( whatever others may say)
ReplyDelete😀👌
DeleteMidge and Scythian held me up a little bit
ReplyDeleteOust the dental surgeon (continued from yesterda) - what a complicated deletion. Delete more than what you keep!
ReplyDeleteGandhi & gin- had a smile!
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Padmanabhan,
DeleteAwesome hat-trick of comments by you on today's CW, one must opine....
Thank you. That is first go in the morning as I see it at 8.30 or a little past.
DeleteIn INDONESIA the programme was SCHEDULED on GANDHI Jayanthi day.
ReplyDeleteVladimir having booked his seat IN ADVANCE was among the ONLOOKERS.
He wanted to CAPTIVATE, become INTIMATE and ENTICE...
But FAILS...
What happened next?
Although Valdamir failed, dear Dr. Bhargav succeeded!!!
DeleteHe is not yet a doctor! Maybe in future!
DeleteVladimir keeps travelling!
ReplyDeleteRequest INCOGNITO to go through my comment on 49 in Roman numbers...( Yesterday)
ReplyDelete+1, Gemini has made a good point that 49 = XLIX in Roman Numerals, not IL as in the clue from the puzzle.
DeleteIL is generally used in many places and I have come across in CW's as well. It is simpler and easier to follow. When 51 is LI why can't 49 be IL? I think the same goes for 99 as well. IC is much simpler
DeleteIf XL is 40 why nit IL be 49?
DeleteOn checking, you seem to be right. I can be used only before V & X. X ca
Deleten be used only for C etc. Did jot know that.
Gemini is perfectly correct in mentioning the way 49 is written in Roman numerals. However, like many other quirks in crossword usage, I have seen 49 and 99 used for IL and IC by other setters, though I have no documented records of the same. Much like ratio and proportions are treated as synonyms by setters, though as any mathematics student will tell you, they are not the same. Another example is firm=company, though any student of law will confirm that the former is a partnership and the latter an artificial person.
DeleteRule is 'you do not subtract with a numeral less than one-tenth of the value to its right.'
Delete- text from Google sources.
An easy-to-remember rule-of-thumb. Thanks RP for sharing it.
Delete22D - last letter of Tibe(t) telescopic indicator color is mssing.
ReplyDeleteNope.Delhi is a UT.
ReplyDeleteExcept for 1-A, solved the tricky CW grid set by Incognito in which one can rate the 'birdie' of 27-A as the knotty one. Thanq dear Mr. Kishore Rao. Cheers!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kishore for the grid. 1A SMIDGEON was sort of difficult and last-to-fill for me. The rest were business as usual for Incognito. "Spot marker" for X was nice in 18D. 13A SCYTHIAN was interesting - however I believe they were a group of tribes rather than a single tribe. Perhaps a question mark at the end could have elevated 23A from semi&lit to &lit. The surface of 6D was grammatically incorrect, while the directional "in" link-word reared its head in 7D. Re: the definition of 9D: is chocolate sweet or bitter? Below is my tally of clue types for today's puzzle - around 60% of the clues were anagrams.
ReplyDelete---
Charade 8
Anagram 19
Double-definition 2
Telescopic 2
Acrostic 1
Cocoa is bitter. Chocolate is sweet almost always.
DeleteRe: IXL round 3. There were some tough words like 4D HASPS, 6D DACE, 24D RETE and 18D TIMPANI. I suspect some of these would have caused the slip-ups that we see in the leaderboard. The clue 27A was an anagram with a large number of possibilities, and one of my last to fill.
ReplyDeleteTechnically IXL can be 39 or 41.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't 41 = XLI?
DeleteJust kidding as we were on the subject of roman numerals and IXL. IXL is not a legitimate roman number.
DeleteEasy breezy from incognito.
ReplyDeleteLiked EXCHANGED, ENTICE, INDONESIA.
Thank Kishore.