Identify the Nina and the theme words
Triple or Nothing
ACROSS
1 Munch quietly on cold meat (5) CHAMP {P}<=>{C}{HAM}
4 Glands prone to release second dash of rheum before end of sneezes (9) PROSTATES {PROSTrATE}{sneezeS}
9 Painter's angrier production (7) GRAINER*
1 Munch quietly on cold meat (5) CHAMP {P}<=>{C}{HAM}
4 Glands prone to release second dash of rheum before end of sneezes (9) PROSTATES {PROST
9 Painter's angrier production (7) GRAINER*
11 November observance organised in December and May, mistakenly (11,3) REMEMBRANCE DAY {RAN} in {DECEMBER MAY}*
12 Woman set out after pocketing diamonds (4) LADY {LA{D}Y}
13 Minor U.S. assets restricting one's source of tax breaks (9) DOWNTIMES {DIMES} over {OWN}{T
17 Drug havens minus dope? Bizarre! (5,4) OPIUM DENS*
19 Pasta, pizza win British, Irish hearts (4) ZITI {
25 Leaving body writhing, in goes killing squad's leader (7) GOODBYE {BODY}* in {GOEs}
26 Popular team, now called "WI", backed regularly (7) WELCOME {tEaM nOw CaLlEd Wi<}
27 Startles Slytherin insiders with honesty (9) ARTLESSLY [T]
28 Pulls rank, replacing premier with unknown assistant, essentially (5) YANKS {(-r+Y)ANK}{assiStant}
26 Popular team, now called "WI", backed regularly (7) WELCOME {
27 Startles Slytherin insiders with honesty (9) ARTLESSLY [T]
28 Pulls rank, replacing premier with unknown assistant, essentially (5) YANKS {(-r+Y)ANK}{
3 Some cameraman apparently capsized in canal (6) PANAMA [T<]
5 Old review in old language (5) OSCAN {O}{SCAN}
6 Time to join race-fit running group (small one) (8) TRIFECTA {T}{RACE FIT}*
7 Line up crosshairs and attack veganism occasionally (4,3) TAKE AIM {
8 Provide reference over the phone, for position (4) SITE {~CITE}
14 Was beverage wrongly emptied jamming a sink? (5,4) WASTE AWAY {WAS TEA} {W
15 Mean behaviour is rising (partially lessened in September) (9) SNIDENESS [T<]
16 Is this setter guy friendly? (8) AMICABLE {AM I}{CABLE}
18 Smooth transformation that turns female into male? (4,3) IRON OUT {
20 In Germany, radicals at extreme left have matured towards centre? (7) INGROWN {IN}{G}{R
21 English writer, upper-class, by and large boring attention-grabber (6) HUXLEY {U}{X}{L} in {HEY}
24 Pointless wager over origin of artifact in tourist destination (4) AGRA {
REFERENCE LIST
Quietly=P, Cold=C, Diamonds=D, Unknown=Y, Gangster=Al (Capone), Old=O, Time=T, Setter=I, Upper-Class=U, By=X (2 by 2=2 x 2), Large=L, Point=W (West); E(East)
Radha kyon na jale!
ReplyDelete😃
DeleteNINA in fourth row, Lagaan.
ReplyDeleteNice CW given by Viresh Ratnagar!
Happy New Year to you.
Sathia
5A how is R second dash of Rheum?
ReplyDeleteRead it as the second not the first R (dash of rheum) in prostrate.
DeleteThank you
DeleteThanks for blogging, Vasant, and many thanks to all solvers (past, present, future!).
ReplyDeleteThere are just a few more things to look for, if you're interested: an obviously thematic grid entry, three thematic words in clues, and another (atypical) thematic nina. Also, a couple of entries have been placed appropriately in space and time :-). I'll post my detailed notes soon.
Btw, the "painter" def in 9a is simply referring to a person who grains (a dyer), not to the coincidentally similarly named painter, Otto Greiner :-)
ReplyDeleteCalling it a day; here are my notes for this crossword (spoilers ahead, avoid reading till you really are ready!).
ReplyDeleteNotes
The theme of this puzzle is the Hindi movie, Lagaan. The title can be seen as a nina running across the middle row. The movie's plot involves a cricket match played in 1893 between drought-stricken Indian villagers and colonial Britishers, with an arrogant British officer wagering to cancel their land tax if they win, but tripling it if they lose (hence the title, Triple Or Nothing).
The name of the village, CHAMPANER, can be seen as a nina starting with 1a and snaking through parts of 3d and 9a. The word CRICKET is the entry in 10a. Three thematic words appear within the clues: "English" (21d), "wager" (24d), and "tax" (13a).
This is the final Hindu crossword that I set in '25, and it has two across entries in appropriate locations: GOODBYE (25) and WELCOME (26). I had done something similar in my final 2024 puzzle (https://gussalufz.com/thc/2024/gussalufz-thc-12-2024-grid-4-32-clues.html) too.
Every single Hindu crossword that I set in '24 was a salgram: it had exactly 24 distinct letters in its entries. I haven't used that gimmick at all this year, until now: this last one of '25 is also a salgram (its entries use 25 distinct letters).
Personal notes
I'm not at all into cars or driving. But the universe, with its infinite sense of humour, has made me the owner or co-owner of quite a sequence of cars over the years. A 1986 Volkswagen Quantum, a 1997 Toyota Corolla, a 2006 Lexus RX 400h, a 2010 Toyota Prius, a 2016 Tesla Model X, a 2016 Lexus RX 450h, a 2024 BMW i7, a 2024 Audi S3, a 2025 Audi RS3, a 2025 Audi SQ5. Three of these are with us now, and I leave it as an exercise to the reader to pick which three those are.
As is evident, there's been quite a bit of activity in this sequence over the last couple of years. Someone in the family other than me is clearly totally into cars :-). And he's into flying, and now skateboarding and snowboarding. Sometimes the apple does fall far from the tree!
10 ac when something is not fair you say that' s not cricket, is the phrase in the positive sense, "that' s cricket"used?
ReplyDeleteI've only seen it used in the "not fair/cricket" manner. But that should be good enough for the "substitution test" that a def needs to pass (note that the def part in the clue here is just "fair"). It *is* a tough def and a tough clue though, agreed.
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