1 - Box, almost free (4) - SPAR(-e)
4 - Very high, one girl backing singer outside (9) – ALT{I}{SSIM<-}O
9 - Female with instrument that's easy to carry in a black box? (6,8) – {F}LIGHT {RECORDER}
11 - Active, new hotline box office installed (2,3,4) – ON THE {BO}IL*
12 - Horse meeting second hurdle (4) – {S}{NAG}
14 - Rehearsed moves in Macbeth, say, on stage (3,4) – {SET} {PLAY}
16 - Deep red lips included in deception (7) – C{RIMS}ON
17 - Drowned youth's name used in editorial (7) – LEA{N}DER
18 - Issue concerning tenancy agreement (7) – {RE}{LEASE}
20 - Take off before ten for summit (4) – {APE}{X}
21 - Circus performer working with pride (4-5) – LION-TAMER [CD]
24 - Act like a rake in need of ocular treatment? (4,1,6,3) – HAVE A ROVING EYE [DD]
25 - Find nightclub ideal (9) – {DISCO}{VERY}
26 - Friendly member accompanying wife (4) – {W}{ARM}
DOWN
2 - One going into storyline for trial episode (5) – P{I}LOT
3 - Unkempt woman in plant (6,4) – {RAGGED} {LADY}
4 - Author's horny tale - no plot involved (7,8) – ANTHONY TROLLOPE*
5,6 - Novel youth politics Herod concocted involving sons (3,3,9,4) – THE OLD CURIOSITY {S}HOP*
7 - Individuals entering country, a republic (9) – IND{ONES}IA
8 - Colombian painter born in a state on the Pacific (7) – O{B}REGON
10 - Stud manager (4) – BOSS [DD]
13 - Scottish town eerie in low light (10) – LINLITHGOW*
15 - Thieves duck coming to part of roof that sticks out (3,6) – {TEA L}{EAVES} Remember reading about this in Shuchi’s blog couple of months ago
17 - Hated to charge to store article (7) – LOA{THE}D
19 - Organ, new make (4) – {EAR}{N}
22 - Civic head in Irish county close to border (5) – MAYO{R}
23 - A long way, old European port (4) – {FAR}{O}
GRID
Just remembered 15D is in Shuchi's post on 'Rhyming slang' in her blog. TEA LEAF rhymes with THIEF and so also TEA LEAVES with THIEVES
ReplyDeleteI find the Sunday crossword quite a hard nut to crack. Could get only about 50% of the answers today.
ReplyDeleteWhere are the Sunday crosswords of The Hindu syndicated from?
Richard
Read about Rhyming slang at Crossword Unclued
ReplyDeleteRichard,
ReplyDeleteToday's was not all that tough as compared to some of the earlier ones that I have seen. However I must add that tough or easy is one's personal view depending on the type of clues etc
The THC Sunday comes from the EVERYMAN CW of The Guardian
17 across - Drowned youth's name used in editorial (7) – LEA{N}DER
ReplyDeleteCan someone tell me the background of 'Leander' as drowned youth?
21 across - Circus performer working with pride (4-5) – LION-TAMER [CD]
Nice clue. The answer flashed at once, 'pride' being a collective noun forlions.
Richard
I got the answer to my query. Please ignore the first part of the above post.
ReplyDeleteRichard
Richard,
ReplyDeleteGenerally the answer's are available at the links provided in my blog. The underlined words, (except for the underlining of DOWN and ACROSS) have got links embedded in them
Will you believe it, Everyman is rated 'Easy' by crossword solvers from UK. I was astonished when I first heard that.
ReplyDeleteHere I think the difficulty is more because of the knowledge required for solving, not because of complexity in the wordplay. THC with its PATTU and so on, might be tough in the same way for non-Indian solvers.
Glad that the rhyming slang article came in useful.
I tend to agree that Everyman is relatively easy as compared to the Cryptic CW of the Guradian, however when there are too many refrerences to English places and characters then it becomes tough for us to unravel as rightly indicated by you with regards to Indian articles and names referred to in the weekdays CW of ours
ReplyDeleteHad some problem with my mouse and so I was without the use of computer till now until I made some alternative arrangement.
ReplyDeleteMy wife sets the mousetrap in the kitchen regularly and so probably my mouse had some empathy with the trapped ones and so refused to cooperate.
I used the grid in the paper and let me say I found it tough! When I took a break I had some half-a-dozen to go.
The Sunday HC is from The Observer, which is a Sunday-only paper which used to be separate but is part of The Guardian stable now. The talk is that the paper is not doing well and might be folded up. Crossword fans are wondering what will happen to the Azed crossword; they are not worried about the fate of Everyman, which is the name of the crossword and the pseudonym of the setter.
Leander swam the Hellespont nightly to see his ladylove - what I remember from my colelge studies.
I agree it would be easy if we lived in UK. I would have heard of Linlithgow. Ask those guys if they know Tadepalligudem or Gummudipoondi
ReplyDeleteA note on rhyming slang from a speaker from birth, it was originally developed by cockneys in the East End of London. It was developed when policeman were allowed to wear plain cloths and thus could listen to crimes being planned. Shuchi mentioned the 2nd word in sometimes omitted, actually it is always omitted to hide the rhyme. So asking you to the 'rubba for a cows of Forsyth' would be 'come to the Rubba dub dub (PUB) for a Cows calf (half.. pint in this case) of Forsyth Saga (Lager...FS is a famous UK TV programme).
ReplyDeleteIts going out of vogue now and I received many a walloping from my grandmother for using it!
"...I agree it would be easy if we lived in UK."
ReplyDeleteNot exactly! Even solvers in the UK don't like the use of place names.
The other day when a Daily Telegraph crossword used a little-known place in Cornwall with a population of less than 3000 many solvers let out a howl of protest.
If Gridman used PATTU as one of the lights and south Indian solvers had no difficulty, I bet north Indian solvers would have frowned, though The Hindu itself might be using this word in its news columns, leave alone the ads from the House of Nalli.
I didn't do the crossword in today's Hindustan Times of Delhi (which is The Times 21690) but just guessed an answer from a clue:
ReplyDeleteClassical language found in authoritative
dictionary (5)
.
.
.
.
.
If VEDIC is the answer, I wondered, was it correct?
I looked up Chambers which has against
Vedic: n. the old Sanskrit language of the
Vedas.
If Sanskrit is called a Vedic language, I can
understand, but to call Vedic a
language?
What do you think?
In my OXFORD CONCISE, VEDIC is defined as 'the language of the vedas, an early form of Sanskrit'
ReplyDelete@ Chaturvasi, the language used for composing the Vedas is called Vedic and Sanskrit is considered to be the later day derivative of Vedic. Or in some quarters, it is known as the Pre Classical form of Sanskrit. Vedic is a considered as an offshoot of Proto Indo European language ( PIE ) that has close similarity to Avestan of Iran.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting thoughts & theories abound in the book 'Discovering the Vedas' by Frits Staal