Wednesday 27 November 2013

No 10941, Wednesday 27 Nov 2013, Buzzer


ACROSS
1 Like position of strength (5) ASSET - as set

Cartoon by Rishi
4 They repair chinks primarily in faulty machines (9) MECHANICS - c in mehanics (anag of 'machines')
9 Romantic hero, otherwise advertising a smoke (7) CHEROOT - hidden in 'romantiC HERO OTherwise'
10 Upset about postscript that's rounded off last letter (7) CAPSIZE -  ca ps i(z)e
11 Giving one's name to open sumo wrestling around end of May (9) EPONYMOUS -  y in anag of 'open sumo'
12 Right to follow first female tennis player (5) EVERT - eve rt
13 Model car's roaring sound in an entertainment area (2,4) TV ROOM - T vroom
15 State capital is mostly spirited facing misfortune (8) BRISBANE - bris[k] bane
18 Store centre of contemporary designer Muir (8) EMPORIUM - empo + rium (anag of Muir)
19 Law-breaking in favour of a cause (6) FACTOR - act in for
22 One's trapped in burning lift (5) HOIST - is (one's, 1's) in hot
24 Rear of floor covered in intricate pure gray carpet (6,3) PRAYER RUG - r in payerug (anag of 'pure gray')
26 Rowers on team synchronised after starting off badly (7) BOATMEN - b + oatmen (anag of  onteam)
27 Call the thing electronic bug (7) TERMITE - term it E
28 Case of deftly lining rebated plastic toy (5,4) TEDDY BEAR - dy in anag of rebated
29 Less menacing sans rings (5) MINUS - oo deleted from omnious

DOWN
1 Old container missing or misplaced (7) ANCIENT - anag of 'cntaine' after deleting or from container
2 Deal with broken stereo right away (3,2) SEE TO - anag of 'steeo' after deleting r from stereo
3 Half a piece of timber? (3-2-4) TWO-BY-FOUR - double definition
4 A narcotic overdose in a way (6) METHOD - meth. OD
5 Arrogant fellow getting sucker-punched (8) COCKSURE - co + cksure,  anag of 'sucker'
6 Substantial lead in test is wasted (5) AMPLE - s deleted from sample
7 Gypsy wandering in new attire (9) ITINERANT - anag of in n attire
8 House is covered in Scots heather (7) SHEATHE - hidden in 'Scots heather'


Cartoon by Rishi
14 Tear around leading to censure (9) REPRIMAND - prima in rend
16 Under a hint from skipper, bowling underarm got one beaten (5,4) SNARE DRUM - s + naredrum, (anag. of underarm), 'bowling' being the anag singal
17 Differentiating feature between awareness and doubtfulness (8) SUSPENSE - cryptic definition
18 Going to get hold of an American visa for show ... (7) EXHIBIT -  H1B in exit
20 ... turn back right before departure (7) REGRESS - r egress
21 Railway vehicle running over victim (6) MARTYR - rev of ry tram
23 Time for starter in savoury pot (5) TUMMY - anno to be provided by any reader


Cartoon by Rishi

25 Pronounced fall in monarchy (5) REIGN - sounds like rain (v. fall)

26 comments:

  1. 23 Time for starter in savoury pot (5) TUMMY (YUMMY - Y, +T)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Sandhya!
    I didn't exercise my grey cells to get that anno as I wrote the blog.
    I looked up 'pot' in Chambers just now. According to that, this term is used informally in the place of the more common 'pot belly'.
    I wondered for a moment whether the def 'pot' is OK. I concluded it is - every tummy may not be a pot, but every pot is a tummy!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Q: In 26A : How is "starting off badly" = b ? is Off=of ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 'off' when taken as a preposition means 'from'

      Delete
  4. Could not complete the puzzle but learnt quite a few new and innovative "Anagram Indicators" like :

    Across : 4-Faulty, 11-Wrestling, 18-Designer, 24-Intricate, 26-Synchronised, 28-Lining

    Down : 1-Misplaced, 2-Broken, 5-Punched, 7-Wandering, 16-Bowling.

    Of those some were known but most of them were new to me(a novice). Thanks, Buzzer. Hope to do better next time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Buzzer has been successfully finding new anagrinds for some time now.
      28 A : Plastic is the anagram indicator. Lining indicating the containment of DY

      Delete
  5. Logging in late today.

    Can 4A &lit too?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can 4A not be &lit too? I meant...

      Delete
    2. No. They repair is the def, and it's not part of the fodder.

      Delete
  6. Not easy from Buzzer today.
    Have a couple of doubts:
    28 Case of deftly lining rebated plastic toy (5,4) TEDDY BEAR - dy in anag of rebated
    'Lining' I thought meant DY inside rebated*. Should it have 'lining of'?

    5 Arrogant fellow getting sucker-punched (8) COCKSURE - co + cksure, anag of 'sucker'. Fellow: CO?

    26 A: Rowers on team synchronised after starting off badly (7) BOATMEN. Maybe just starting without 'off' would have been better.

    Liked the Snare drum clue the best, referring to the Greg & Trevor Chappell u/arm bowling!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 'Lining' I thought meant DY inside rebated* . That is what I intended - lining in the sense of something on the inside.

      Fellow = Co as in co-pilot, co-passenger

      Delete
  7. Very tough, but hugely enjoyable. Got barely 40%, but no complaints. What I like about Buzzer is the constructions -- without relying on referring to Chambers (personally I dislike CWs that make the solver rush to Chambers for obscure conventions), he makes elaborate clues that are very satisfying. And the anagrinds, as MB says, are groovy. Kudos!

    Who's tomorrow? Neyartha, I think (and hope), to be followed by my absolute favourite, viz Arden?

    ReplyDelete
  8. CW- new anagrinds, nice surface reading, taxing the brain well (I could not complete though enjoyed most of them on seeing the blog). way to go!

    Cartoon- As they say before any fiction any resemblance to real life characters is not intentional. I felt the cartoon for pot belly resembled someone all of us know only too well ! Or is CV's sketching is so life like?

    In one of the Tamil magazines any cartoon for a cop would always be with a pronounced pot belly! Any other part of the body including the face being incidental, the pot belly used to be the 'signature'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Padmanabhan

      I have none in my mind when I draw these figures. It is a quick doodle and I make no 'fair copy' or 'redesign'.

      In fact only later I realised that the specs on the beach boy's nose has no temples or temple tips.

      BTW, I would like to assure you that what is in the pic for the second cartoon is a figment of my fertile imagination and bears no resemblance to any member.

      Delete
    2. Especially me! ;-)

      I don't have a pot belly. Any resemblence to a ULCC is fiction. Large economy size is how PGW described it. I have, of course, been mistaken many times for a police officer. Once, at HAL airport, I was with my son who was around 5 years old at that time, when I was approached by an inspector, who after saluting me, asked me in Kannada if I wanted to show aircrafts to the kid. On nodding, he whisked us through security, to the apron, to the absolute delight of my son who remembers the incident to this day.

      Paddy's ref to cops with paunches is aptly illustrated in Panchatanthiram, where when an imposter is asked for proof by a kid shows his 'toppe' as proof.

      Delete
    3. Paddy has been diplomatic in not naming anyone, but please don't draw any comparison with toon under 8d. I might find that pricking!

      Delete
  9. One of our greatest worthies has gone on to the great grid in the sky. 1 Down, but not forgotten

    http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/2013/nov/26/araucaria-john-graham?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. RIPO. VEry enjoyable crosswords he used to set. I believe he had been ailing from cancer for some time.

      Delete
    2. Very sad indeed. Yes, he had indeed been ailing. Amazingly, he announced his ailment through crossword clues. See http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/25842

      Delete
    3. Just saw that the obituary mentions his clues for his ailment. There was also a mention of this as the most commented post on fifteensquared.net, in the interview of Gaufrid carried by Shuchi in crosswordunclued.com.

      Delete
  10. Funny that the only two clues that I left unsolved today appear as _ A _ T _ R. 19A and 21D.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I found it hilarious to see a link between 5d, 8d and 10a (read as a hyphenated word)

    ReplyDelete

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