Tuesday 19 September 2017

No 12116, Tuesday 19 Sep 2017, Spinner


ACROSS
1   Cross The Iron Lung Point, where marathon athletes make their name! (2,3,4,3) IN THE LONG RUN {THE+IRON+LUNG}*{N}
10 Posts negligible returns on investment of capital amount (5) MAILS {SLIM}* over {Am...t}
11 Vet deceit extraordinarily like Holmes, say (9) DETECTIVE*
12 Very old learner adopts church’s doctrine (6) SCHOOL {S{CH}O}{O}{L}
13 Motorcyclescost rose uncontrollably (8) SCOOTERS*
15 Election features first mandate being upturned on intervention of India’s head of the state (9) POLITICAL {POLL} over {AC{In..a}T}{I} <=
16 Mark Twain’s cardiac arrests (4) SCAR [T]
20 Paddles ball to vacant regions with middle of bat (4) OARS {O}{bAt}{Re...nS}
21 Positioning defender extremely wide, working to win ball (9) DEPLOYING {D}{widE}{PL{O}YING}
24 Bird noise basically grows on flocking (8) CROWDING {CROW}{DIN}{Gr..s}
26 One’s money, after loss, is disposable (6) LIQUID {L}{1}{QUID} &lit
28 Arrested revolutionary holding meet, after pressure (9) PREVENTED {P}{R{EVENT}ED}
29 Medic’s poor procedure (5) DRILL {DR}{ILL}
30 A graduate’s short speech cut down by diplomat (12) AMBASSADRESS {A}{MBA'S}{S}{ADdRESS} S for Short?

DOWN
2   Stay next to husband, overwhelmed by our being drunk (9) NEIGHBOUR {H} in {OUR+BEING}*
3   Renowned choir is touring around end of August (8) HISTORIC {CHOIR+IS}* over {a...sT}
4   Seals living in squalid surroundings (4) LIDS [T]
5   Prominent celebrity in possession of diamonds (10) NOTICEABLE {NOT{ICE}ABLE}
6   Suspect about to conk out (6) RECKON {RE}{CONK*}
7   Interfere with setter, creating disturbance (5) NOISE {NO{I}SE}
8   Employ a maiden upfront to entertain (5) AMUSE {A}{M}{USE}
9   Regularly lie to firm to get holiday (7) LEISURE {LIE*}{SURE} Regularly as Anind?
14 Dislikes drinking brine solution, stays hidden during times of cold (10) HIBERNATES {H{BRINE*}ATES}
17 Hundreds of calls about extraordinary tune (9) CENTURIES {C{TUNE*}RIES}
18 Narcissism basically provides for Spinner’s idea (7) CONCEPT CONCE(-i+p)PT
19 Compose lyric about broken end of drum (8) CYLINDER {LYRIC}* over {END}*
22 One used to describe an act of cooking bread with a little vinegar (6) ADVERB {BREAD}* over {Vi...r}
23 Student drowned in alcohol, scratching head weirdly (5) ODDLY {tODD{L}Y}
25 Conditioned ear to follow some obvious patterns in form of music (5) OPERA {Ob...s}{Pa...s}{EAR*}
27 Spinner’s love doesn't end in proposal (4) IDEA {I}{DEAr}

GRID

25 comments:

  1. 30AC I have not come across S for short. Difficult also to delete to cut down D from address !

    ReplyDelete
  2. Regularise?
    Spinner continues his nice spell. Had difficulties in the bottom half- esp. with 30A- in these days of chairperson etc. (not to speak of the problem mentioned above by KKR)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice puzzle but for the doubts raised by Col: S for short? Regularly as anind? But for them the others went in fairly quickly. Thanks Spinner.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Spinner for the puzzle. Nice clues :)

    Agree with Col. on both the points Short is not S and Regularly is not anind.

    Raising a further point purely for sake of discussion.

    21A How does "Extremely" suggest last letter selection? "Extreme of" yes but "Extremely" is first and last letter selection ind. Furthermore according to a recent post by Azed, even that is contentious, it seems.

    Copy pasting from Azed Slip archive..

    A final word of caution and one I’ve mentioned before, though the message has still not got home completely. I don’t accept that ‘extremely’ can be used in a clue to indicate the first and last letters of the relevant word or phrase. This does not seem to me to come within any of the normal senses of the word.

    http://www.andlit.org.uk/azed/slip.php?comp_no=2330

    You can access above to read. I wonder what you folks feel about the same?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Extreme for one end and extremes for both ends in myview

      Delete
    2. Generally it has been used to ind both ends. Some have usd it ind one end. I think could be used for both.

      Delete
    3. Extremely can mean both ends or one of the ends as per this crossword unclued article:
      http://www.crosswordunclued.com/2009/04/letter-sequence-indicators.html?m=1

      Delete
  5. Thanks for the comments.

    1. Regularky - In a say that follows the normal pattern.

    We have possibly seen irregularly as an anagrind. We probably see it more often as an alternate letter indicator, but it seems to indicate rearrangement sufficiently in this sense for me.

    2. Whether extremely is acceptable to select end letters at all is a debate, but I believe if we accept it to select both ends, it is valid to select one end. Extremely, when parsed, gives room for both 'at the extreme' and 'at the extremes'. I'm not convinced about why one of them is acceptable and the other isn't.

    As for using this indicator at all, would we apply the same to firstly, lastly etc? By themselves the words have a different context - If we object to extremely becoming 'extreme 'of', should we also object to firstly becoming 'first 'of'?

    Just thinking aloud here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Typo - In a way that follows the normal pattern. Just like properly and correctly as aninds.

      Delete
    2. Following the normal pattern would mean that LIE remains as LIE

      Delete
    3. Taking the example of other such anagrinds -
      Correctly / Incorrectly
      In Order / out of order
      In place / out of place
      Properly / Improperly

      - In all the left hand side indicators don't we indicate the eventual order we want in the solution as the 'right order' or the 'proper' order ? - All of these anagrinds and more would fail if we interpreted it this way.

      IMO 'properly' and 'improperly' both work as anagrinds - It's a shift in perspective regarding which is the 'right' order.

      Delete
    4. Not in my view. Let's see what anyone else has to say

      Delete
    5. ... to get A/One holiday would resolve the issue I think :) (if you consider A = one = i)

      Delete
    6. Would that mean all of the indicators on the left hand side would be unacceptable?

      In order.
      Set right.
      Originally.
      Correctly.
      Properly and so on.

      Delete
    7. IMO in order, set right seem ok. Originally, correctly and regularly I would say not ok.

      Delete
    8. IMO, "In order", "Set right" "Correctly" "Properly" do work as anagrinds. Not so sure about "regularly" or "Originally".

      Delete
  6. Srivatsan,
    On a less serious note, are you playing Chennai city league cricket by any chance?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have played in the past for Comrades CC, Garnet CC, Nungambakkam SC and GTUC. But I quit cricket 2 years ago and haven't played since. I think I would still be registered to Nungambakkam.

      Delete
    2. Recently I saw Srivatsan prominently getting a few wickets- just thought,maybe,it's yourself.

      Delete
    3. Cricket's Spinner moving on to cryptic crossword's Spinner😀😀

      Delete
  7. Spinner: I never knew your name is Srivatsan. I live in Srivatsa Gardens in Coimbatore. Cam=n Icll myself Srivatsan?

    I enjoyed your today's compilation; notwithstanding the regular/irregular debate. If one dd=idn't go into technicalities too much, one's mind is less clogged to solve- that's what I do !

    Very few comments these days in the blog? Is it because many of us ae involved in the 1 Across three years celbs competition? I do participate and its great fun ; except for the three questions before one submits. I never knew that we are so much into crosswords with so many participants.

    CV: Like in the UK, we too have a good number of participants from the fairer species. Glass ceiling shattered !!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Raju:Srivatsan comesbto comment on every Spinner puzzle and clarifies clues or comments on general.You also come daily to comment. How come you do not notice?

      Delete

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