An excellent puzzle from Eccles with soundness (I think) coupled with very pleasing surfaces. I found this very hard to begin with — none of the Acrosses fell at first sight — and then there were plenty of accessible Downs. Finally I stopped, having spent ages and failed on 22ac and 25ac. One of them is a (to me) dreaded cryptic definition, so there weren’t the usual two ways to the answer and I couldn’t see the required one; the other one (25ac) is still a bit of a mystery; no doubt someone will explain it better than I can.
| Across | ||
| 1 | STRATAGEM | Extremely promiscuous women backed plan (9) |
| (mega tarts)rev. — I’ve seen this before, but it’s so good it’s worth an outing from time to time | ||
| 8 | IMAGINE | Assume I’m having a drink with drug (7) |
| I’m a gin E | ||
| 10 | ANNULAR | Circular tip removed from delivery tube encountering resistance (7) |
| {c}annula R | ||
| 11 | MARDI GRAS | Celebration of tolerance spoilt, we hear, by ginger gays regularly being thrown out (5,4) |
| “marred” {g}i{n}g{e}r {g}a{y}s — very nice surface because of the connection between gay activities and Mardi Gras | ||
| 12 | DISMAL | Methodism allows drinking? Very disappointing (6) |
| Hidden [drinking] in MethoDISM ALlows | ||
| 15 | NIGHTLY | English actress on the radio every evening (7) |
| “Knightley” — ref Keira Knightley | ||
| 16 | FOOTLOOSE | Able to go and pay for toilet with a quarter (9) |
| foot [= pay for] loo SE | ||
| 19 | BRIGADIER | Army officer and I gallivant in shrub (9) |
| br(I gad)ier | ||
| 20 | PARTIAL | Keen to leave Italy half-naked (7) |
| part I {h}al{f} | ||
| 22 | FIANCÉ | He’s bound to miss (6) |
| CD — quite a good one I have to admit. Reluctantly. | ||
| 23 | CONFABBED | Discussed prisoner’s superb plot (9) |
| con fab bed — I wouldn’t have thought that confab was a verb, but it is apparently | ||
| 25 | EPITOME | Perfect example of why I’m terrible at maths (7) |
| e pi to me — I don’t feel comfortable here and suspect I’m missing something: is the clue saying that e (one mathematical constant) is pi (another one) so far as I’m concerned, because I’m so terrible at maths? | ||
| 27 | ICECAPS | Room 101 returns, suggesting objects being eliminated from the world (7) |
| (space CI)rev. | ||
| 28 | SPREAD OUT | Maybe drapes move apart (6,3) |
| A reverse anagram: ‘out’ is the anagram indicator and ‘spread’ anagrammed may be ‘drapes’ | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | STAND OFF | Keep away from rugby player (5,3) |
| 2 defs, one of them to stand-off, so perhaps the first one is the definition and the second one the wordplay | ||
| 2 | RAN | Organised every third Member of Parliament (3) |
| {Pa}r{li}a{me}n{t} | ||
| 3 | TILLABLE | Can be cultivated, albeit badly, to adopt Liberal line (8) |
| (L l) in (albeit)* | ||
| 4 | GERM | Beginning of anger management (4) |
| Hidden in anGER Management — the hidden indicator ‘of’ is arguably a bit thin, but we quite often see this | ||
| 5 | MICRONESIA | Appallingly, I aim to imprison old ladies in Pacific islands (10) |
| crones in (I aim)* | ||
| 6 | DARING | Sweetheart not using lube, at first, results in rash (6) |
| darling – l{ube} | ||
| 7 | GETS BY | Becomes bloody disheartened, but copes (4,2) |
| gets [= becomes] b{lood}y | ||
| 9 | IRRITATION | Watering cans good for surface tension, which is a nuisance (10) |
| irrigation canning [= including] g instead of t (which, although I didn’t realise this at first, thinking that ‘surface’ was a clumsy indicator of the first letter, is in Chambers as an abbreviation of surface tension) — |
||
| 13 | SHORT-RANGE | Chess player called Earl is only effective for a limited time (5-5) |
| Short rang E — nice to see that the chess player Nigel Short is considered to be common knowledge: his match in the final of the World Championship in 1993 against Kasparov did receive plenty of publicity. but that was a while ago. However he is still in the world top 100 and he and Adams remain the strongest British players. | ||
| 14 | DOUBLE BASS | Abused slob playing instrument (6,4) |
| (Abused slob)* | ||
| 17 | BASILICA | Graduate next to what could be sandstone church (8) |
| BA silica | ||
| 18 | BRIEFEST | Least lengthy celebration of cheese? (8) |
| brie fest — geddit? — like 1ac rather a chestnut but so good that it shouldn’t die a death because setters are frightened to be unoriginal | ||
| 20 | PICNIC | Reportedly choose to steal food for consumption outside (6) |
| “pick nick” | ||
| 21 | IN A WAY | At home, and not at home, sort of (2,1,3) |
| in away | ||
| 24 | DEER | Perhaps does grass up (4) |
| (reed)rev. — does to be pronounced like doze | ||
| 26 | ONO | Ringo cuddling new wife of bandmate (3) |
| O(n)O — we are (and the Indy seems to allow this sort of thing quite happily) to read Ringo as Ring o — Yoko Ono became the wife of John Lennon, Ringo’s bandmate in The Beatles | ||
*anagram
25a: e and pi or both mathematic constants, but with different values 2.718… / 3.141…
^ Correction e and pi are, not or. (I’ve probably typed the numbers wrong as well!)
Originally put irritating for 9d, which fits the clue, so 22a made harder. Got there in the end. My parsing for 25a matches yours John, but I was also a bit sceptical (and I’m a mathematician). Cannula was new to me, so I learned something.
I can’t see anything wrong with 25. It’s just a silly way of someone who’s not interested in maths saying it’s all meaningless to him.
Should have added earlier that MARDI GRAS was very good, and I liked ONO for its neat simplicity. Thanks to Eccles and John.
‘Perfect example of my constant confusion in maths’ would perhaps have been more elegant but, hey, everyone’s a critic: I think we all got it anyway.
With ONO & IMAGINE I was looking for more Lennonry but I don’t think it’s there.
Fine puzzle in any case. Thanks to both.
Thanks Eccles and John
I too started 9 as IRRIGATING, but the clicked what 22 was. I don’t think there’s any issue with the parsing: it’s IRRIGATION canning (= ditching, getting rid of) G for T, so there’s no problem with deciding which T is being replaced, as none is.
really great puzzle, thanks to Eccles and John
I worked backwards from the final down clues and was motoring along v. nicely before coming to a halt with some of the more difficult across clues. I agree with Simon S@6 in his parsing of IRRITATION. Didn’t know about (Nigel) Short – Fischer and Spassky are the names that come to mind when I think of chess players so a knowledge update is definitely in order. The excellent FIANCE cd had me stumped but was my pick of the day when the P finally D’ed.
Thanks to Eccles and John.
Many thanks Eccles
A brilliant puzzle which was delightful and satisfying to solve. Lots to like, for example 11a, 28a, 6d & 18d but plenty more
Thanks also John
Very much enjoyed this one although I’m still not sure about the parsing of 25a and had a question mark alongside 13d. Doesn’t the answer refer to distance rather than time?
Many thanks to Eccles for a great puzzle and thanks to John for the blog.
jane @10
“… and had a question mark alongside 13d. Doesn’t the answer refer to distance rather than time?”
It can refer to distance but also to time, for instance a short-range forecast as opposed to a long-range one.
Thank you, Gaufrid. I couldn’t get beyond short-range missiles!
Lovely stuff with lots of humour and plenty of neat tricks too. Like John, the acrosses stumped me at first but the downs gave me the in. Felt the puzzle was the toughest Eccles yet, but only in the SW which gave me quite a few problems. Thanks to The Goon for a super puzzle and to Neal for the blog.
*John for the blog, of course.
I must be on Eccles’ wavelength as I whipped through this almost guiltily in under 15 mins, though admittedly without stopping to work out why ANNULAR and EPITOME were right.
Great puzzle with some nice touches. I liked ONO and FIANCE
Many thanks to Eccles for the puzzle and John for the write-up
Grr – I wrote a longish comment and then deleted it like the moron I am.
Fortunately this was a rare occasion where I had treated myself to a printout and so my ink-on-paper-annotations still survive.
So I can see that I have ticks by 11a, 20a, 27a (by which there’s also a 🙁 but that was referring to the subject not the quality of the clue), and also the clever 9d. There is an exclamation mark by 25a which raised a big smile but also predictably some discussion. It’s just a shame that the word isn’t E(I)SPITOME, but we can’t have everything.
I have been in two minds about the device in 26d, but that particular clue is definitely one to warm me to it. I seem to be mellowing in my old age!
Thanks to Eccles and to John for the blog.
Thanks to John for the fine blog, and all who commented. I realised 25a might be contentious, especially as it has to be back-parsed, and thought there was probably a more elegant way. I wish I’d got to ‘constantly confused’, Grant @5.
I hope to see some of you on Saturday – I won’t be there until after the Pitcher and Piano (barring rain/a very decisive victory or defeat), but wherever you go after that.
The best beer pub nearby is probably the King Billy on Manvers street, about a quarter of a mile away,away from town. Keans Head is just round the corner from the Pitcher and Piano, but is small. There is a Brew Dog pub in Hockley, but that will probably be very busy (as will all of Hockley).
If anyone is around on Friday, a quick half may be in order?
Another IRRITATING here. I was just about to give up and come here to find out what 22ac was when something made me reconsider 9dn. 22ac that came out immediately.
Thanks for pointing out my silly mistake in 9dn. And thanks to Eccles for being so kind as not to draw attention to this.
Apologies. Blog amended.