A fun mid-week work-out with Eccles this week.
There seems to be a lot of dumping going on here, although we don’t really think this is a theme as such – is Eccles down in the dumps after the Christmas and New Year celebrations?
As non-Mancunians, we wondered whether the local newspaper might be the 1ac 6ac (it’s not!!). We should have remembered that we’ve been to concerts at the MEN (Manchester Evening News) Arena several times.
We’re showing our age as we had to google Rita at 25ac (although there could only be one answer) and we’d never come across the entries at 1d and 18d, so we’ve learnt something new today!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Moobs pert when naked in English city (10) | |
| MANCHESTER | MAN CHEST (moobs) + |
|
| 6 | Multiple-choice featuring e) “In the Navy”? (4) | |
| ECHO | Hidden or ‘featuring’ in multiplE CHOice – a reference to the letter ‘e’ in the phonetic alphabet as used by the navy (among many others) | |
| 10 | Tell fib about drink to get another (7) | |
| LIMEADE | LIE (tell fib) round MEAD (drink) | |
| 11 | Recite list of bad news to an angler? (4,3) | |
| REEL OFF | We’re not really convinced by this one – we think it must be a reference to the fact that if the REEL on an angler’s rod was OFF, it would be bad news as it would be unusable | |
| 12 | Immediately after that, he threw it out (9) | |
| THEREWITH | An anagram of HE THREW IT – anagrind is ‘out’ | |
| 13 | Play with boobs? (5) | |
| FARCE | A cryptic definition – a FARCE is a play that relies for its humour on things going wrong, or ‘boobs’ | |
| 14 | Dump date before long (5) | |
| DITCH | D (date) ITCH (long) | |
| 15 | Go on salt concoction to restrict opening of blood vessels (9) | |
| LONGBOATS | An anagram of GO ON SALT (anagrind is ‘concoction’) round or ‘restricting’ B (first letter or ‘opening’ of ‘blood’) | |
| 17 | Game, with the skin, that is fried in breadcrumbs (9) | |
| CROQUETTE | CROQUET (game) + T |
|
| 20 | Arrangement by mafia boss following opponents (3-2) | |
| END-ON | DON (mafia boss) following E and N (East and North – opponents in bridge) | |
| 21 | Partners excluded from a naturist survey (5) | |
| AUDIT | A |
|
| 23 | Dish of fish and chips cooked in oil, primarily (9) | |
| CARPACCIO | CARP (fish) + first or ‘prime’ letters of And Chips Cooked In Oil | |
| 25 | Rita’s Conservative rhetoric (7) | |
| ORATORY | ORA (Rita Ora – singer and actress) TORY (Conservative) | |
| 26 | Animal waste dumps force Conservative to be upfront (7) | |
| CRITTER | ||
| 27 | Sleeps around for a while (4) | |
| SPAN | NAPS (sleeps) reversed or ‘around’ | |
| 28 | Doctors, medical graduates, nurses: Philistines essentially (10) | |
| INTERNISTS | INTERNS (medical graduates) round or ‘nursing’ |
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | Fine Greek character left court (5) | |
| MULCT | MU (Greek character) L (left) CT (court) – a new word for us! | |
| 2 | Dump right-hand man (6,3) | |
| NUMBER TWO | Double definition | |
| 3 | The anxious hate unusual medical condition (4,10) | |
| HEAT EXHAUSTION | An anagram of THE ANXIOUS HATE – anagrind is ‘unusual’ | |
| 4 | Large top quality mushrooms served up as dish of the day? (7) | |
| SPECIAL | L (large) AI (top quality) CEPS (mushrooms) all reversed or ‘served up’ | |
| 5 | Body part subsequently formed from clay (7) | |
| EARTHEN | EAR (body part) THEN (subsequently) | |
| 7 | Person in charge has love for a singing group (5) | |
| CHOIR | CH |
|
| 8 | Queen leaving presents with each male child in time of low-spending (3-6) | |
| OFF-SEASON | OFF |
|
| 9 | Harry Belafonte gains appreciation of others’ interests, at great personal cost (4-10) | |
| SELF-ABNEGATION | An anagram of BELAFONTE GAINS – anagrind is ‘harry’ | |
| 14 | Tyrannical leaders overheard Richard, Duke of York, and King Edward, perhaps (9) | |
| DICTATORS | A homophone (‘overheard’) of DICK (Richard) TATERS (Duke of York and King Edwards are varieties of potato) | |
| 16 | Retires and relaxes, holding detectives up (9) | |
| ABDICATES | ABATES (relaxes) round or ‘holding’ CID (detectives) reversed or ‘up’ | |
| 18 | Hypothetical particle recreated on yacht (7) | |
| TACHYON | An anagram of ON YACHT – anagrind is ‘recreated’ – another new word for us | |
| 19 | Near a chemist’s, showing sign of infection? (7) | |
| EARACHE | Hidden or ‘shown’ in nEAR A CHEmist’s | |
| 22 | I love abandoning scene in play (5) | |
| DRAMA | D |
|
| 24 | Iris‘s gold braids oddly discarded (5) | |
| ORRIS | OR (gold) bRaIdS (discarding odd letters) | |
Another great crossword from one of my favourite Indy setters. Also didn’t know MULCT. 18d is well-known to sci-fi fans with tachyon drives often used for faster-than-light travel or even time travel. INTERNISTS was also new to me. CARPACCIO rings a bell but not sure if met before. All clued in a manner that made it possible to complete without cheating (i.e. using a word fit or a reveal). Thanks to S&B.
Super puzzle. thanks, Eccles, Bertandjoyce
Took a few minutes to get going, with FOI eventually being the lovely Harry Belafonte one. Otherwise, favourites ECHO and number 2d, both of which had me fooled for ages.
Really enjoyable. Thanks to E,B&J
Sorry, Eccles, not really one for me although I did like 1a along with 4&5d.
Thanks to B&J for the blog – glad I wasn’t the only one unfamiliar with 1d!
I found this quite tricky, but got there without aids. I was held up by biffing MULCH and HEREWITH, which obviously didn’t fit, but came back and sorted the corner out eventually. Knew 18d, The Mary’s Boychild singer clue was my LOI. CROQUETTE toook forever as I was fixated on crust and croutons, but writing the crossers out with the useful try a Q before a U rule did the trick. Great puzzle. Thanks Eccles and B&J.
Thanks Eccles a bit a rudeness to raise a smile is always welcome. Before seeing the enumeration for 13 i immediately thought of a comedy of errors. Mind you with it being pantomime same season… Thanks bert and joyce.
Hovis@1: Indeed, for this SF fan with a degree in physics, 18dn was my FOI. And, although I’m in my mid-sixties and my musical tastes are classical, I’d even heard of Rita Ora.
This all fell into place in a couple of passes separated by one of us visiting the dentist – fortunately no frozen jaws afterwards. We knew of Rita Ora but googled to check who she was/is, and having deduced MULCT and TACHYON from the clues we checked their definitions in Chambers.
Favourites were LIMEADE, CROQUETTE, CARPACCIO and the aforesaid TACHYON, but we weren’t totally convinced by 11ac or 20ac.
Thanks, Eccles and B&J.
Cheers for the blog, B&J (the fireworks were great, and we made 8k profit), and to all the commenters.
Fun puzzle. 1d a new word for me also. Many thanks Eccles and B&J.