Independent 9,922 by Eccles

by

A nice gentle crossword in keeping with the Wednesday traditions laid down by Dac and so ably continued by people like Eccles. It all worked out very comfortably and pleasantly, with the exception of my stupid mistake on 1dn described below.

Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.

Whether or not Eccles has a Nina here I really can’t say. Or at least I really can’t see anything, as usual. There are one or two references to the Trump administration in the USA, but hardly enough for a full-blown Nina.

Across
1 CHARISMA Personal appeal from cleaner’s mum (8)
cleaner’s = char’s = char is, ma
5 ASTRAY Husband leaves old cigarette holder in the wrong place (6)
as{h}tray
9 PROWLERS Maybe Austin has both feet separately inserted in sneakers (8)
P(R)ow(L)ers — Austin is Austin Powers and the two feet are R and L
10 PUNDIT One said to Macron: “Pence is leading expert” (6)
p un dit — “one said” to Macron or anybody who uses French is “un dit” — the surface referring to the USA vice-president
12 AVERT Prevent beaver trashing boxes (5)
Hidden in beAVER Trashing, boxes a transitive verb
13 NIGHTFALL Unusual thing occurring prior to Maine’s autumn sunset (9)
(thing)* fall, which is the term for autumn used by residents of Maine
15 NIRVANA Peaceful state of new senator finally accepted by Trump? (7)
n I({senato}r)vana — Ivana Trump rather than the more usual Donald
17 STROPHE Paddy, Henry and Earl produce choral movement (7)
strop [= paddy] H E — I’d always thought that a strophe was merely poetic, but this put me right
19 OPPRESS Subjugate work by the media (7)
op. press
21 SCUTTLE Hurry to go back and forth changing taps (7)
shuttle [= go back and forth] with its H replaced by C, as in hot and cold taps
22 KNOCKER-UP Rousing person from Irish town, flawless on reflection (7-2)
Knock [of County Mayo] (pure)rev.
24 HASTE Is in possession of bit of temazepam, ecstasy and speed (5)
has t{emazepam} E — I suppose haste = speed in some sense, but what about ‘more haste, less speed’? — however, dictionaries surely accept the equivalence
26 AMENDS Changes the last word, originally deemed substandard (6)
amen d{eemed} s{ubstandard}
27 LIFEBOAT It provides relief, if able to, at sea (8)
(if able to)*, but a semi-&lit. (?) so perhaps the definition is wider
28 ASSIST Help band member start off (6)
{b}assist
29 STAND FOR Tolerate mean advocate (5,3)
3 defs
Down
1 CAPTAIN HOOK He single-handedly fought to secure eternal youth (7,4)
CD referring to the one-armed character in Peter Pan who fought to secure the eternal youth Peter Pan — this defeated me because I entered CAPTAIN COOK and was wondering how on earth it worked, wondering if it had some reference not only to the explorer but also to the ex-cricket captain of England, today being the opening of the Test series against India
2 ADORE Excitement about love (5)
ado re — for some reason I found this very difficult and it was my last one in, not counting the previous one — no good reason because it’s perfectly straightforward and a good clue
3 ILL AT EASE Black singer caught out flirt, becoming uncomfortable (3,2,4)
{C}illa tease — ref Cilla Black
4 MIRANDA Space station with a satellite (7)
Mir and a — Mir was the Soviet/Russian space station and Miranda is the smallest moon of Uranus
6 STUNT Hamper and overcome Brexit, ultimately (5)
stun {Brexi}t
7 RED CARPET Terraced property originally refurbished to provide welcome for honoured guests (3,6)
(Terraced p{roperty})*
8 YET In Moscow, no nationalist has been expelled so far (3)
{N}yet — in Russian, ‘no’ is ‘nyet’
11 AGES Wise man has head lowered for a long time (4)
sage with its head lowered to the bottom
14 LIE DETECTOR It, with electrode, is dodgy way to find the truth (3,8)
(It electrode)* — ‘dodgy’ really should be part of the definition since a lie detector is a bit dodgy, but it’s needed as an anagram indicator — perhaps there’s some sort of &littery going on here
16 REPROCESS Again prepare for boring holiday period (9)
re(pro)cess, boring the inclusion indicator
18 ROUGH-HEWN Unsophisticated to peel sprout twice? It’s disgusting when cooked (5-4)
{s}{p}ro{u}[t} ugh! (when)*
20 SORE Raw mineral found beneath Sweden … (4)
S ore — raw = sore? Something can be sore without being raw, and it can be raw without being sore
21 SOPHIST … described by Glossop history teacher (7)
Hidden in GlosSOP HISTory — I suppose the ellipsis between this clue and the previous one is there to make some sort of surface
23 KUDOS Acclaim resulting from solving most of sudoku (5)
(sudok{u})*
25 SCOFF Mock son’s company very loudly (5)
s co. ff
26 AGA Military commander once more not popular (3)
aga{in}

*anagram

21 comments on “Independent 9,922 by Eccles”

  1. Lovely stuff from Eccles again. Took me a while to see ‘peel … twice” to mean remove two letters from both ends. STUNT took me some time as well. Other than that, all pretty straightforward.

    I agree with your comment on lie detectors – now, somebody tell Jeremy Kyle.

    Thanks to Eccles and John.

  2. A very enjoyable mid-week puzzle – thank you Eccles – my particular favourite was the wonderful 1d

    Thanks to John too

  3. I thought this was one of Eccles’ most enjoyable puzzles – the mood set for me by the glorious 1a/d.

    More like that please, Andy!

    Many thanks to him and to John for the blog.

  5. Very enjoyable – thanks to Eccles and John. 9a was my last answer where I needed all the checkers because I couldn’t think of the right Austin. Co-favourites for me 8d and 16d.

     

  7. Superb.  1d was inspired.  Doubly inspired.  There were so many other clever touches that I’ll be here for ages if I try to list them all.  So will just say many thanks Eccles and John.

  8. I took the advice from others solvers and printed off this one. Very pleased I did as it was great fun.

    Thanks Eccles and Johm

  9. A late start on this one having been looking after grandchildren all day, so we were pleased to finish it fairly quickly.  LOI was MIRANDA – must remember ‘with’ = ‘and’ (and vice-versa) in crosswordland.  We took LIFEBOAT to be a full &lit but maybe someone will contradict us; it was a brilliant clue anyway.

    As to ellipses; our view is that in order of probability, greatest first, (a) they provide a surface by linking two unrelated clues, or (b) they indicate that the two clues they link need to be read together to arrive at the answers, or (c) one or both of a pair may be part of the wordplay or even the definition.  20/21 is an example of (a).

    Thanks, Eccles and John.

  10. This was indeed a good crossword.

    But allan_c, I will indeed contradict you as to LIFEBOAT being an &lit or not. ‘It provides relief’ is not part of the wordplay, and therefore this is not an &lit. Simple as that.

    As to ellipses: most setters use them to make to half-sentences into one. Usually there is no particular connection between the two. In my opinion, ideally there should be. And therefore I do not write any ellipses myself anymore in which the two clues are not, in some sense, related. Well, that’s my point of view.

    Meanwhile, I’m still not fully sure whether I like 1ac or not. Probably, I do.

  11. Excellent stuff from Eccles, agree with all the plaudits.

    @10 Sil, I would say a lifeboat provides relief in the same way that humanitarian aid, which may include evacuations, provides relief.

    Thanks to Eccles for the enjoyable puzzle and John for the blog.

  12. gwep, clearly, you – like others – do not understand what an &lit is.

    It’s actually such a simple thing.

     

     

  13. Many thanks to John and all commenters. I’m glad it seems to have gone down well. I did indeed just use the ellipses so I could start a clue with a word you couldn’t normally start a sentence with.

    Sil’s point is that a full &lit has to use every word in both wordplay and definition.  I don’t know that I’ve ever written one, but a good one is very elegant indeed. I remember two in particular from reading DIYCOW: Develop large bosoms (7) from Steve Randall, and Covering around cobblers (7) from Anax. Every word forms part of the wordplay.

    Semi&lits are much more common, and the whole clue is the definition, but there is some part that isn’t wordplay (It provides relief). Often the non-wordplay part can be considered a definition on its own, but the wordplay just extends it.

    If there is no wordplay at all, it’s just a cryptic definition.  I know John isn’t a fan of these, so I hope 1d didn’t make him too grumpy.

  15. Nice to see plenty of comments for once, although certain other papers do get more.

    Sil I absolutely agree with you on the matter of &lits, and of course you’re confirmed by Eccles. The thing I find strange is that when Azed, who is regarded by some as the great expert on crosswords, sees any sort of &lit. in his quoted prizewinning clues he always just calls it an &lit., which is surely not enough.

    You didn’t get much of a response Sil about 1ac. I also noticed that it was a bit unusual but OK in my opinion so I didn’t mention it in the blog.

    Eccles I have indeed grumbled about CDs in the past, but haven’t done so for quite a while (what a good memory you have). The last time I did someone complained about my going on and on about them and why didn’t I just shut up, and ever since then I’ve been afraid to criticise them. What I can’t understand is that it seems to be a different type of clue: if it was definition + wordplay, as in a regular clue, it would have an excellent definition. To give an example: in today’s Times we have ‘Universal launch epic involving good outlaw’ for BIG BANG. If the setter were too (in my opinion) keen on CDs we might have just had ‘Universal launch’. which would in my opinion have only been half a clue. Why do setters cop out and fail to provide any wordplay?

    And Hovis are you and I secret watchers of bits of Jeremy Kyle?  I flick across when Countdown finishes and watch little bits of it.  Dreadful prurience, but it should be required watching for cabinet ministers.

  16. It irks me too when people (especially ones whose words carry weight, because that’s particularly misleading for learners) use &lit to refer to semi-&lit.  I’ve even seen some bloggers calling cds &lits, which makes me want to throw something. 🙂

    Regarding cryptic definitions, I used to have exactly the same opinion as you, John.  Then somebody said something like, “but aren’t they what cryptics are all about, really?”

    My definite preference is still to have some supporting wordplay, but occasionally I see a cd which is so neat and clever that I’m glad stand-alone ones are allowed.  Sometimes, to add wordplay would just make the clue more cumbersome and actually potentially spoil the pdm.

    So my view on them now is that they are overused and I loathe weak ones, but I do like a really good one.

    This one I have already shared with the other cryptic solver in the family and will be quoting again.

    Recently we’ve had a few clues in the Torygraph which contained wordplay but no definition.  Now they did annoy me!

  18. P.P.S. I have found the definitionless clues which I mentioned.  The first is here (8a).  I think a second link will get me spammed, so will just give the last bit of the url: /2018/07/02/dt-28780/ (7d).

  19. I’m very surprised by 8ac Kitty. It does as you say seem deficient yet the Sunday Telegraph is (or at any rate was until recently) set by Brian Greer. He wouldn’t make a mistake like this, so has there been some editorial interference?

  20. Yes, very surprising.  It’s safe to assume that that puzzle is a Brian Greer production, but since we didn’t hear anything from him or the editor I suppose we’ll never know.

  21. I don’t think you should be afraid to criticise CDs, and a good one should be precise but misleading.  A poor one might be too vague, or have multiple possible answers, say.  I think Kitty sums it up nicely in her third paragraph.

    I suspect 8a that Kitty mentioned is probably just an error where Yes! or something similar was accidentally chopped off the end at some point.

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