Eccles has given us a crossword today free from words I didn’t know.
My wife has SUMAC in the spice cupboard so that was an early entry reversing Monsieur CAMUS, a frequent visiting philosopher to crossword land.
I did though start at the top with STODGE, HARDSHIP and TIP-OFF going in quickly.
I thought some of the clue surfaces were very good . Even the pun O PUS raised a laugh. I’m not always a fan of foreign words in puzzles due to an inability to learn languages other than computer ones, but I liked the use of ONZE for team in BRONZE. The use of TYRO and L to form learners was excellent as was the reference to Standard & Poor’s in a clue alluding to business performance. After two learners we had two drinks in SUPPORTER.
It’s good to see a few new anagram indicators. ‘Suspect’, ‘bubbly’ and ‘compound’ were the less obvious ones I spotted today
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
|
1
|
Gets drunk; eats an excessive amount of starchy food (6)
|
Anagram of (drunk) GETS containing (eats) OD (overdose; an excessive amount of]) ST (OD) GE* |
STODGE (heavy starchy food)
|
| 5 | Firm to get rid of suffering (8) |
HARD (firm) + SHIP (dispatch; get rid of) HARD SHIP |
HARDSHIP (suffering) |
| 9 | Perhaps gunsmith and Republican must stop affair angering core members (8) |
(R [Republican] contained in [must stop] AMOUR [love affair]) + ER (central letters of [core members] ANGERING) A (R) MOUR ER |
ARMOURER (maker, repairer or custodian of arms, e.g. guns)
|
| 10 | Confidential disclosure from aristocrat retaining international power (3-3) |
TOFF (aristocrat) containing (retaining) (I [international] + P [power]) T (I P) OFF |
TIP-OFF (piece of secret information; confidential disclosure) |
| 11 | Tired, left to prolonged applause (7,3) |
CLAPPED (applause) + OUT (gone; left) taken together the two words imply prolonged applause as one leaves CLAPPED OUT |
CLAPPED OUT (tired and exhausted) |
| 12 | Expression of dismay at cat’s ‘work of art‘ (4) |
O (sounds like [expression of] OH!, a word indicating dismay) + PUS (sounds like [expression] PUSS [cat] O PUS |
OPUS (literary or artistic work) |
| 13 | It hurts to be dumped; I don’t allow foul language (3,5) |
Anagram of (foul) I DON’T ALLOW excluding (to be dumped) OW (a word indicating that something hurts) OLD LATIN* |
OLD LATIN (The Latin language before the classical period, up to about 100 BC) |
| 16 | Plump, red, and German (6) |
ROT (German for red) + UND (German for and) ROT UND |
ROTUND (plump) |
| 17 | Kiss and cuddle in plane cabin rather than toilet initially (6) |
SMOOTH (plane) with C (first letter of [initially] CABIN) replacing (rather than) T (first letter of [initially] TOILET) SMOO (C) H |
SMOOCH (kiss and cuddle) |
| 19 | Lawyer visiting tournament not suitable for everyone (8) |
AT (visiting) + TOURNEY (tournament) excluding (not) U (cinema certification indicating the film is suitable for anyone to watch) AT TORNEY |
ATTORNEY (lawyer)
|
| 21 | Formerly taking cocaine and ecstasy (4) |
ON (taking [regularly)] + C (cocaine) + E (ecstasy) ON C E |
ONCE (formerly) |
| 22 | He maintains grass on drugs suspect will be found by staff (10) |
Anagram of (suspect) ON DRUGS + MAN (staff) GROUNDS* MAN |
GROUNDSMAN (a person who maintains the grass) |
| 25 | British team in France getting medal (6) |
BR (British) + ONZE (eleven in French; many teams have eleven players and the word eleven can be used to mean team) BR ONZE |
BRONZE (colour of medal for third place) |
| 26 | Location of teacher’s pet’s close call (4,4) |
NEAR [word describing location] + MISS (female teacher]) – teacher’s pet will usually be seated close to the teacher NEAR MISS |
NEAR MISS (close call) |
| 27 | Judge again severe as Sessions bottles it (8) |
REASSESS (hidden word in [bottles] SEVERE AS SESSIONS) REASSESS |
REASSESS (review; judge again)
|
| 28 | After a month, say, bubbly goes off (6) |
DEC (December; month) + an anagram of (bubbly) SAY DEC AYS* |
DECAYS (rots; goes off)
|
| Down | |||
| 2 | Learners go skiing here (5) |
TYRO (beginner; novice; learner) + L (learner) to give learners TYRO L |
TYROL (skiing area in Austria and Italy) |
| 3 | Finally, Standard and Poor’s reversed decline (5) |
D (last letter of [finally] STANDARD) + POOR reversed (reversed) Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC is an American financial services company which gives the clue an excellent surface. D ROOP< |
DROOP (decline) |
| 4 | Maybe Hemingway’s taking answer to grave (7) |
ERNEST (reference ERNEST Hemingway [1899 – 1961], American novelist) containing (taking) A (answer) E (A) RNEST |
EARNEST (grave) |
| 5 | Continue to talk annoyingly about old weapon (7) |
HARP ON (continue to talk annoyingly) containing (about) O (old) HARP (O) ON |
HARPOON (barbed dart or spear, especially for killing whales) |
| 6 | Muscle deterioration advanced with hill climbing (7) |
(ROT [deterioration] + A [advanced] + TOR [hill]) reversed (climbing; down clue) This is a palindrome and spells the same forward and back. The reversal is needed to give the clue a good surface. Indeed it wouldn’t be a proper sentence without the ‘climbing’. (ROT A TOR)< |
ROTATOR (muscle that rotates a part of the body on its axis) |
| 7 | Fan of drink getting another (9) |
SUP (drink) + PORTER (dark brown malt liquor; drink) SUP PORTER |
SUPPORTER (fan)
|
| 8 | Effect of hip disease regularly reenacted (9) |
IN (trendy; hip) + FLU (disease) + ENCE (letters 2, 4, 6 and 8 [regularly] of REENACTED) IN FLU ENCE |
INFLUENCE (result of an action; effect of) |
| 14 | Compound or element that’s precursor to vitamin C source? (5,4) |
Anagram of (compound) OR ELEMENT LEMON TREE* |
LEMON TREE (required precursor for a LEMON [source of Vitamin C] to grow) |
| 15 | Observed meeting Duke in toilets for unfinished business (5,4) |
(SEEN [observed] + D [duke]) contained in (in) LOOS (toilets) LOO (SE EN D) S |
LOOSE ENDS (unfinished business) |
| 18 | One getting higher in spirit following extremely healthy personal care (7) |
HY (first and last letters of [extremely] HEALTHY) + GENIE (spirit) with the I moving up (down entry) the word from fourth position to second position [getting higher]) HY GIENE |
HYGIENE (the science or art of preserving health, especially through cleanliness; personal care) |
| 19 | Measures acceleration by Ben Stokes (7) |
A (acceleration) + MOUNT (Ben – as in Ben Nevis etc) + S (stokes; an abbreviation I wasn’t aware of) A MOUNT S |
AMOUNTS (measures) |
| 20 | Vessel surprisingly dark brown at the top (7) |
TAN (brown) + an anagram of (surprisingly) DARK TAN KARD* |
TANKARD ([drinking] vessel)
|
| 23 | Spice keeping philosopher uplifted (5) |
CAMUS (reference Albert CAMUS [1913 – 1960]. French philosopher) reversed (uplifted; down clue) SUMAC< |
SUMAC (dried ground beans of trees or shrubs of the genus Rhus, used in Middle Eastern cookery) |
| 24 | Analysis of arsenic, for example (5) |
AS (chemical symbol for arsenic) + SAY (for example) AS SAY |
ASSAY (analysis) |
The trickiest of the four cryptics I’ve solved so far today but enjoyable as we’ve come to expect from Eccles.
I too smiled at the cat’s expression of dismay
Thanks to Eccles and Duncan
If Camus is/was a philosopher then so is Dimitar Berbatov (see Scott Murray’s blogs of his games)
But I love his books.
I enjoyed this except for AMOUNTS. S for stokes seems pretty random to me (yes I know it’s in Chambers – #11 in the list to be precise) especially with the false capitalisation. I doubt other editors would have let it through just for the sake of a not particularly good surface.
I couldn’t parse a few including ARMOURER and Camus isn’t exactly the first ‘philosopher’ who comes to mind. In fact I can hardly think of a stranger one.
Don’t know why, but I like CLAPPED OUT as a term and I see a couple of similar words in DROOP and DECAYS.
I too liked the ‘Learners’ and the idea of the naughty cat.
Thanks to Eccles and Duncan
Always a pleasure with Eccles.
OPUS was my favourite, obviously.
Thanks Eccles and Duncan.
Many thanks Eccles, totally enjoyable. I liked CLAPPED OUT and NEAR MISS, just because for some reason i think these are typical Eccles clues.
Many thanks Duncan for a superb review
The previous time I commented on an Eccles crossword, I said that this setter knows how to write a proper clue. I can (and will) happily repeat this today!
As someone from mainland Europe [remember that part of Europe, folks?] 2d was somewhat unclear to me. Both ‘tyro’ and ‘ tiro’ can mean ‘novice’, and what Brits call Tyrol, many others ‘over there’ call Tirol. See what I mean?
Unlike Mr Crabtree @3, I found the use of Ben Stokes purely for the construction quite clever. Perhaps, it deserves a better surface but, hey, you can’t have it all. And by the way, false capitalisation is absolutely all right [the other way round isn’t].
Agree with all those who found 12ac (OPUS) a sweetie.
Lovely crossword.
Many thanks Duncan & Eccles.
Yes, we enjoyed this. Ben Stokes was OK with us – maybe because, having a scientific background, we knew the unit of viscosity.
OPUS was good, but elicited a groan rather than a laugh. For some reason it brought to mind the old Goon Show exchange:
Seagoon: Eccles, put the cat out!
Eccles: What for?
Seagoon: It’s on fire, you fool!
Time we went – but not before thanking Eccles and Duncan.
Thank you for the fine review, Duncan, and to everyone for their comments. I wasn’t aware the puzzle was appearing today until this afternoon, so a surprise for me, too.
Mea culpa with Tirol/Tyrol I am afraid, Sil – I knew of the Tirol spelling, but not of tiro, so it never occurred.
I had contemplated other descriptions of Camus than philosopher (the ‘keeping’ part was actually meant to be part of the description, as he was a goalkeeper), but every biography seemed to describe him like that, so I went with it.
Mr Crabtree, are you an overseas solver? Ben Stokes is a cricketer who has been in the news, but otherwise the surface would indeed be pretty meaningless.
No mea culpa needed (but I actually entered Tirol ….).
[after yesterday’s ‘filing’ (in Nutmeg’s puzzle) another wrong choice – phew]
I entered Tirol as well and didn’t think further. I also entered filing for nutmeg’s puzzle.
Eccles @9: I know who Ben Stokes is. It’s the use of the abbreviation S for Stokes that I think is weak. My only quibble though in a fine puzzle.
Mr Crabtree @12, S is a (true, not very well-known) abbreviation for S/s-tokes and therefore the clue is sound.
Using someone’s name as part of the construction is, in my opinion, rather clever (but that is perhaps because I am often looking for these things myself).
To each their own.
Sil @13 I didn’t say it was wrong, I said it was weak. A surface tail wagging the cryptic dog.
Mr Crabtree, yes, guilty as charged there. It’s not the most common of abbreviations. It also recalls B&J’s point about how many dictionaries a solver should be expected to have, as it is in Chambers but not Collins.