An absorbing puzzle from Eccles which had an interesting mix of conventional and pop culture clues.
1 Down was maybe a bit obscure for my taste and I don’t entirely follow it. I couldn’t spot any obvious theme but, if it’s something based on the songs of Gnash, I probably wouldn’t. My favourite clues are 21A and the self-referencing 18D.
| Across | ||
| 1 | GORMANDISE | Dreaming, so crashes into gorge (10) |
| (Dreaming so)* | ||
| 6 | GALA | Legal age to host party? (4) |
| Hidden in leGAL Age. A gala isn’t exactly a party, which is why the question mark is required. | ||
| 10 | ASPIRIN | Ambitious German discarded drug (7) |
| Aspirin[g] | ||
| 11 | EVENTER | Competitor always seizes opening (7) |
| E’er around vent | ||
| 12 | HISTOGRAM | That man’s getting Robbie, perhaps, to lie about plot (9) |
| His(=that man’s) + Margot<, referring to Margot Robbie, an Australian actress. | ||
| 13 | TERSE | Short Peter Sellers covers (5) |
| Hidden in peTER SEllers | ||
| 14 | BREAD | Reportedly reproduced money (5) |
| Hom of bred + slang term for money | ||
| 15 | INDOLENCE | No decline should be misconstrued as laziness (9) |
| (No decline)* | ||
| 17 | HESITATED | He said I inhaled, but was reluctant (9) |
| He stated around (inhaling) I | ||
| 20 | UNFIT | Out of shape individual enthrals female (5) |
| Unit around f(emale) | ||
| 21 | MACHO | Still on a plane? That’s very masculine! (5) |
| Mach 1 represents a plane going at the speed of sound, so logically Mach 0 would mean the plane is not moving (still). | ||
| 23 | INAUGURAL | Maiden wearing Russian flower around August (9) |
| In + Ural around aug | ||
| 25 | ALIMENT | Fifty advanced in disorder to get food (7) |
| Ailment with the L (=50 in Roman numerals) moved forward | ||
| 26 | TWOFOLD | Start to taste whisky from long ago, getting double (7) |
| T[aste] + w(hisky) (w in the phonetic alphabet) + “of old”. | ||
| 27 | SO SO | Very small entrance to office is just about adequate (2-2) |
| So(=very) + s(mall) + o[ffice] | ||
| 28 | GEODESISTS | George stops flat-earther’s nemeses? (10) |
| Geo(rge) + desists | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | GNASH | His song about J Eccles is grind (5) |
| Struggling a bit with this one – it appears to refer to the American singer, Gnash, who had a song called Me (which would be the compiler, Eccles) but I have no idea what the J is doing there. | ||
| 2 | REPOSSESS | Take back ownership from theological study group on ship (9) |
| RE (Religious Education) + posse + SS | ||
| 3 | AIR CONDITIONER | Maybe fan of song by One Direction desperately short of energy (3-11) |
| Air(=song) + (on[e] direction)* | ||
| 4 | DENARII | 22 study a raisin, oddly (7) |
| Den + a + odd letters of raisin. A denarius was a Roman coin. | ||
| 5 | STEMMED | Originated from tourists in Cornwall being up before the first sign of daylight (7) |
| Emmets< d[aylight]. Emmets are what the locals in Cornwall call tourists. | ||
| 7 | ACTOR | Sometimes, one works without clothes? (5) |
| [F]actor[y]. I think this must be an &lit referring to the fact that an actor may take a role where they have to be nude. | ||
| 8 | AGREEMENT | Contract spy regarding those people briefly being detained (9) |
| Agent around re(=regarding) + em (contraction of them = those people) | ||
| 9 | DENTAL SURGEONS | Unrelated songs broadcast as fillers? (6,8) |
| (Unrelated songs)* | ||
| 14 | BOHEMIANS | Some Czechs in Bosnia working to protect border (9) |
| Bosnia* around hem | ||
| 16 | NEFARIOUS | Are fusion bombs immoral? (9) |
| (Are fusion)*. Bombs here would probably have to be interpreted as a verb (as in the play bombs), as the nounal interpretation wouldn’t require it to be plural. | ||
| 18 | THISTLE | 18 down tools, primarily supported by the French, to get Scottish representation (7) |
| This (ref to the clue itself, 18D) + t[ools] + le (French def article) | ||
| 19 | DRAFTED | Forced to serve doctor and American newspaper editor (7) |
| Dr + A(merican) + FT + ed | ||
| 22 | COINS | Business in strife, initially, resulting in change (5) |
| Co(mpany) + in + s[trife] | ||
| 24 | LIDOS | Nothing tops lying around swimming pools (5) |
| O with lids< around it. | ||
*anagram
Perhaps you have to be a certain age but Graham Nash had a song about Jennifer Eccles – so G Nash – J Eccles – thanks to Eccles for the ear-worm which has now taken over the ear-worm I got from the DT Cryptic
I found this crossword trickier than I’d expect from a Monday puzzle – parts went in quite easily, others took longer
Thanks to Eccles and NealH
On further research, it was the Hollies who had the hit with Jennifer Eccles – Graham Nash was a member of that group and a co-writer of the song. Apparently Jennifer Eccles was the maiden name of his wife
Still got the ear-worm !
I only vaguely remember the Hollies’ song. Certainly not general knowledge, I would say.
Saw the reversal of MARGOT in 12a but didn’t know MARGOT ROBBIE, so thanks for the info.
Lots of fantastic surfaces – something I always appreciate in a cryptic.
Messed up parsing EVENTEE, thinking ENT might be an abbreviation for ‘entrance’. Your explanation must be the correct one.
Thanks to Eccles and Neal.
Crosby Stills and 1d
CS@2. The song was co-written by Alan Clarke (the very mention of whom will send Jane into paroxysms of delight) and Graham Nash. Alan Clarke’s wife was called Jennifer Bowstead and Graham Nash’s wife was Rose Eccles.
What a fantastic group The Hollies were. They are still good but, without Alan Clarke’s voice, they are shadows of their former selves.
1d definitely for we children of the sixties. A bit unfair on everyone else perhaps?
By some distance the best crossword of an otherwise much more Mondayish than usual Monday.
Apart from an image in your comment that I could have done without post lunch, my research into the song and the Jennifer turned up slightly different information. Just to add to the ear-worminess of it all, apparently Graham sang the bit about Jennifer Eccles and her terrible freckles on Scaffold’s Lily the Pink
I absolutely loved this. You can rely on Eccles for a high class puzzle and this one was one of his very best.
Wouldn’t 7d have worked more simply as, “Sometimes works without clothes”? And rather than having “those people” in 8d leading to “em”, why not “half of those people”?
My page is littered with ticks, so I’ll just single out for mention my double ticks which went to 21a, 28a, 3d, 9d & 14d. There were wonderful surfaces throughout but 14d is exemplarily smooth.
Many thanks to Eccles and to Neal.
Hugely enjoyable fun from Eccles as usual. I thought today’s puzzle had a really good spread of innovative and witty clues. Many thanks to S&B
As RD would have predicted, I’ve just taken time out to bop round the kitchen to a selection of songs from The Hollies – those with Alan Clarke in pole position! Conversely, I’d not heard of Margot Robbie before today, horses for courses and all that.
So nice when Eccles uses his own style instead of concentrating on being ‘one of the lads’ – this puzzle was a prime example of just how good that style is.
Many thanks to Eccles (see you later in the month?) and to NealH for the blog.
Many thanks for the blog and the comments. 1d was a bit specialist knowledge, and I think I would have gone for an alternative but couldn’t resist the self-reference. I knew he’d written it, though, and I didn’t exist in the sixties, but I am a bit of a 60s Britpop fan.
Jane, 50/50 atm.
Belated comment. Commenting on this slipped my mind as it was a joint solve (three of us) towards the end of a long evening of slurping and puzzling. G. Nash seemed plausible enough, but we did have to verify him – fortunately the chap to my left knew all about it.
As for the puzzle as a whole, Baerchen’s comments @9 sum it up for me.
Thanks JenniferE and NealH.