Independent on Sunday 1509/Eccles

by

Jennifer on the oche this Sunday morning with a tractable little number to go with my coffee.

 

 

 

 

Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed

definitions are underlined

 

 

Across

1 Abrupt European national is scruffy individual
SLOVEN
SLOVEN[E]. Is everyone okay with ‘abrupt’ as the last letter removal indicator?

4 Lacking a natural ability to eat seconds
ABSENT
An insertion of S in A BENT.

9 Parties hard to display money
DOSH
A charade of DOS and H.

10 Actor Earl breaks shoe in on-line clip?
CLOTHES PEG
An insertion of THESP and E in CLOG. Nicely misleading surface.

11 Following hail, large area becomes slum
FAVELA
A charade of F, AVE, L and A. Ave Maria, gratia plena …

12 Charlie getting on with order to produce ring, unexpectedly
COLD CALL
A charade of C for the phonetic alphabet ‘Charlie’, OLD, and CALL.

13 Get away with cuddle, oddly lacking happiness
BEATITUDE
A charade of BEAT IT and UDE for the even letters of cUdDlE.

15 Supports ecstasy being taken in pubs
BARS
B[E]ARS

16 See live part of brain
LOBE
A charade of LO and BE. Lo! Within a manger lies …

17 Jumping bail, in case judge factors in readings
CALIBRATE
An insertion of (BAIL)* in CRATE. The anagrind is ‘jumping’; the insertion indicator is ‘in’.

21 Caused to be loved as death approached, an unspecified number lost
ENDEARED
END [N]EARED

22 Associate reported control switch for stove?
HOBNOB
A homophone of HOB KNOB.

24 Reliance on unstable ship
OCEAN LINER
(RELIANCE ON)*

25 So I must welcome king
ERGO
An insertion of R for Rex or ‘king’ in EGO.

26 Club for Green Party leader, say
PUTTER
A charade of P for the first letter of ‘party’ and UTTER.

27 Data about university’s ranking
STATUS
An insertion of U in STATS.

Down

1 Gold blocks present in repository
STORAGE
An insertion of OR for the (heraldic) ‘gold’ in STAGE.

2 Orange Republican in line for missile launchers
OCHRE
An insertion of R in OCHE, the line behind which darts players must stand to throw legally.

3 Delight in predilection to go topless
ENCHANT
[P]ENCHANT

5 See what is written in heavy print
BEHOLD
An insertion of EH? in BOLD.

6 I say ‘Reach out, and relax in this‘
EASY CHAIR
(I SAY REACH)*

7 Framework of report is enthralling rector
TRELLIS
An insertion of R for ‘rector’ in TELL and IS.

8 Emergency stop crossing river – poor Declan is trapped
FORCED LANDING
Plenty of insertions this morning: this one is of (DECLAN)* in FORDING.

14 Proposes key food additive
TABLE SALT
A charade of TABLES and ALT for the ‘key’ in front of you now if you are sitting at a computer or laptop.

16 Poles pursue the Parisian around Paris, primarily providing protection for photographer
LENS CAP
A charade of LE, N and S, CA for circa and P for the first letter of ‘Paris’

18 Be left at home by husband, with weary back
INHERIT
A charade of IN, H and TIRE reversed.

19 Eliot concealing difficult low periods
TROUGHS
Thomas Stearns gobbles up ROUGH.

20 Screen question prior to opening of enquiry
GRILLE
A charade of GRILL and E for the first letter of ‘enquiry’.

23 Best to eat large carp
BLEAT
A final insertion: of L in BEAT.

Many thanks to Eccles for the Sunday morning entertainment.

15 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1509/Eccles”

  1. Another high-quality offering from Eccles.

    Everything’s absolutely fine until we reach the end.

    23d is weak, for more than one reason. (a) It’s the second time Eccles uses ‘eat’ as an insertion indicator (after 4ac), (b) ‘beat’ has a lot in common with ‘eat’, doesn’t it? [and (c) even ‘best’ has a lot in common with ‘beat’].

    Meanwhile, I’m OK with ‘abrupt’ meaning ‘take off the last letter’ (in 1ac).

    Last one in CLOTHES PEG (10ac), was looking for an actor named Earl for too long ….

    Many thanks to Pierre & Eccles.

     

  2. I was stumped by ‘Abrupt’ in 1a which I don’t remember having come across before as a last letter removal indicator, but I suppose it’s fair enough. I had a mental blank for (P)ENCHANT which held me up for both 1a and CLOTHES PEG – I too spent ages wondering how ‘James’ and ‘Jones’ could possibly fit in.

    Favourites for me were the surface for PUTTER and the tricky def. for CALIBRATE.

    Thanks to Eccles and Pierre.

  3. Thought I was going to finish this quickly but the last four clues (10a, 8d, 20d, 21a) took me longer than the rest put together. Very enjoyable.

    Didn’t object to 1a or to BLEAT, though Sil makes some good points on the latter which I didn’t see at the time.

    My favourite was the nicely constructed clue for LENS CAP. Thanks to Eccles and Pierre.

  4. I found this the hardest Eccles/Snape puzzle I have tackled by quite a margin, particularly the LHS, but it was certainly great fun.

    Not surprisingly I couldn’t parse 10a as I’ve never heard of THESP and it is not in Chambers but I have to say that the definition is brilliant.  Thanks to Pierre for unravelling that one.

    My page is littered with ticks, notably 15a, 16a, 26a, 2d & 3d but my favourite was the wonderfully alliterative 16d.

    Many thanks to Eccles.

  8. Thanks to Pierre and Eccles

    I do have a slight problem with ABRUPT = SHORT in 1ac, as we are being asked to choose which synonym of ABRUPT to apply e.g RUDE, CURT, or TERSE amongst others. This sort of choice could raise a crossword to an absurd level of difficulty where you would never be quite sure you had the right answer. In this case the options were quite limited, and the answer evidently correct when arrived so no harm done yet.

    I liked 10a a lot – there’s been a lot of on-line = e recently and Eccles surely had this in mind. Very sneaky- but that’s in his job desription.

    As for 23d I hear us cry

  9. Thanks Eccles, Pierre
    Really liked CLOTHES PEG & LENS CAP.
    If it were the case that you had to translate abrupt to short (i.e. terse, rude) to short (not full-length) I’d certainly have a problem with it. But it’s literal/etymological meaning is broken away, and it is defined, albeit quite far down the list, as ‘truncated’ in Chambers.

  11. If this went well with Pierre’s morning coffee, it also went well with our after-dinner coffee.  And in contrast to Hovis, we started rateher slowly then finished at a gallop.  All very enjoyable and no real complaints.  We liked CLOTHES PEG and LENS CAP among others.

    Thanks, Eccles and Pierre.

  12. Thank you Pierre, and commenters. Apologies for 23d, Sil is quite right, although I wouldn’t have worried about (c).  I had noticed the other two points myself – but too late to change.  Protect (or anything, almost) would have been more satisfactory, although at least the clue is still sound.

  14. I really enjoyed this.  My favourites were the on-line clip (CLOTHES PEG), CALIBRATE, HOBNOB, the green party leader (PUTTER), and OCHRE.

    Thanks Eccles and Pierre.

  15. Very late to the party but had to come here to say how much we enjoyed Eccle’s latest offering.

    We were quite happy with abrupt but actually failed to see the parsing as we didn’t check SLOVENE in Chambers because we were expecting SLOVENIAN!

    Thanks Pierre and Eccles for the amusement on a very bleak Tuesday evening.

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