Independent 10,275 by Eccles

by

We’re back from our travels and are delighted to find that we have an Eccles to blog.

As we have come to expect from Eccles, this was a fun but not too diffiult puzzle. We laughed out loud at 1ac and the enjoyment didn’t stop till we’d filled the grid.
A lovely way to spend time on a Wednesday!

 

completed grid

Across

1 Nonsense emanating from unhygienic brothel? (8)
CLAPTRAP
An unhygienic brothel might result in clients getting VD (‘the clap’) so, it could be described as a CLAP TRAP

5 Three seconds after first signs of creation of universe (6)
COSMOS
S, MO and S (‘three seconds’) after C O (first letters or ‘signs’ of ‘creation of’)

8 Pass on German article (3)
DIE
Double definition

9 Resentment shown by female wader? (10)
BITTERNESS
A female bittern (wader) could fancifully be referred to as a BITTERN ESS

10 It’s OK to criticise this hoopla? (4,4)
FAIR GAME
Hoopla is a GAME at a FAIR

11 Long, like ripe bananas (6)
ASPIRE
AS (like) + an anagram of RIPE – anagrind is ‘bananas’

12 Leadsom axed over housing assessment (4)
EXAM
Hidden (‘housed’) and reversed (‘over’) in LeadsoM AXEd

14 Strayed badly drinking whisky, becoming overly optimistic (6-4)
STARRY-EYED
An anagram of STRAYED (anagrind is ‘badly’) round or ‘drinking’ RYE (whisky)

17 Details of run around shopping centre (5,5)
SMALL PRINT
SPRINT (run) around MALL (shopping centre)

20 A request for help to restrain nationalist’s children … (4)
SONS
SOS (a request for help) round or ‘restraining’ N (nationalist)

23 … even though Einstein accepts one right away (6)
ALBEIT
ALBErT (Einstein) round or ‘accepting’ I (one) with ‘r’ (right) omitted or ‘away’

24 Hatred, of a sort (8)
AVERSION
A VERSION (sort)

25 British pub is terrible dump (7,3)
RUBBISH TIP
An anagram of BRITISH PUB – anagrind is ‘terrible’

26 Gold earring’s origin? (3)
ORE
Clue as definition – OR (gold) + E (first letter or ‘origin’ of ‘earring’) – the origin of gold is an ORE

27 Maybe dad is to fund accommodation when taking year out (6)
PARENT
PAy RENT (fund accommodation) without the ‘y’ (year)

28 Politician from a time before major Antarctic missions? (8)
PRESCOTT
A time before major Antarctic missions might be described as PRE-SCOTT (Robert Falcon Scott, British Antarctic expedition leader)

Down

1 They systematically catalogue fish and chips I consumed – that is more northern (9)
CODIFIERS
COD (fish) FRIES (chips) round or ‘consuming’ I and with ‘ie’ (that is) moved up or ‘northwards’ (it’s a down clue)

2 Republic of Austria supporting new state of Crimea (7)
AMERICA
A (Austria) under or ‘supporting’ (in a down clue) an anagram of CRIMEA – anagrind is ‘new state’

3 Caribbean island to score nothing (6)
TOBAGO
TO BAG (score) O (nothing)

4 Aviation apparatus to change? About time! (9)
ALTIMETER
ALTER (change) round TIME

5 Pirate radio’s vulgar song (7)
CORSAIR
A homophone (on the ‘radio’) of COARSE (vulgar) + AIR (song)

6 Sees spell cast, and is awake all night (9)
SLEEPLESS
An anagram of SEES SPELL – anagrind is ‘cast’

7 Possibly start to squash Labour leader’s discarded watch (7)
OBSERVE
We think that this must be lOB SERVE (start to a game of squash) without the ‘l’ (first letter or ‘leader’ of Labour)

13 Incorrectly label male ‘easily manipulated‘ (9)
MALLEABLE
An anagram of LABEL MALE – anagrind is ‘incorrectly’

15 Conservative quits position in church, replaced by astronomically bright star, one who does restorations (9)
RENOVATOR
REcTOR (‘position in church’) with the ‘c’ (Conservative) replaced by NOVA (‘astronomically bright star’)

16 Withdraw funding and end visits abroad (9)
DISINVEST
An anagram of END VISITS – anagrind is ‘abroad’

18 Sharapova claims a let initially, but several shots could have prevented it (7)
MALARIA
MARIA (Sharapova – tennis player) round or ‘claiming’ A L (first or ‘initial’ letter of ‘let’)

19 Proud citizen in threesome, dropping trousers (7)
PATRIOT
TRIO (threesome) in or ‘trousered by’ PAT (dropping, as in cow-pat)

21 Recycling expert loves to collect tops to reuse in natural organic containers (7)
ORINOCO
O O (loves) round or ‘collecting’ first letters or ‘tops’ of Reuse In Natural Organic Containers – a reference to one of the Wombles of Wimbledon Common

22 My cold has gone for good, revealing other complaints (6)
GRIPES
cRIPES (‘my’ as an interjection) with the ‘c’ (cold’) replaced by G (good)

13 comments on “Independent 10,275 by Eccles”

  1. Welcome back B&J

    I too started with a laugh out loud at 1a and enjoyed the whole of the rest of the crossword.  A lovely way to start Wednesday indeed

    Thanks to Eccles for the fun and B&J for the blog

  2. Another great puzzle from the always excellent Eccles. Not sure why you doubt your parsing for 7d.

    Favourites include COSMOS, CORSAIR, MALARIA & PATRIOT but, for me, the COD was the unexpected anagram at 25a. Why have I never seen this before?

    21d has me ‘singing’ that Enya song.

    Thanks to Eccles and Bertandjoyce.

  3. Welcome back B&J and especially Eccles ( a self-described ‘reasonable wicketkeeper’).  Agree about the LOL 1 across.

    But, to vent one of my perennial bugbears, rye is whiskey not whisky.  Just saying.  Doesn’t diminish the fun by much though.

  4. Thought this was one of the best we’ve seen from Eccles and very much enjoyed it.   Really wanted to disparage 1a but couldn’t stop giggling for long enough so it finished up at the top of my pile along with the delightful vision conjured up by 14a.

     

    Many thanks to Eccles and to B&J for the blog.   Trust that you had a really enjoyable time on your travels.

  6. Very pleasant solve. I couldn’t parse OBSERVE and hadn’t heard of the Womble at 21d, but both could be worked out fairy easily. Unfortunately no ‘shots’, as in a vaccine, can prevent MALARIA but it was a good clue anyway. I also liked 1a and my favourite that not so well known bird, the BITTERN ESS.

    Thanks to Eccles and B&J

  7. Yes, a very pleasant solve, over a bit too quickly – we only had four clues left to solve after our first pass.  We smiled at 1ac, groaned at 9ac and laughed out loud at 21dn.  The latter was our joint favourite with 25ac.

    Wordplodder@6: Actually 18dn is topical (probably unintentionally).  This item was on the news the other day.

    Thanks, Eccles and B&J.

  10. Welcome back B&J.  Apologies to Conrad, and other whisk(e)y experts.  You are quite correct, apologies for not getting that right.  I didn’t know that, I just thought it was a variant spelling.  I did check the malaria shots, though.  Hovis, I was delighted to find the 25a anagram, and was hoping it wasn’t a chestnut.  I’ve had the clue for quite a while, but every time before now I tried to put it in a puzzle the puzzle turned out to be not up to scratch and was discarded.

  12. Many solvers at another place find Vulcan the OK successor of Rufus but I, for one, see Eccles as the real successor of Dac.

    And those over there who gush at Arachne’s surface readings and Nutmeg’s wit, should have a look here.

    Eccles deserves more than a dozen comments!

  13. I very much agree with Sil’s comment @12. I’ll also say again that in Carpathian, the Guardian Quiptic setter perhaps better known to us here as Vigo, the Rufus replacement can be readily found; although I should add that I have absolutely no idea if time/pressure of work issues would allow an increased output

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