Eccles today, so we can expect a well clued crossword, unlikely to have a theme or a message.
This puzzle meets those expectations very well.. I think the only entry I have seldom used in everyday conversation is EYE CANDY.
There were a few clues where I had to think quite hard to see the parsing. These were for CONVERSATION where I didn’t see the meaning of CONVERSION immediately, ENTERTAIN where the ‘leads out’ bit held me up for a while and TEMPERATE where I was focused too long on RATE for ‘time’.
Eccles surfaces are excellent and misdirect the thought processes as good clues should do.
It’s not often you find a definition that isn’t right at the beginning or tight at the end of a clue. 9 Across provided an example in that ‘passed’ [OVERTAKEN] was the third word, admittedly after a couple of link words required to get the surface right.
New solvers should study Eccles’ puzzles to get an understanding of how good clueing works.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 1 | A way to get two points across at discussion (12) |
CONVERSION (in Rugby Union and Rugby League, a successful CONVERSION kick after a try scores 2 points) containing (across) AT CONVERS (AT) ION |
CONVERSATION (discussion) |
| 9 | To get passed, patent application primarily needs understanding (9) |
OVERT (plain; evident; patent) + A (first letter of [primarily] APPLICATION) + KEN (knowledge; understanding) OVERT A KEN |
OVERTAKEN (passed) |
| 10 | Wife of German thrown out of game (5) |
BRID BRID (G) E |
BRIDE (newly married woman; wife) |
| 11 | Introduce bit of sugar into still (6) |
S (first letter of [bit of] SUGAR) contained in (into) INERT (still) IN (S) ERT |
INSERT (introduce) |
| 12 | Subdue and arrest criminal at home (8) |
Anagram of (criminal) ARREST + IN (at home) RESTRA* IN |
RESTRAIN (subdue) |
| 13 | Perhaps Fritz is returning gesture (6) |
(LANG [reference Fritz LANG {1890-1976]}, Austrian-German-American filmmaker] + IS) all reversed (returning) (SI GNAL)< |
SIGNAL (gesture) |
| 15 | It is hidden in discreet additional information (8) |
IT contained in (hidden in) SUBTLE (discreet) SUBT (IT) LE |
SUBTITLE (additional information) |
| 18 | Provides money for husband-to-be to clothe new son (8) |
(FIANCÉ [husband to be] containing [clothe] N [new]) + S (son) FI (N) ANCE S |
FINANCES (provides money for) |
| 19 | Burns; small rivers flowing to the west, not east (6) |
STR SMARTS< |
SMARTS (stings; burns) |
| 21 | Warhol following Tina’s husband, reportedly a bit of alright (3,5) |
EYEC (sounds like [reportedly] IKE [reference the American husband and wife singing duo IKE [1931 – 2007] and Tina Turner [born 1939]) + ANDY (reference ANDY Warhol [1928-1987], American artist) EYE C ANDY |
EYE CANDY (informal term for something or someone that is visually attractive) |
| 23 | Hardly ever spots daughter being held back (6) |
(D [daughter] contained in [being held] MOLES [spots]) all reversed (back) (SEL (D) OM)< |
SELDOM (hardly ever) |
| 26 | Sweetbread! (5) |
LOLLY (example of a sweet) LOLLY |
LOLLY (informal term for money) double definition |
| 27 | B*witched badly need to cover repetitive song (9) |
Anagram of (badly) NEED containing (to cover) CHANT (repetitive song) EN (CHANT) ED* |
ENCHANTED (bewitched) |
| 28 | Rudely infers pants easy to get into (4-8) |
Anagram of (pants) RUDELY INFERS USER-FRIENDLY* |
USER-FRIENDLY (designed to be easily understood and operable by non-specialists) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Ugly old woman surrounding one’s friends (7) |
CRONES (ugly old women) containing (surrounding) I (Roman numeral for one) CRON (I) ES |
CRONIES (close friends) |
| 2 | Requires massages, we hear (5) |
NEEDS (sounds like [we hear] KNEADS [massages]) NEEDS |
NEEDS (requires) |
| 3 | Host left positive leads out (9) |
ENT ERTAIN |
ENTERTAIN (host) |
| 4 | Tremor, wanting hard drink (4) |
S SAKE |
SAKE (Japanese alcoholic drink made from fermented rice) |
| 5 | Drunk, beginning to totter and puke? (6-2) |
T (first letter of [beginning to] TO) + an anagram of (totter) AND PUKE T ANKED UP* |
TANKED-UP (having drunk a lot of alcohol) |
| 6 | Track gold coin? (5) |
OR (gold colour in heraldry) + BIT (coin) OR BIT |
ORBIT (track or path of an object or particle) |
| 7 | Tragedy elevated Sid and Nancy? So it’s said (8) |
SID reversed (elevated; down clue) + ASTER (sounds like [it’s said] ASTOR [reference Nancy ASTOR [1879-1964], first female Member of Parliament to take her seat) DIS< ASTER |
DISASTER (tragedy) |
| 8 | Mr Bean goes to church spiritual meeting (6) |
SEAN (reference SEAN Bean [born 1959], English actor) + CE (Church [of England]) SEAN CE |
SEANCE (session or meeting of psychical researchers or spiritualists for the purpose of trying to contact the spirits of the dead or promote supernatural manifestations of various kinds) |
| 14 | How a redhead leaves the house on a sunny day? (8) |
GINGERLY (red-headed people have a tendency to tan more readily due their skin containing a different type of melanin. In a sunny period they will be more GINGER than many other people) GINGERLY |
GINGERLY (warily. Given their susceptibly to sunburn, red-headed people may well be a bit wary when they step into the sun) |
| 16 | Politician time after time blocking support for moderate (9) |
(MP [Member of Parliament; politician] + ERA [period of time] + T [time]) contained in [blocking] TEE [support for a golf ball) TE (MP ERA T) E |
TEMPERATE (moderate) |
| 17 | Maybe Busby suffered from terrible rage about Everton’s opener (8) |
(HAD [suffered from] + an anagram of [terrible] RAGE) containing (about) E (first letter of [opener] EVERTON) H (E) AD GEAR* |
HEADGEAR (a busby is a fur hat with a bag hanging on its right side, worn especially by hussars) |
| 18 | Complaint about the French is pathetic (6) |
BEEF (complaint) reversed (about) + LE (one of the French forms of ‘the’) FEEB< LE |
FEEBLE (pathetic) |
| 20 | In the future, protest over cuts, perhaps (7) |
DEMO (DEMOnstration; protest) reversed [over] contained in (cuts) SAY (perhaps) S (OMED<) AY |
SOMEDAY (unspecified time in the future) |
| 22 | Fool eating next to very deep hole (5) |
ASS (fool) containing (eating) BY (next to) A (BY) SS |
ABYSS (bottomless gulf; very deep hole) |
| 24 | Went out with single religious woman, leaving overwhelmed (5) |
DATED |
DATED (went out with) |
| 25 | Trauma of celebrity caught coming in for bit of temazepam (4) |
S SCAR |
SCAR (any mark, trace, or result of injury, eg of a moral or psychological nature, trauma) |
Thanks, duncanshiell. Just one question: what (if anything) is the significance of the asterisk in B*ewitched?
B*witched of course!
Think your intro says it all, Duncan. Thoroughly enjoyed this.
I parsed 5d as an &lit with “Drunk” as the anagram indicator and T as the beginning to Totter.
Thanks both. (I also don’t understand the *, maybe a typo?)
NeilW @ 1
B*Witched are an Irish girl group consisting of twin sisters Edele and Keavy Lynch, Lindsay Armaou and Sinéad O’Carroll, originally active between 1997 and 2002, . Groups tend to cover other people’s songs as well as singing their own originals. I think Eccles is just aiming at a surface that makes sense in the music industry. Almost certainly the group’s name was pronounced Bewitched.
Thanks Duncan. I remember the group but not the spelling.
8d reminded me of this – a great Mr Bean clip.
Another excellent crossword from Eccles – the third line of Duncan’s introduction sums it up nicely.
Mr CS doesn’t really understand my cryptic crossword addiction and usually isn’t impressed when I read out clues and solutions I particularly like. 14d has the rare honour of being a clue/solution where his response was ‘I do like that one’ which is high praise indeed coming from him.
thanks to Eccles and Duncan
Thanks to Eccles and Duncan. Like dear crypticsue, I completely agree with our blogger’s assessment. Much of the comment on these threads revolves around whether a puzzle is too hard or too easy, whereas not enough – purely in my opinion, obviously – is written about whether a puzzle is any good (again a somewhat subjective quality). Eccles’ puzzles are always really good I think.
I can only echo Duncan’s sentiments and previous comments. Smooth surfaces are a major ingredient in my enjoyment of cryptic crosswords. This is an area in which Eccles excels while still maintaining brevity and accuracy of cluing.
Many thanks, Eccles, for another in a long line of entertaining puzzles from you, and thanks too to Duncan.
What baerchen said
Thanks for the explanation, duncanshiell. Irish girl groups are not really my area of expertise! 🙂
What copmus said!
Many thanks to both.
Would certainly agree with the comments praising Eccles’ skill but thought this one suffered slightly from over-use of names of ‘real’ people with whom one may or may not be familiar. Just a niggle – I enjoyed the solve.
Thanks to Eccles and to Duncan for the blog.
@Jane (and I would say this, wouldn’t I?) but one of the reasons I enjoy Eccles’ puzzles so much is precisely because he introduces “real” people into his crosswords…different strokes and all that but this kind of thing sets the Indy puzzles apart in my opinion
I enjoyed this but I do agree with Jane. If I didn’t know Lang, Sean, Ike, Andy and Nancy (dreadful homophone in my opinion) I don’t think it would have been at all fun.
BTW, Beerchen, after your comment in yesterday’s blog, I was very pleased to see your wish granted today. What a brilliant Philistine!
Thanks all
Thanks to Duncan and all who commented. I did notice there were quite a few people involved, (there were more in my first draft but I realised I had to cut it down a bit!) but couldn’t think of anything better for what I though was the best candidate to replace (eye candy), so kept it. (I did notice, in another coincidence, that Vlad clued the same answer last week with a similar pun. His was a better clue, though). I can’t see the problem with Astor/Aster though – watching a YouTube clip about her, everyone interviewed pronounces her name like I would pronounce the aster in disaster, but I guess some might not.