Independent 10,418 by Eccles

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It’s Wednesday and it’s Eccles again – we’re in for some fun!

We found this a little easier than we expected it to be, but that’s not to say we didn’t enjoy it. Several clues were write-ins, but we had to put the thinking caps on for the last ones in.

It took us longer than it should have done to tumble to the use of ‘ton’ for 100 (not C) in 21ac.

At one point, we wondered whether we might be heading for a pangram, but there’s no J or X.

As usual, lovely clues and no unusual words – just right for a mid-week puzzle.

image of grid

ACROSS
1 Contact that hurts juvenile (6)
CALLOW

CALL (contact) OW (that hurts!)

5 Secure grip (8)
PURCHASE

Double definition

9 Ecclesiastical history exam (8)
PASTORAL

PAST (history) ORAL (exam)

10 Heard teacher nearly swear in the company of travellers (6)
CIRCUS

A homophone (‘heard’) of SIR (head teacher) + CUSs (swear) without the last letter or ‘nearly’

11 Lover of criminal eats in housing like this (10)
ENTHUSIAST

An anagram of EATS IN (anagrind is ‘criminal’) round or ‘housing’ THUS (like this)

12 Book time to tour Zambian capital (4)
EZRA

ERA (time) round or ‘touring’ Z (first letter or ‘capital’ of Zambia)

13 Used setter’s revolutionary tactic to get weed regularly (8)
EMPLOYED

ME (setter) reversed or ‘revolutionary’ PLOY (tactic) wEeD (alternate or ‘regular’ letters)

16 Jack, John and Miles covered in flowers (6)
ABLOOM

AB (Able-bodied seaman – Jack) LOO (toilet – John) M (miles)

17 Reproductive organ displayed by holy man having the last word (6)
STAMEN

ST (saint – holy man) AMEN (the last word)

19 Staggered online talks describing aquatic mammal (8)
TOTTERED

TED (online talks) round or ‘describing’ OTTER (aquatic mammal)

21 Deal, possibly, with 100 vices (4)
TOWN

W (with) in or ‘viced’ by TON (100)

22 Wager about reserve in stock exchange, with prices falling? (4,6)
BEAR MARKET

BET (wager) round EARMARK (reserve)

25 Drug smuggler smuggles too many drugs in self-contained unit (6)
MODULE

MULE (drug smuggler) round or ‘smuggling’ OD (overdose – too many drugs)

26 Establish yeti find is fraudulent (8)
IDENTIFY

An anagram of YETI FIND – anagrind is ‘fraudulent’

27 Design probes to check temperature, leading to a prolonged dispute (8)
VENDETTA

END (design) in or ‘probing’ VET (check) T (temperature) A

28 First of twins desperate for the other to be troublesome (6)
THORNY

T (first letter of twins) HORNY (desperate for the other)

DOWN
2 A profit once more (5)
AGAIN

A GAIN (profit)

3 Bar brawl at Christmas drinks (5)
LATCH

Hidden in (drunk by) brawL AT CHristmas

4 Plant holly without filling in, being lazy (4-3)
WORK-SHY

WORKS (plant) HollY (without middle letters or ‘filling’)

5 Pot with fat for chop (7)
POLLARD

POL (Pol Pot – infamous communist leader of Cambodia) LARD (fat)

6 Spanish girl, half-cut, covers bed in cheese (7)
RICOTTA

SenoRITA (Spanish girl) with first half omitted or ‘cut’ round or ‘covering’ COT (bed)

7 Author, and how she lived ever after, some might say (6,3)
HARPER LEE

A (slightly dodgy) homophone (some might say) of HAPPILY (how she lived ever after – as in fairy tales)

8 Start old-fashioned joke (6,3)
SQUARE ONE

SQUARE (old-fashioned) ONE (joke – as in ‘that’s a good one’)

14 Musician’s assistant paid for Monroe to jiggle (9)
METRONOME

MET (paid for) + an anagram of MONROE – anagrind is ‘jiggle’

15 The French maidens agree to go topless – start of double-page spread (5,4)
LEMON CURD

LE (French for ‘the’) M (maidens) cONCUR (agree) without the first letter or ‘topless’ D (first letter or ‘start’ of double-page)

18 Jack allowed to inspire son to be most virtuous (7)
NOBLEST

NOB (Jack – as in Cribbage) LET (allowed) round or ‘inspiring’ S (son)

19 Artisan working for Russian leader (7)
TSARINA

An anagram of ARTISAN – anagrind is ‘working’

20 European politician cuts tax, creating a storm (7)
TEMPEST

E (European) MP (politician) in or ‘cutting’ TEST (tax)

23 17:30 – maybe house destroyed in Nelson? (5)
RATIO

hoRATIO (Horatio Nelson) without ‘ho’ (house)

24 The end of Spain? It’s delicate (5)
ELFIN

EL FIN is Spanish for ‘the end’

 

16 comments on “Independent 10,418 by Eccles”

  1. I love Eccles Wednesdays – his puzzles are always great fun and satisfying to solve

    I did like 21a and also 18d, the ‘jack’ reminding me of when my parents used to regularly play cribbage

    Thanks to Eccles and B&J

  2. Excellent, as usual. I too was expecting a pangram. I noticed I didn’t have a J and I had ?o?n at 21a. Realising JOHN made no sense and that X was also missing, I eventually twigged on TOWN. These 4 letter words can be real testers.

    I thought that “nearly” could be dropped in 10a having the whole word as a homophone but that’s just a comment not a criticism.

    Thanks for parsing POLLARD. Can’t believe I never thought of POL POT. I went for the more circuitous LOP< = TOP<. It works in a way. More Goliath than Eccles perhaps.

    Didn’t know the “cribbage” term either.

    Thanks to Eccles and Bertandjoyce.

  3. I finally sussed Bear and Bull market reading “L’Argent”by Zola-bears bear down by their paws and bulls point upwards with their horns

    Eccles becoming a favourite.”Harperlee ever after” sounds like outer Parisian.

    POLLARD for me was LOP and LARD but I wasnt too happy with that

    So thanks Eccles and bJ

  4. Exactly what crypticsue said, except it’s my grandpa I fondly remember saying, ‘One for his nob’ – and I didn’t see 21ac at all.

    Many thanks to Eccles for the fun, as ever and  to B and  for the blog – especially 21ac.

  6. Yet another enjoyable puzzle from Eccles albeit containing possibly the worst non-homophone I have ever encountered and I don’t think a clue like 28a should be included in a daily newspaper.  Personally I’m not offended by it but I know some people will be.

    There are a lot of excellent clues here but I’ll just single out two very inventive ones: ABLOOM and TOWN, and, as ever, his surface readings are exemplary.

    Many thanks to Eccles and B&J.

  7. I meant to add @6, it’s good to see the inclusion of the caveat “some might say” in 7d.

  8. RD @6. I think you are being a bit harsh with 7d. The clue has “some might say” and somebody with a very posh accent might well speak thusly. It is, of course, meant to be a bit tongue-in-cheek. Completely disagree with your comment on 28a, whether or not some are offended by it.

  10. Fantastic stuff. Puns, especially with a homophone chucked in, need to be as excruciating as possible and this one gets full marks from me.
    Thanks to Eccles. B&J

  11. I hereby nominate HARPER LEE as the clubhouse leader for iffiest homophone of the year. In a perverse way though, the iffier the better, so no complaints. Anyway Eccles, it’ll take something really bad/good to beat you!

    Good fun, with the nudge, nudge STAMEN and LEMON CURD set off nicely by the high-powered maths ’17:30 – maybe’ RATIO clue.

    Thanks to Eccles and B & J

  12. I didn’t know the online talks so that was a leap of faith, fortunately the answer was clear.   Got held up by TOWN and RATIO until all the checkers were in place and I think my favourite was BEAR MARKET.

    In full agreement with RD regarding 28a and it rather saddens me when a setter of such ability plays for cheap laughs.

    Thanks to Eccles for an otherwise very clever piece of setting and thanks to B&J for the blog.

  13. Thanks to B&J, and all who commented.

    I do take issue with B&J saying it is a slightly dodgy homophone.  It is indeed a terrible homophone.

    My first attempt at circus did omit the nearly, but decided the second half was in the ‘neither good nor terrible’ zone preferred for homophones.

    28a Is it really that bad?  The phrase in the clue is a euphemism, surely designed to be inoffensive, and the word in the answer just means lustful.  OK, it can mean something ruder, but I didn’t use it in that sense in the same way I didn’t use it in the ‘toughened and calloused’ sense.

  14. Quite a challenge, but we finished without assistance.  TOWN was our LOI which we saw just as we were about to admit defeat.  Favourite was RATIO.

    The terrible homophone in 7dn elicited a groan, and 28ac a ‘hmmm’.  On the latter subject we don’t mind the occasional risqué clue/answer but we do take exception when some setters pepper the whole puzzle with sex and drugs references (so no complaints about today’s puzzle).

    Thanks, Eccles and B&J.

  15. I found this quite tough.  I’ve only just finished it, having started at lunchtime.  It took me ages to get 21ac, needing a word search to give me some ideas.  And the top right corner held me up the longest.  I finally got 7dn from the crossers and had no idea how it worked.

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