It is very comforting in these strange times that certain regular events remain constant – Eccles on a Wednesday is one of those. It certainly raised a smile when we saw the setter’s name today.
We weren’t disappointed either. Lovely surfaces, a few head-scratching moments and a warm glow of satisfaction when we solved the last one in the top right corner. It’s April Fool’s Day but we cannot see see any thematic answers or a Nina but perhaps we’ve been fooled!
Thanks Eccles. Hope you are OK.
PA (father) VEheMENT (emphatic) with ‘he’ deleted or ‘leaving’
MA and SONS (some family members)
I’LL (I will – I am going to)
ROWING (arguing) BOT (fake Twitter user) around or ‘over’ A. A play on the fact that a rowing boat would need someone at the oars to row you from one side of a river to the other.
CHOW (food) around or ‘including’ HATS (a mushroom and a porkpie are both types of hat). When solving this we missed the relevance of ‘mushroom’. When we came to write up the blog we wondered whether ‘chow’ had to include mushrooms until we checked in Chambers.
ATTACk (criticise) missing last letter or ‘endless’ + H (hot)
POM (Englishman in Australia) around or ‘welcoming’ E (English)
FUN (diversion) DelayS (first and last letter only or ‘on vacation’) after H (hard) EDGE (border)
An anagram of HUGE ISLAND – anagrind is ‘base’
SHAMe (scandal) missing last letter or ‘majority of’
CHAS (Charles) ED (Eddie)
S (small) TRIMMER (more streamlined)
A (American) POE (Gothic writer) around or ‘covering’ CALYPSo (song) missing last letter or ‘short’
Hidden in or ‘protected by’ foR A Time
A THEN (specific point in the past) A (first or ‘original’ letter of Aztec)
STUN (shock) TAN (brown) around or ‘bearing’ M (a thousand)
A homophone (auditor’s) of PRINCIPLE (integrity)
VILLA (house) GruesomE (first and last letters only or ‘extremely’)
We needed all the crossing letters for this and still had to guess that Kim Kardashian has MORE ASS (by way of a ‘butt-lift’) – a homophone (‘reportedly’) of MORASS (mess)
An anagram of CREWMEN SO – anagrind is ‘upset’
GRATE (framework of bars) under or ‘supporting’ MI (motorway)
Bob and Crew are examples of SHORT hair CUTS
A plain bun is NOT ICED
ME (setter) GAS (wind) TORE (ran)
GO wEST (famous advice to young man) without or ‘wanting’ w (work) OP (work) OT (books). Our Chambers app didn’t have w = work but our old dead-tree Collins did.
An anagram of TASMANIA and R (run) – anagrind is ‘free’
A THE (articles) ARe (missing last letter or ‘mostly’) T (first letter or ‘bit of ‘ tosh)
AID reversed or ‘turning up’ in INN (pub) A (first letter or ‘source’ of anonymous)
HUM (noise made by mouth) on DRUM(instrument)
I’VE (I have) inside or ‘downed by’ GIN (drink) rather than the other way round or ‘on the contrary’
Comforting indeed and I too smiled when I saw who had set today’s puzzle and was still smiling when I’d finished
Definitely not a 21d with so much to enjoy – I think my favourite was 10a because the food items reminded me of the days when Mr Wogan used to ask people whether they’d been treated correctly in ‘Hostility’
Thanks to Eccles for keeping us entertained in these trying times. Thanks to B&J too.
As so often, just what crypticsue said.
Many thanks to all,
Huge fun as ever, thanks to Eccles and to B&J for the blog.
“Base” as an angrind eh…hmmmm
anagrind, even
I got but couldn’t parse ‘chat show’, and I can’t see ‘base’ as an anagrind, but very enjoyable nonetheless. Thanks Eccles and B&J.
We wondered about base as an anagrind too but Chambers Thesaurus has construct, build and derive as synonyms under ‘research based on fact’.
I took ‘base’ as an adjective: both Collins and Chambers have ‘debased, counterfeit’.
Brilliant fun! Just what the doctor ordered.
I’m not 100% sure about WORRY = ILL but it’s probably OK, and I too wondered about BASE as an anagram indicator but B&J and Eileen have explained this.
After a struggle to pick a favourite I’ve settled on a podium of 9a, 2d & 13d.
Many thanks to Eccles and to B&J.
I knew almost nothing about KK except she was rich and hadnt made any great films or music but guessed from the crossers that she could be OK at the bottom of things.
I’m becoming very Ecclesist.
Thanks all.
3d was my last one in because, like Copmus, I know little about the lady although have often wondered why she ever became famous.
Favourite was VILLAGE – I went all round the houses to get there – followed by 10 & 14a.
Thanks to Eccles and to B&J for the blog.
All solved without help although several clues took us some time to crack.
We wonder if there is a bit of a ghost theme influenced by the present situation – ILL, APOCALYPSE, LANGUISHED, MORASS, maybe? And there are no SHORTCUTS to a solution. Or is that just coincidence?
Thanks, Eccles and B&J
Super puzzle. Last in were MORASS (I knew what KK was famous for) and CHAT SHOW (took me a while to parse because I had first removed CHOW and was left with ATSH).
Many thanks B&J and to all who commented. I am fine, thanks, hopefully everyone here is well. Hoping Hovis is fine, too – it’s a rare non-appearance day in the FT and Indy blogs.
I was thinking of base in the adjectival counterfeit sense. Allan_c – just coincidence; the puzzle was submitted in early January, and the world was very different then.
Eccles @13. Thanks for the concern. I’m fine and managing to cope pretty well so far.