Independent 10,466 by Eccles

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It’s Eccles again today – we’re in for a fun solve!

….and we weren’t disappointed. As usual, some great surfaces and several big smiles.
17ac was a new word for us but with the crossing letters in, it was readily solved by the wordplay. However, we couldn’t believe that such a strange word could exist.

image of grid

ACROSS
1 Underwear piles – the basic facts (5,5)
BRASS TACKS

BRAS (underwear) STACKS (piles)

6 Take clothes off to portray heroic tale (4)
EPIC

dEPICt (portray) without the first and last letters or ‘clothes off’

9 Standing in bit of iguana dung, I step awkwardly (10)
DEPUTISING

An anagram of I (first letter or ‘bit’ of iguana) DUNG I STEP – anagrind is ‘awkwardly’

10 Independent, boring, average couple (4)
PAIR

I (independent) in or ‘boring’ PAR (average)

12 Grimace unhappily around Italian control freak (12)
MICROMANAGER

An anagram of GRIMACE (anagrind is ‘unhappily’) round ROMAN (Italian)

15 Minorities in Norway working a long time (7)
NONAGES

N (Norway) ON (working) AGES (a long time)

16 Make my daughter serve again after this? (3,4)
NET CORD

NET (make, as in ‘earn’) COR (my) D (daughter)

17 American can leave wife to follow prostitute like this, on reflection (7)
HOOSGOW

GO (leave) W (wife) after HO (prostitute) and SO (like this) reversed or ‘on reflection’ – a new word for us – an American slang word for prison (can)

19 Graduates‘ slander case dismissed by a judge, in the end (7)
ALUMNAE

cALUMNy (slander) with the first and last letters or ‘case’ omitted or ‘dismissed’ A judgE (last or ‘end’ letter only)

20 A curse from this UFO? (6,6)
FLYING SAUCER

A play on the fact that an anagram of A CURSE is SAUCER – the anagrind is FLYING

23 One repeatedly has trapped gas? (4)
NEON

Hidden or ‘trapped’ in oNE ONe (one repeatedly)

24 Frenchman welcomes romantic meeting in apartment (4-1-5)
PIED-A-TERRE

PIERRE (Frenchman) round or ‘welcoming’ DATE (romantic meeting)

25 Stop scratching head for relaxation (4)
EASE

cEASE (stop) without the first letter or ‘scratching head’

26 Brief leans over catalogues of candidates (10)
SHORTLISTS

SHORT (brief) LISTS (leans)

DOWN
1 Predict how violin may be played on the radio (4)
BODE

A homophone (on the radio) of BOWED (how a violin may be played)

2 Friends quietly sliding down mountains (4)
ALPS

PALS (friends) with the ‘p’ (quietly) moved or ‘sliding down’

3 Perhaps Eccles is one found in a jam (7,5)
SETTING AGENT

Eccles could be described as today’s SETTING AGENT

4 Claims Republican seizes belongings? On the contrary (7)
ASSERTS

R (Republican) in or ‘seized by’ ASSETS as opposed to the other way round or ‘on the contrary’

5 Relative regularly appearing in bikini contest’s magazine (7)
KINSMAN

Every third letter (‘regularly’) of biKinI coNteSt’s MagAziNe

7 Drop an ugly oddball outside part of school? (10)
PLAYGROUND

An anagram of DROP AN UGLY – anagrind is ‘oddball’

8 Worries about muck up by German magazines (10)
CARTRIDGES

CARES (worries) round a reversal (up) of DIRT (muck) and G (German)

11 Influential piece of music (12)
INSTRUMENTAL

Double definition

13 Undecided where to put creosote? (2,3,5)
ON THE FENCE

You might well decide to put creosote ON THE FENCE

14 Unexceptional claims: Tory leader meaning the opposite (10)
ANTONYMOUS

ANONYMOUS (unexceptional) round or ‘claiming’ T (first letter or ‘leader’ of Tory)

18 Petulant desire to drink like Penny (7)
WASPISH

WISH (desire) round or ‘drinking’ AS (like) P (penny)

19 A star of French Resistance is torn (7)
ASUNDER

A SUN (star) DE (French for ‘of’) R (resistance)

21 Experts listened to ordinary language (4)
PROS

A homophone (listened to) of PROSE (ordinary language)

22 Confusion as leading goal-scorer fails to finish (4)
MESS

MESSi (leading goal-scorer – even we’ve heard of him!) without the last letter or ‘failing to finish’

 

12 comments on “Independent 10,466 by Eccles”

  1. Typical Eccles – brief cluing, great surfaces, humour and a lot of fun.   Just the job for lockdown!

    17a was a new word for me but very fairly clued.  I had a lot of ticks on my page with the leaders of the pack being 23a, 24a, 3d, 5d &14d.

    Many thanks to Eccles and B&J.

  2. I did know HOOSGOW but have never seen it spelt out. Not sure where but probably from Westerns. Apparently, it can also be spelt HOOSEGOW. Can’t recall ever seeing ANTONYMOUS before but it was the obvious word from “antonym”.

    Lots to like with favourites including DEPUTISING & MICROMANAGER. The fairly simple NET CORD took me longest to figure out.

    Thanks to Eccles and Bertandjoyce.

  3. I do like “Eccles Wednesdays” and this was a great crossword.  My particular favourite, out of quite a long shortlist, was 23a as I do like those repeatedly-trapped sort of clues

    Thanks to Eccles and B&J

  4. Had trouble parsing a few, had to check on HO for 17a, but all done now. NETCORD and ALUMNAE were others I got from the def. Good workout after a few easier ones this week.

  5. Thanks for a great blog, B&J.

    I’ll go along with Rabbit Dave today – adding 9 and 19ac to his favourites.

    Many thanks, Eccles, for another super puzzle.

  6. Yes, very nice and not quite as hard as Eccles can be, thankfully for one starting to suffer from puzzle fatigue. I knew 17ac but only with an E in the middle. Favourites Flying Saucer and Pied-a-terre. So obvious when you crack them that you think they must have been seen before, but not by me.
    Thanks to S & Bs.

  7. I knew HOOSGOW from the Frank Crumit classic (well, sort of) “I Can’t Stand Sitting In A Cell”. Remembering such film-flam has some advantages anyway.

    Very enjoyable Eccles on a Wednesday, as we’ve now come to expect. I liked MICROMANAGER and especially the ‘Independent, boring, average couple’.

    Thanks to Eccles and B&J

  8. 17a certainly sounded as though it had Scottish connections but apparently not!

    24a & 3d were my top two with a mention for 1a.

    Thanks to Eccles and to B&J for the review.

  9. Another enjoyable solve.

    HOOSGOW was a new word for us too, but we pieced it together from the wordplay and confirmed it in Chambers.

    We liked PIED-À-TERRE and, for the mental picture in the surface, ALPS.

    Thanks, Eccles and B&J.

  10. Thanks to B&J, and all who commented. Paul A, 24a was new to me too, but after it was submitted I saw very similar clues appear for both it and 1a in other papers.  Sorry if anyone suffered from déjà vu.

  11. Thanks, Eccles. Very enjoyable puzzle. 16a, 19a and 4d stood out. I’m American, had only previously seen the spelling HOOSEGOW, but got 17a anyway.

  12. I knew HOOSGOW from a song too, in my case an old 78 we had when I was a kid called Eleven More Months and Ten More Days.  It started, “I’m in the hoosgow once again.” and had a chorus, “In eleven more months and ten more days, they’re going to turn me loose, In eleven more months and ten more days, I’ll be out of the calaboose.”

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