Another fun Wednesday puzzle from Eccles.
What can we say? All good clues, smooth surfaces, no unusual words. We did have to check 5ac as it was not a word we were totally familiar with, but not what we would term ‘unusual’.
ACDC (Aussie rockers) round or ‘covering’ separately I and I (two singles)
SKEW (squint) BALD (hairless) – we had to check this as we’ve not come across this description of a horse before
A LAD (boy) ‘covered’ in SOIL (dirt)
MUTT (dog) ‘kept’ in S (small) Y (yard)
It’s a very long time since we played squash, but it is impossible to play the game without hitting the ball OFF at least one of THE WALLs
Double definition
KidnEY STONE (internal complaint) with the ‘i’ (current) and ‘dn’ (first and last letters or ‘case’ of defamation) omitted or ‘thrown out’. Back in the day we used to enjoy extracts from Keystone Cops and Buster Keaton silent movies when they were shown on telly. Thanks Gwep – extra N removed.
N (last or ‘final’ letter of Usian) ARROW (bolt)
VINCE (Cable – former leader of the Lib Dems) after or ‘trailing’ E (electronic)
Something similar to Jo Brand or Russell Brand might fancifully be described as BRANDISH
Hidden and reversed or ‘held back’ in apprAISAls
An anagram of MET and RAPTURE – anagrind is ‘surprisingly’
An anagram of TRAITS – anagrind is ‘unusual’
ANNO (in the year) Y (year) I (one) NothinG (first and last letters or ‘extremes’)
SPA (bath) DRAIN (plughole) reversed or ‘rotating’
Hidden or ‘included’ in cheapER RATAtouille
CHAFFinch (bird) missing ‘inch’ (part of foot)
DR (drive) AFT (to the rear)
O (nothing) after or ‘at the bottom of’ CLOSET (storeroom)
SAVAGE (barbarian) round or ‘stifling’ L (lake)
EPS (records) + an anagram of LION – anagrind is ‘rampaging’
BLED (ran) round or ‘suppressing’ UN and DER (‘one’ in French and ‘the’ in German – ‘articles in Europe’)
LIT (drunk) + GIn without the last letter or ‘most of’ and reversed or ‘knocked back’ + I + O (first letter or ‘start’ of offend) US (American)
lEAVES DROP (what happens in autumn) without the first letter
S (first letter or ‘beginning’ of sick) in S (south) E (eastern) NATION (country)
ELECT (choose) RA (Royal Academy)
BARM (a Northern English dialect word for a soft round bread roll, also known (to us anyway) as a barm cake) AID (sponsorship)
ARE round or ‘guarding’ RANG (called)
MAY (could) O (love) R (Republican) – Michael Bloomberg was Mayor of New York from 2002 to 2013
STERN with the ‘st’ ‘cycled’ to the end – Max Ernst was a German artist (25ac)
Perfect for a sunny Wednesday morning
Thanks to Eccles and B&J
To echo B&J – What can I say? All good clues, smooth surfaces, no unusual words.
Brilliant, as ever. Thanks Eccles and B&J.
I meant to include @2. (… no unusual words) except BARM, for which I needed to “phone a friend”.
Couldn’t parse BARMAID due to the unknown “barm”. SKEWBALD was also new to me.
Favourites for their surface readings were: NARROW, CHAFF & SENSATION. The latter also had a nicely misleading definition.
Couldn’t see any hidden extras although I did notice TANNOY appearing underneath EAR TRUMPET.
Thanks to Eccles and Bertandjoyce.
Thanks for the blog, B and J. Your preamble says it all.
I have a number of ticks but I now realise I could have ticked practically all of the clues, for one reason or another. I’ll just mention the cute construction of KEYSTONE COPS, which made me smile.
I remember a delicious fruit loaf called barm brack from when I lived in Northern Ireland many years ago.
Many thanks, Eccles, for another super puzzle – just the job, as crypticsue says.
My Lancashire granny made barm cakes, also known as muffins, using the frothy yeast from brewing beer – she called this barm.
This was an excellent crossword.
PS She also made Eccles cakes.
A most enjoyable puzzle without any reliance on lavatorial humour – good for you, Eccles!
I remember living in London for a couple of years in my late teens and being amazed that nobody seemed to have heard of barm cakes – southerners don’t know what they’re missing, especially when they’re slathered in butter and stuffed with proper ‘chip-shop’ chips!
Many thanks to Eccles for the puzzle and to B&J for the review.
just another superb puzzle from Eccles, many thanks to him and B&J.
Eccles tweeted this puzzle with the following clue chucked in as a freebie (sorry Jane):
Perhaps Cummings, under pressure, had to do this on the way to Durham? (3)
Many thanks for that, baerchen – brilliant! [but, allegedly, he didn’t].
I did wonder whether 10a/12a/17a and 26a were references to the lack of the ‘humour’
Most enjoyable, sitting in the sunshine with our morning coffee.
When we saw the clue to 13ac we thought KEYSTONE but decided that was too obvious, only to come back to it with all the crossing letters and find our first thought was correct; that sort of thing doesn’t happen too often.
baerchen@8: Nice one! (think cummings with a small ‘c’)
Thanks, Eccles and B&J
Fairly romped through this one. My only quibble is that performers are artistes not artists, aren’t they? Thanks Eccles and B&J.
Like most, had never come across SKEWBALD; and didn’t parse BARMAID.
Blog has a slight error in the alteration of “kidney” in 13A, which was my last one in.
I’ll now have to investigate the various barm comestibles.
Entertaining puzzle, thanks to Eccles and Bertandjoyce.
Thanks Gwep – blog corrected.
Delightful puzzle. Just right for a weekday cryptic, in my view. Nothing massively obscure, all well clued, and an entertaining half hour for this solver.
SKEWBALD I got to through knowing PIEBALD and following the instructions.
Thanks to S&Bs.
Cheers B&J and all commenters.
He still hasn’t gone. I thought there wasn’t much point keeping that clue for a crossword, as surely doing everything to spread a pandemic might not be seen as a good thing, so he would be gone soon, but it seems not.
Eccles @ 16
He will, Oscar, he will
[You may remind me of this in due course]