Independent 10,759 by Eccles

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Eccles on a Wednesday: quirky, sometimes a little obscure, but enjoyable. All as it should be.

There are a couple of uncommon-but-guessable words, a cricketing term that will probably annoy some readers who don’t follow the game, and some French (not indicated as such but well-known words). Some good surfaces, though 15a and 6d are perhaps not for those who like their crosswords to be an escape from ongoing news stories, and I hope 1d isn’t a comment on the Royal Family’s recent troubles. Thanks Eccles for the fun.

Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
1 ECOSYSTEM
Community (and all associated with it) is comfortable with arrest after case’s conclusion (9)
COSY (comfortable) + STEM (as a verb = arrest = stop, as in “stem the flow”), all placed after the last letter (conclusion) of [cas]E.
8 UPSLOPE
One is inclined to stride after delivery service (7)
LOPE (stride = walk with long steps, though to me “stride” suggests more speed and purpose than “lope”) after UPS (United Parcel Service; other delivery companies are available).
10 SAFE SEX
Peter’s former partner displays intimacy with Johnny? (4,3)
Peter is an old word for SAFE (as in a strongbox), though I don’t think I’ve ever seen it used outside crosswords. EX is a former partner. So Peter’s former partner = SAFE’S EX.

For the definition: Johnny = slang for a condom.
11 ITCHINESS
Irritation born out of spite (9)
[b]ITCHINESS (spite), with the B (born) taken out of it.
12 NURDLE
Infield runs back to catch this shot? Unlikely (6)
Hidden answer (. . . to catch), reversed (back), in [infi]ELD RUN[s].

Extended definition: “nurdle” is cricket slang for playing the ball gently, typically close to the ground, into an area of the field where there are no opposing players. So it’s unlikely that an infield player (near the batsman) would be able to run back in time to catch it.
15 RAMPANT
Tirade over measurement of current epidemic (7)
RANT (tirade), containing (over) AMP (unit of electric current).

Epidemic, as an adjective = rampant = out of control.
16 RECEIPTED
Marked as having paid to be put in different chair, reportedly (9)
Homophone (reported) of RE-SEATED (put in a different chair).

“Receipt” as a verb (to note that a bill has been paid) is chiefly US usage; American English has a habit of re-using a noun as a verb, without adding any suffix.
19 MANGROVES
Comic mostly wanders around trees in tropical regions (9)
MANG[a] (Japanese comic; mostly = last letter dropped) + ROVES (wanders around).

Trees growing in coastal salty water, usually in tropical or subtropical regions.
20 CHAPEAU
Surprisingly cheap gold headwear (7)
Anagram (surprisingly) of CHEAP, then AU (Au = chemical symbol for gold).

French word for hat: used in English in a few contexts, particularly as an expression of approval meaning roughly “I take my hat off to you”.
22 BURSAR
Regional accent entertains South American treasurer (6)
BURR (a regional accent characterised by a strongly-pronounced R sound), containing (entertains) SA (South American).
23 SIDEBOARD
One’s left poet to acquire round piece of furniture (9)
SIDE (one’s left; the other’s right) + BARD (poet), containing (to acquire) O (round = circle).
25 REIMAGE
Make another picture of French city’s unfinished condition (7)
REIM[s] (city in north-east France; unfinished = last letter dropped) + AGE (as a verb = condition = mature, as in whisky barrels).
27 AINTREE
Racecourse isn’t available when source of funding is lost (7)
AIN’T (dialect form of “isn’t”) + [f]REE (available) without the first letter (source) of F[unding].

The home of the Grand National horse race.
28 SUPERBRAT
McEnroe, say, magnificent on grass (9)
SUPERB (magnificent) + RAT (grass = slang for informer).

Nickname given to the tennis player John McEnroe, known for angry outbursts on court.
DOWN
1 ELSINORE
Senile old bats surrounding rear of Windsor Castle, in which prince broods (8)
Anagram (bats = crazy) of SENILE + O (old), surrounding the last letter (rear) of [windso]R.

Danish royal castle used as the setting for Shakespeare’s Hamlet, about a prince brooding on revenge.
2 OAF
Lout‘s acre of bottles (3)
A (abbreviation for acre), contained in (bottled by) OF.
3 YPSILOID
Having shape of Y-fronts in young people’s style is leaving oldies in despair (8)
First letters (fronts) in Y[oung] P[eople’s] S[tyle] I[s] L[eaving] O[ldies] I[n] D[espair].

Word meaning Y-shaped; not familiar, but guessable if you know the Greek letter Y = ypsilon, and the wordplay is straightforward.
4 TAXI
Perhaps capital gains international transport (4)
TAX (of which Capital Gains Tax is an example, hence “perhaps”) + I (international).
5 MUSCARDINE
Think about Jack, possibly, at home getting fungal infection (10)
MUSE (think), containing (about) CARD (playing card = Jack possibly) + IN (at home).

A fungal disease of insects, especially silkworms. No, I hadn’t heard of it, but it was a guess-and-check from the crossers and straightforward wordplay.
6 OSMIUM
I’m very upset with university’s masculine element (6)
I’M SO (I’m very . . .), reversed (upset = upwards in a down clue), then U (university) + M (masculine).

Chemical element: a silvery-blue metal.
7 PET-SIT
Small nurses seek at first to care for boxers? (3-3)
PETIT (French for small; it’s used in a few phrases that have crossed frrom French to English, but I wouldn’t call it an English word by itself), containing (nursing) the first letter of S[eek].

Pet-sit = to look after someone’s pets (the question-mark indicates that boxer dogs are an example) while the owner is away, on the analogy of “baby-sit”.
9 OPERATIVES
I’ve a poster to rouse employees (10)
Anagram (to rouse) of I’VE A POSTER.

Operatives = employees = workers.
13 ROCK GARDEN
How to provide danger in alpine feature (4,6)
A reverse anagram: one way to get the word DANGER is to ROCK (shake up) the word GARDEN.

Also called a rockery: garden area featuring rocks and alpine plants.
14 STIMULATES
Encourages acts to limit term of Parliament (10)
SIMULATES (acts, as a verb = pretends), containing (to limit) the last letter (term = ending) of [parliamen]T.
17 CROUPIER
Throat condition that is beginning to restrict dealer (8)
CROUP (a throat infection in children) + IE (i.e. = that is) + first letter (beginning) of R[estrict].

A dealer of cards in a casino.
18 ESURIENT
Use up nourishing food, apart from nut, being greedy (8)
USE reversed (up, in a down clue) + [nut]RIENT (nourishing food) with NUT dropped.

The original Latin meant “hungry”, as choral singers will know from the Magnificat (Esurientes implevit bonis = He has filled the hungry with good things), but in English the meaning has become extended to include “greedy”.
20 CASPAR
About to fight wise man (6)
CA (ca = short for Latin circa, about = approximately) + SPAR (to fight).

Traditionally, one of the Wise Men in the Christmas story (along with Melchior and Balthazar).
21 EMBARK
Board formed by setter, backing another setter’s report (6)
ME (setter = Eccles as the setter of this crossword), reversed (backing), then BARK (another use of “setter” = a breed of dog, and report = sound, so setter’s report = the sound made by a dog = bark).

Embark = board = to get on a ship.
24 DROP
Doctor’s surgery in decline (4)
DR (short for doctor) + OP (short for operation = surgery).
26 AIR
Appearance of naked elf (3)
[f]AIR[y] (elf); naked = outer letters dropped. Some may argue about precise definitions and differences between elves / fairies / sprites and so on, but it’s close enough for crosswords.

23 comments on “Independent 10,759 by Eccles”

  1. Lovely stuff although a DNF for me. Failed to guess the unknown YPSILOID (no excuse) and stupidly entered RAMPAGE instead of RAMPANT at 15a so didn’t get 7d. Didn’t know MUSCARDINE or (yet another cricket term) NURDLE but both were easy guesses. I guess most of us have heard of “hyperdeemic nurdle” though. Always thought Caspar was a friendly ghost.

  2. Like Hovis, I really enjoyed this – though I’m pleased to note I did get the – unlikely – YPSILOID and both MUSCARDINE and NURDLE were guesses. Now I read the blog, I do recall someone like David Gower or Jonathan Agnew referring to a nurdle in commentary. It doesn’t help that the first entry on Google defines a nurdle as a microplastic pellet! I failed, though, on EMBARK which I totally failed to see and REIMAGE though I was on the right lines. (Funny how many of these answers are coming up with red underlines as I type them!) And fairies aren’t elves in my (Tolkienesque) world but I’m happy to give our setter the benefit of the doubt.

    Too many favourites to list them all. ESURIENT, CROUPIER, PET-SIT, CHAPEAU and RECEIPTED are right up there with SAFE SEX being COTD for being outrageous, witty and clever all at once. I am reading a fairly recent Rebus at the moment (In A House Of Lies) and the eponymous detective has just interviewed a peterman – and it’s the first time I’ve encountered the word outside of crosswords, Quirister. Said character mentions one ‘Gentle Johnny Ramensky’, a famous peterman of the last century (if rather unsuccessful if one views the 40 years of his 67 that he spent in prison!)

    Thanks Eccles and Quirister

  3. I found this hard. Like Hovis @1, I put RAMPAGE at 15A so didn’t get 7D – very silly. And I only find NURDLE as a plastic pellet (see Postmark @2) so didn’t understand the parsing. YPSILOID at 3D came quickly as I knew that the German for Y is ypsilon, pronounced ‘oopsilon’, and this is confusing as the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet comes to us as epsilon, more of an ‘e’ sound. Pleased to learn the new (to me) words ypsiloid, nurdle and esurient. Thanks Eccles and Quirister.

  4. another fine Eccles Wednesday – with some splendid words fairly clued

    Thanks to him and Quirister

  5. I loved SUPERBRAT and thought Eccles did a party piece today-didnt know NURDLE but its there in the clue
    Thanks Q and Eccles

  6. This was as tough as it gets for an Eccles puzzle, but as usual I enjoyed it despite quite a bit of head scratching.

    I couldn’t parse the MANG part of 19a, having ruled out (Stephen) Mangan as a possibility as it would require chopping two letters off the end of his name; the convention in crosswordland seems to be to use “mostly” to mean remove only one letter. Now I’ve seen the explanation it doesn’t seem entirely fair to refer to a Japanese comic.

    I learned two new words (three if you count MANGA) in YPSILOID and MUSCARDINE but both fell out nicely from the wordplay.

    With too many excellent clues to mention them all, I’ll single out SAFE SEX, ITCHINESS and RECEIPTED as my top three.

    Many thanks to Eccles and to Quirister.

  7. I like to see Eccles’ name on a Wednesday but found this one a bit tough. Though fair, as others have said. Got stuck for quite a while on the bottom right quadrant, so I was glad to crack croupier, reimage, mangroves and esurient in the end. I’d have appreciated a Frenchness indicator in 7d – might have got it then! Thanks to Eccles and Quirister.
    Tombsy, if you’re passing this way, I know exactly what you meant in your comment yesterday – explaining crosswords to someone else raises your own game – my 91 year- old mother has asked me to teach her, and it’s doing me no end of good!

  8. Eccles certainly dived into his book of obscurities today with YSPSILOID, MUSCARDINE and MANGA. As for NURDLE – I only know it as the dreadful breakdown of plastic that litters our oceans and arrives on the shorelines. I also didn’t realise that REIMAGE is a ‘real’ word!
    Top three for me were ITCHINESS, SUPERBRAT & ROCK GARDEN.

    Thanks to Eccles for the new words and to Quirister for the review.

  9. Quite a tough challenge from Eccles; I miserably failed to break my self-imposed 20 minute limit. Like Hovis@1 I had RAMPAGE, but remembered my rule of checking the crossers when a clue (7D) has me baffled. It’s always nice to learn new words, although dropping YPSILOID and MUSCARDINE into conversation might prove awkward. NURDLE would have (ahem) stumped some solvers, but it serves them right for not liking cricket. And I recall first learning ESURIENT from Python’s cheese shop sketch; I knew it would come in handy eventually.

  10. I failed on that Y-shaped thingy, trying to make an anagram out of those first letters, despite the conspicuous absence of an anagram indicator. As a cricket fan I did know NURDLE, but wouldn’t have been surprised to see it raise a few more eyebrows. Some obscure words as well, so more than enough to keep us all thinking.

    Thanks to Eccles and Quirister

  11. Tatrasman @3, you mean upsilon (20th letter) not epsilon (5th letter). Upsilon is rendered in English as U or Y (the latter being “i-grec” in French).

  12. Fairly challenging but it was all gettable with occasional confirmation from Chambers.
    We guessed 3dn had to start ‘yps…’ and checked in Chambers to find YPSILOID – and realise just how obvious the answer was from the clue. For 5dn we wondered if there was such a thing as ‘mustardine’ (Jack = tar, but we couldn’t explain the D) but fortunately MUSCARDINE wasn’t too far away in Chambers.
    We did know the cricketing term NURDLE although the first thing that came to mind was the word’s occurrence in Round the Horne. We were also intrigued to know various other meanings – see the link below.
    Two nominations for CoD – YPSILOID and SIDEBOARD.
    Thanks, Eccles and Quirister.
    That link –

  14. All guessable thanks to clear clues for the obscurities, which included NURDLE, ESURIENT, and YPSILOID for me, although I had heard of MANGA comics. Luckily we had BURSAR = TREASURER not long ago.

  15. allan_c @13: lovely article – thanks – and, without wanting to risk spoilers, suffice to say an intriguing cross reference in there to today’s Guardian puzzle.

    A minor snippet that might amuse late visitors: I struggled a little with OAF and had a vaguely valid alternative. Lout‘s acre of bottles (3): I correctly identified ‘bottles’ as a containment indicator and found the three letter word EOF within ‘acre of’. EOF, it turns out, was a swineherd whose vision of the Virgin Mary led to the foundation of the abbey and town of Evesham which is quite close to where I live in the Midlands. A bit harsh to assume he was a lout, I felt; there must be some quite well behaved swineherds out there. But it went in with a query – which made solving ECOSYSTEM exceedingly tricky…

  16. Rabbit Dave @6
    I don’t think MANGA is unfair. The format has been seen in the UK for some time now.

  17. Yes, I too found this tough, but I did know manga. A lot of my friends are into it and I’ve known the word for many years.

  19. Many thanks to Quirister, and everyone who commented. I see the that the trend of my crosswords getting trickier seems to be continuing. It is not deliberate.

  20. In some ways was glad to see some of the more experienced solvers struggled too! (Sorry all , honestly not schadenfreude)

    I think “PETIT” is fair game for small without a French indicator – many clothes shops have a petit section (as I’ve sat waiting over the years I’ve often thought “changing rooms” would be excellent crossword fodder)

    Thanks Eccles and Quirister for the education

  21. Tombsy @20: I think the clothes shop section is “petite”, the feminine form, which I’d agree has made its way into English; I’m not sure that the masculine form “petit” has got so far. But “petite” in this sense does help.
    Eccles @19: thanks for dropping in. No objections (from me at least) to a slightly trickier puzzle; it was still a lot of fun.

  22. Belated thanks to Ian SW3 for correcting me on epsilon/upsilon. Like I said, they’re confusing!

  23. Quirister @21 of course, thankyou, I will blame the fact that my eyes have usually glossed over at this point of shopping and time has taken on a new meaning…

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