Eccles has provided our dose of cruciverbal entertainment this Wednesday.
I found this to be a medium-difficulty puzzle, just right for the mid-week slot.
I noticed that there was something going on around the perimeter, and on spotting three seasons, I decided that I needed to enter “autumn” across the bottom of the grid. I turned out to be wrong, of course. I don’t know if there is any link between the three seasons that are entered and the tuber the completes the fourth side of the perimeter, but if there is, please put me out of my ignorance, fellow solvers!
I am happy with my parsing except for the definition at 24D. My favourite clues today were 6, 15A, 16, 24A, all for surface, and in the case of 16, for topicality in the aftermath of Brexit; and 13 and 26, both for the misdirection around the definition.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 07 | STRIDENT | Small nuclear missile might be loud
S (=small, of sizes) + TRIDENT (=nuclear missile) |
| 09 | MEADOW | Drink with old women in field
MEAD (=drink) + O (=old) + W (=women) |
| 10 | UNIT | Maybe Henry is Upper-class twit
U (=upper-class) + NIT (=twit); a henry is a derived SI unit, the unit of inductance |
| 11 | CANNELLONI | Beer by oneself, say, with international plate of food
Homophone (“say”) of “can (=beer) + alone (=by oneself)” + I (=international) |
| 12 | MAMMON | Mike shot porn, ultimately, to get filthy lucre
M (=Mike, in radio telecommunications) + AMMO (=shot, i.e. ammunition) + <por>N (“ultimately” means last letter only) |
| 14 | CAST-IRON | Caught a bird by playing metal
C (=caught, on cricket scorecard) + A + STIR (=bird, i.e. prison) + ON (=playing, of e.g. recording) |
| 15 | FINISH | Polish nationalist abandons language
FI<n>NISH (=language); “nationalist (=N) abandons” means letter “n” is dropped; polish is the finish on a piece of furniture, say |
| 16 | TARIFF | Argue about borders for another import tax
A<nothe>R (“borders for” means first and last letters only) in TIFF (=argue, squabble) |
| 19 | MOVEMENT | Organisation of great day for the Allies captured in an instant
VE (=great day for the Allies, i.e. 8th May 1945) in MOMENT (=instant) |
| 21 | AUGUST | Clown // dignified // for a few weeks in summer
Triple definition: an august is a circus clown; august is dignified, majestic; the month of August is a few weeks in summer! |
| 23 | ESPADRILLE | Bath routine adopted by swimmer taking off left shoe
[SPA (=bath) + DRILL (=routine, e.g. in military)] in <e>EL (=fish; “taking off left” means first letter is dropped) |
| 24 | BRIE | Salt water not originally needed to make cheese
BRI<n>E (=salt water); “not originally needed (=N, i.e. first letter)” means letter “n” is dropped |
| 25 | RAGLAN | Garment made of cloth – large article
RAG (=cloth) + L (=large, of sizes) + AN (=article); a raglan is an overcoat with its sleeve in one piece with the shoulder, or any other garment in this style |
| 26 | ANIMATOR | Creature finally released near to entrance of Regent’s Park?
ANIMA<l> (=creature; “finally released” means last letter “dropped” + TO + R<egent> (“entrance of” means first letter only); the reference is to British animator and director Nick Park (1958-), creator of e.g. Wallace and Gromit |
| Down | ||
| 01 | STANZA | Piece of poetry by Antipodean soldier unfinished after street evacuated
S<tree>T (“evacuated” means middle letters are dropped) + ANZA<c> (=Antipodean soldier; “unfinished” means last letter dropped) |
| 02 | PINT | Priest with time to drink cool beer
P (=priest) + IN (=cool, fashionable) + T (=time) |
| 03 | RESCINDS | Cancels orders, action regularly carried out by sergeant
<o>R<d>E<r>S <a>C<t>I<o>N (“regularly carried out” means alternate letters only are used) + DS (=sergeant, i.e. Detective Sergeant) |
| 04 | IMPELS | Forces simple changes
*(SIMPLE); “changes” is anagram indicator |
| 05 | NAIL-BITING | Anxious Spooner’s providing Welsh footballer with honour
Spoonerism of “Bale (=Welsh footballer, i.e. Gareth Bale) + knighting (=providing with honour)” |
| 06 | GOING OFF | Happening to commit foul at snooker, pocketing green initially
G<reen> (“initially” means first letter only) in GO IN-OFF (=to commit foul at snooker) |
| 08 | TONICS | Shots in the arm working to stop spasms
ON (=working, e.g. of machine) in TICS (=spasms) |
| 13 | MONTE CARLO | Resort to cornmeal crackers
*(TO CORNMEAL); “crackers” is anagram indicator |
| 15 | FOOLSCAP | Paper hat worn in the corner of school?
Cryptically, a fool’s cap could be worn in the (dunce’s) corner of a school |
| 17 | ACADEMIA | Possible life of intellectual nut: scratching head, getting close to nonsense instead of answer
<m>ACADAMIA (=nut, i.e. eat; “scratching head” means that first letter is dropped); “getting close to nonsense (=E, i.e. last letter) instead of answer (=A, as in Q&A)” means that one letter “a” is replaced by an “e” |
| 18 | STELLA | Hostel laments accepting obsolete experimental coin
Hidden (“accepting”) in “hoSTEL LAments”; a Stella was a US coin minted in 1879-80 and worth four dollars |
| 20 | ERRANT | Offending Queen with tirade
ER (=Queen, i.e. Elizabeth Regina) + RANT (=tirade); errant is erring, straying, wayward, hence “offending” |
| 22 | SKIDOO | Second child loves snowmobile
S (=second) + KID (=child) + O O (=loves, i.e. 2 x 0=love, i.e. zero score) |
| 24 | BEAT | Play live with American tenor
BE (=live, exist) + A (=American) + T (=tenor); e.g. to beat the drums could be to play them |
I shared our blogger’s raised eyebrow at BEAT = play. I did learn as a result, however, that a beat is the technical term for the smallest units of action into which a play can be divided for the purpose of dramatic analysis. Which is interesting but doesn’t resolve the query. And SPRING, SUMMER, WINTER, POTATO is an odd Nina. I daresay other – possibly more seasoned – commenters may be able to shed light.
That aside, lots of individual pleasures through this puzzle which fell fairly smoothly today. The SW corner was last: I’ve only every thought of it as a dunce’s cap but, when FINISH went in, FOOLSCAP was obvious and the SPA in ESPADRILLE – my LOI – leapt out at me. STELLA is new – and initially hard to check on the internet with Ms McCartney dominating the results. NAIL BITING is outrageous but amusing. The three middlish across clues were all superb: CANNELLONI is a cheeky and just about allowable homophone, MAMMON has a wicked surface and CAST IRON is delightfully assembled. But COTD for the brilliant misdirection is ANIMATOR.
Thanks Eccles and RR
Lots of fun from Eccles, as usual.
I agree with your definition for 24dn, RR, but I have no ideas about the Nina, which, I managed to fail to spot!
My favourite clues were FINISH and MOVEMENT, for the surfaces, STANZA, PINT, RESCINDS, all for both construction and surface and ESPADRILLE and ACADEMIA for the enjoyment I had working out the wordplay – but best of all was the superb ANIMATOR for the huge PDM when I worked out the definition.
Many thanks to Eccles for a most enjoyable and RR for a great blog.
… enjoyable puzzle, of course, sorry.
Helped by the Nina here, which I always feel a little uncomfortable about and which confirms I didn’t find this easy. Sorry, can’t help with the POTATO bit of the Nina either. Didn’t know the ‘Clown’ sense of AUGUST or the STELLA as an ‘obsolete experimental coin’ (v. interesting) but both were solvable nonetheless. I shouldn’t have, but missed the link between ‘Park?’ and ANIMATOR.
BEAT = ‘Play’? To beat = to play a drum perhaps?
Thanks to Eccles and RR
As we have come to expect from Eccles, this was extremely enjoyable with lovely cluing and superb surfaces. I found a big difference in difficulty between the left hand side (relatively straightforward) and the right (vert tough).
I always thought the clown was AUGUSTE but I see the rare alternative spelling is given in Chambers. STELLA was new to me.
I kept thinking, “that one’s my favourite”… “no it’s not – that one is”, so in the end I gave up on the unequal struggle of trying to pick even a selection. They were all excellent.
Many thanks to Eccles and to RR.
Not too difficult, although we didn’t know of AUGUST(e) as a clown. Googling for STELLA as a coin only came up with ‘Stellar’ which seems to be some prototype digital currency; we didn’t go into detail, deciding nthat was good enough to justify STELLA as an answer.
Plenty to like, but we’re with PostMark in nominating ANIMATOR as our CoD.
Thanks, Eccles and RatkojaRiku.
I thought this was perhaps one out of our setter’s Toughie drawer. I didn’t know either the clown or the experimental coin and it was just an inspired guess that took me to the creature in the park.
Like others, I was dubious about BEAT and the slightly strange Nina – maybe potatoes grow in every season other than winter?
Top marks here went to TARIFF and MOVEMENT.
Thanks to Eccles and to RR for the review.
allan_c @6: if you did want to know more, here’s the link to the Stella entry on Wiki.
Brief note, as I am at work at the moment, but the Nina was just the result of starting to type a certain name into google, and getting these four autocomplete suggestions, and it made me laugh. It is pretty random, and I will reveal who later if no-one gets it. Ta all.
Thanks to Eccles and RR for a fun puzzle and blog.
Could the nina be to do with Vivaldi (a type of potato and, of course, the Four Seasons)?
We always enjoy an Eccles puzzle. We guessed STELLA and were a bit puzzled by BEAT. We liked ANIMATOR and MOVEMENT.
Sourdough – We are sure that you are correct. Vivaldi is a great potato too.
Thanks Eccles and RR.
Sourdough – meant to add that we also like your bread. Two on the go at the moment.
… much better than mine 🙂
Sourdough has it!
I had ‘play’=’beat’ as Wordplodder suggested.
Thanks to RR and all commenters.
Oh, apologies RR, you also had the play=beat
Tougher than usual for Eccles, I thought, but no less enjoyable for that. I didn’t quite get as far as entering AUTUMN across the bottom row, because I had already entered answers at the crossing ‘downs’ which had to be right so precluded it. But POTATO had me stumped like everyone else except Sourdough. So congrats to him/her and thanks to Eccles and RatkojaRiku.
Agreed, Bertandjoyce, and have you tried making sourdough ciabatta – delicious. And haha Hovis.
Hit a brick wall with about half done, so I’ve given up.
As I finished this hours late rather than a second early (I know Vivaldi is a maincrop but hey), I shall confine my comments to praise for the setter, blogger and Sourdough.