Eccles provides the crossword fun today.
No complaints from us today – all fairly clued and as usual smooth surfaces throughout.
GOP (Good Grand Old Party – Republican party) and an anagram (‘for reform’) of SPEARHEAD Thanks Enlumined
B (first letter or ‘start’ of build) LOO SHED (two outhouses) around or ‘concealing’ D (first letter or ‘entrance’ to duplex)
A reversal (‘about’) of PEN (write) inside or ‘boring’ IT (sex)
nICE (refined) losing ‘evicting’ N (Nationalist) + BOX (spar)
An anagram (‘to corrupt’) of LOG ON and AIM
gLISTEN (flash) without or ‘leaking’ G (first letter or ‘origin’ of Gordon)
POST (after) CAR (vehicle) D (died)
A reversal (‘returning’) of AID (help) + PA (father) SON
CAREleSS (cavalier) without or ‘wanting’ LE (‘The’ in French – ‘Parisian article’)
An anagram (‘unfortunately’) of HER PLANS
ANaTHEMa (abomination) without two As (altos)
Hidden (‘fencing’) and reversed (‘back’) in pRECLUdes
RAGED (seethed) inside or ‘suppressed by’ T (tense) IAN (Scotsman)
An anagram (‘criminal’) of LOCK SLEEPING
GAL (girl) around or ‘eating’ BRIE (cheese)
PRO (expert) BE (live)
AND (with) ROME (capital) DA (District Attorney – ‘lawyer from New York’)
Alternate letters (‘regularly’) in a reversal (‘rejected’) of pOsH bOyS
AN + a homophone (‘audible’) of DROP OFF (decline)
E KING – from Ben E King, the soul and R&B singer
A homophone (‘over the phone’) of SELL (deal in) and an anagram (‘cooked’) of MEAT
A reversal (‘uplifting’) of DARTS (sport) around N (November in the phonetic alphabet)
SHOCK (outrage) about an anagram (‘broken) of ARM
An anagram (‘to change’) of RESISTANT
An anagram (‘stray’) of MEDICS TO
DISCUSs (talk about) without last letter or ‘mostly’
A clue as definition – an anagram (‘fluid’) of IN MALES
PER (an – as in miles per hour) I (international) L (lecturer)
AIT (island) inside HI (Hawaii)
BAR (save) E (European)
Some very clever cluing and some nice cryptic definitions in here. GLOCKENSPIEL, in particular, I’m looking at you! What an anagram to incorporate in GO PEAR-SHAPED; other lovely spots include the outhouses in BLOODSHED, the deletions in ICE-BOX, LISTEN and CARESS, the assembly of ANDROMEDA and three delightfully cheeky ones all waiting at the bottom of the Downs: TRAIN SETS, DISCUS and SEMINAL.
I was thrown by the unknown DIAPASON and had to try/Check a few possible – and increasingly optimistic – combinations (DIAFANDS anybody?). Finally, I do admire setters who are able to make use of ‘real’ name combinations – Ben E KING and Flash Gordon today.
Thanks Eccles and B&J
What on earth is there left to say about Eccles’ puzzles? This was exceptional in every respect from start to finish.
Favourite? Every single clue.
Many thanks to him and to B&J.
What B&J said in their prologue
Thanks very much to them and Eccles
Hear hear to all of the above. A slow start, which gathered pace as I progressed through the puzzle. Nothing required explanation but all the better for that. Thanks Eccles and B&J.
Brilliant puzzle!
Splendid anagrams – TRAIN SET, GLOCKENSPIEL, DOMESTIC, MONGOLIA et al – great misdirection in 15ac (on vacation) and 18ac (definition), clever constructions (BLOODSHED, GLISTEN and EKING – I’m with PostMark, there) and a super &lit (SEMINAL) – plus, as B&J said, smooth surfaces throughout.
Thanks to Eccles for lots of fun and B&J for a great blog.
Much as others have said, to which I would add that even the more difficult answers such as DIAPASON, were possible to solve, either from wordplay or def.
Favourites were the original EKING, the SEMINAL &lit and the def for my last in GLOCKENSPIEL.
Thanks to Eccles and B&J
GLOCKENSPIEL, GO PEAR-SHAPED and SEMINAL(!) were the picks of a lovely bunch. Only minor quibble is that from wordplay/crossers alone, the unusual DIAPASON could equally have been DIADASON.
Thanks B&J & Eccles.
Another master-class in setting from Eccles although I doubt that I’ll remember DIAPASON!
Personal favourites were ICEBOX, EKING & STRAND.
Many thanks to Eccles and to B&J for the review.
It helped to have had a husband who was an organist. 😉
This was already my pick of the day but BEN EKING clinched it
Thanks Eccles and B&J
Wow – Eccles quickly climbing the favourite setter charts. A great range of clues kept me chewing away happily for just the right amount of time.
Thanks all.
Nothing to add – it’s all been said! Thanks, Eccles and B&J.
The GOP is the Grand Old Party, not Good. I rather like 9a.
Thanks to both.
As well as appreciating the other favourites, I enjoyed seeing the cheese in the angel, and the double bluff with “on vacation” really meaning on holiday for once.
Thanks Enlumined – you are absolutely correct. Somewhere, in between the blogging and the checking, things went awry. Will amend the blog
Thanks Eccles, I’ll echo the praise of everyone else. I thought the surfaces for SEMINAL, TRAIN SETS, INEPT, and ULCER were all superb. I worked out DIAPASON but dismissed it as a nonsense word — little did I know it was a correct guess. Thanks B & J for the blog.
Well, DIAPASON was obvious to me and one of the first ones in. EKING however was my LOI as I’d never heard of Ben E. King.
EKING was top notch & my clear fav among many in a super puzzle. Never heard of DIAPASON – last in & entered more in hope than expectation.