Eccles in his regular Wednesday slot: always a welcome prospect.
Lots of the wit we’ve come to expect from Eccles: I liked the doctor’s view of a patient in 21a, the bird hiding in bricks in 3d, the faithless young man in 6d, and the “spineless individual” in 19d. A couple of unfamiliar entries at 27a and 7d – our setter seems to be in French mood today – but the wordplay was clear enough in both cases. Thanks Eccles for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SHRILL |
Accomplice describes closure of ear piercing (6)
|
| SHILL (a confidence trickster’s accomplice) around (describing) the closing letter of [ea]R.
Shrill (sound) = piercing = high-pitched and loud. |
||
| 4 | ASPIRE |
Long snake about to eat iguana’s head (6)
|
| ASP (snake) + RE (about = on the subject of), containing (to eat) the first letter (head) of I[guana].
Long, as a verb = aspire = yearn. |
||
| 9 | HANG |
Suspend Chinese go-between, to begin with (4)
|
| HAN (the largest ethinc group among Chinese people) + beginning letter of G[o-between]. | ||
| 10 | TURNED AWAY |
Went off a method that’s rejected (6,4)
|
| TURNED (went off; milk or cream is said to “turn” when it goes sour) + A WAY (a method). | ||
| 11 | RODENT |
Study boring degenerate animal (6)
|
| DEN (study = private room) inserted into (boring) ROT (degenerate, as a verb). | ||
| 12 | MAVERICK |
Rebel state occupies Fleetwood? (8)
|
| AVER (state, as a verb = assert) inserted into (occupying) MICK (Mick Fleetwood, one of the founders of the band Fleetwood Mac). | ||
| 13 | KNOCKOFFS |
Copies rap by Oscar and Gordon Bennett (9)
|
| KNOCK (rap, on a door to attract attention) + O (Oscar in the radio alphabet) + FFS (messaging abbreviation for “for f***’s sake”, an outburst expressing exasperation, as is “Gordon Bennett”).
Knockoffs = counterfeit copies of expensive goods. |
||
| 15 | KNEE |
Joint of pork can provide sustenance at last (4)
|
| Final letters (at last) of [por]K [ca]N [provid]E [sustenanc]E. | ||
| 16 | GANG |
Joke about northern band (4)
|
| GAG (joke) around N (northern). | ||
| 17 | PRESSES ON |
Continues to demand bouquet is sent back (7,2)
|
| PRESS (demand, as in “to press a claim”), then NOSE (bouquet = wine-taster’s term for the smell of a wine) reversed (sent back). Not the strongest clue because I think “press” means much the same thing in both definition and wordplay. | ||
| 21 | MANICURE |
Patient, from doctor’s perspective, getting cosmetic treatment (8)
|
| A doctor might see a (male) patient as “the MAN I CURE“. | ||
| 22 | LEGATE |
The French entry is representative (6)
|
| LE (a form of “the” in French) + GATE (entry). | ||
| 24 | POWER LUNCH |
Bring down alcoholic drink with leaders swapping places in business meal (5,5)
|
| LOWER (bring down) + PUNCH (alcoholic drink), with the first letters swapped.
An important business meeting over lunch. |
||
| 25 | PUPA |
Small animal? A small insect, not yet adult (4)
|
| PUP (a young dog = small animal) + A.
A stage in the life-cycle of insects, between larva and adult. |
||
| 26 | RATING |
Evaluation of framework of metal bars: not good (6)
|
| [g]RATING (a framework of metal bars) without the G (good). | ||
| 27 | TROYES |
Historic capital where The Iliad was set is in Spain (6)
|
| TROY (where Homer’s Iliad was set) + ES (“is” in Spanish).
Historic city in northern France, capital of the Aube département. I don’t think it was ever the capital of France, though it was briefly the location of government during the Hundred Years’ War. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SPA TOWN |
Argument about drinking drop of water in Bath? (3,4)
|
| SPAT (argument) + ON (about = on the subject of), containing (drinking) the first letter (a drop) of W[ater].
Definition by example: Roman spa town in Somerset. |
||
| 2 | ROGUE |
German stops dissolute man becoming crook (5)
|
| G (abbreviation for German) inserted into (stopping) ROUE (roué, from French = dissolute man). | ||
| 3 | LET IT GO |
Stop talking about that bird hiding among bricks (3,2,2)
|
| TIT (small bird) hiding within LEGO (plastic bricks as a construction toy).
“Let it go!” = a plea to someone to stop grumbling about something. |
||
| 5 | SWERVE |
Veer violently after covering of snow? (6)
|
| Anagram (violently) of VEER, after the outer letters (covering) of S[no]W.
Clue-as-definition: a driver might swerve when losing control on a snow-covered road. |
||
| 6 | IN A TRANCE |
Crooner’s son leaves once love fades away, and is unresponsive (2,1,6)
|
| [s]INATRA (Frank Sinatra: crooner = singer of sentimental songs) without the S (son), then [o]NCE without the O (love, in tennis scoring). | ||
| 7 | EBAUCHE |
Rough sketch showing debauchery? On the contrary (7)
|
| “On the contrary” tells us to reverse the meaning of the wordplay, so [d]EBAUCHE[ry] is “showing” EBAUCHE rather than the other way round.
Not a word I’ve seen before: ébauche (from French) = an initial rough sketch. Perhaps the sort of word that setters need to fill an awkward corner of the grid . . . |
||
| 8 | TRUMP FORCE ONE |
Gentle fart in narcissist’s plane (5,5,3)
|
| Double definition, the first cryptic. Trump = fart; and Force 1 on the Beaufort scale of wind speeds is very gentle (barely a breeze), so a force 1 trump wouldn’t be very loud. Trump Force 1 = nickname for the Boeing 757 used by Donald Trump (generally considered to be a narcissist), by analogy with “Air Force 1” which is the radio call-sign for a US Air Force plane with the president on board. | ||
| 14 | CONFIDENT |
Self-assured close friend has energy for bit of affection (9)
|
| CONFID[a]NT (close friend), with the A (first letter, or “a bit”, of A[ffection]) replaced by E (abbreviation for energy). | ||
| 16 | GLAMOUR |
Originally, Gauguin left relationship for fascinating beauty (7)
|
| First letter (originally) of G[auguin] + L (left) + AMOUR (romantic relationship). | ||
| 18 | SULPHUR |
Rising benefit upset expelled head of Thatcherite element (7)
|
| PLUS (a benefit) reversed (rising = upwards in a down clue), then HUR[t] (upset) without the T which is the first letter (head) of T[hatcherite].
Yellow crystalline element. The official name (according to the international chemistry organisation that decides such things) is now “sulfur”, but the alternative spelling with “ph” persists, especially in British English. |
||
| 19 | OCTOPUS |
Spineless individual‘s priority: taking top off, with another hidden (7)
|
| [f]OCUS (priority), with the first letter (top, in a down clue) taken off, and another TOP hidden inside it.
A sea creature without a spine. |
||
| 20 | DUBLIN |
City getting twice as big nearly overspent? (6)
|
| D[o]UBLIN[g] (getting twice as big), without the last letter (nearly); then we need to split “over” and “spent”, so that the O (over, in cricket scoring) is taken away (spent = used up). | ||
| 23 | GUPPY |
Swimmer very quietly punches man (5)
|
| PP (pp = musical terminology for very quietly: doubled form of Italian piano, soft = quiet) inserted into (punching) GUY (man).
Freshwater (or aquarium) fish. |
Eccles at his best, I thought. Really enjoyed this.
Ecclesellent, as always! Though I did have to look up EBAUCHE and struggled with MAVERICK: not being familiar with the individual members of Fleetwood Mac, I was trying to work ‘mac’ in with the rest of it. The good citizens of Bath may bilk at its being called a town. Thanks Eccles and Quirister.
My faves: KNOCKOFFS, MANICURE, POWER LUNCH, IN A TRANCE and OCTOPUS.
Enjoyed solving the puzzle and reading the blog (quite thorough, I feel).
Thanks, E and Q!
What Hovis said
Many thanks to Eccles and Quirister
Great fun as usual from this setter.
I’ve never heard of SHILL, which turns out to be “slang (esp N..American)” according to Chambers, nor of EBAUCHE, which is French.
With virtually everything else ticked, my top three were KNOCKOFFS, MANICURE and LET IT GO.
Many thanks to Eccles and to Quirister.
What crypticsue said. Particularly enjoyed the use of Gordon Bennett for FFS. Also loved LET IT GO. Superb.
Nho EBAUCHE but it couldn’t have been anything else.
Thanks, Eccles & Quirister.
Tatrasman @2 – you might have a point, but people talk about “spa towns” not “spa cities”.
Found SHILL in crossword dictionary
Hadnt heard of FFS
Lego is gaining popularity as a brick or brick maker
I have been to TROYES
But i cant make up my mind on TRUMP FORCE 1
Its either brilliant or very interesting.
Which pretty much sums up this puzzle
Never a dull moment with Eccles
I enjoyed this as much as everyone else. Couldn’t get the golfer Tommy out of my mind for the ‘Fleetwood?’ at 12a until the obvious jumped out at me. SHRILL mainly went in from def, but SHILL rang a faint bell. Never heard of EBAUCHE and couldn’t have told you much about TROYES. I think I’ll stick with the familiar SULPHUR spelling for the moment.
I’ll be contrary with the reasoning behind my favourite today OCTOPUS; it was good to see it clued as a ‘Spineless individual’ rather than an “army” one!
Thanks to Eccles and Quirister
Superb puzzle. Thanks, both.
We got it all, although reference to Chambers was required to confirm ‘shill’ and ÉBAUCHE, neither of which we’d heard of, and we couldn’t parse IN A TRANCE. We were a bit lucky with MAVERICK – the clue suggested to us an insertion of ‘aver’ into ‘Mac’ (as in Fleetwood) though when we confidently wrote in MAVERICK we realised it wasn’t quite that but decided to let it stand. LET IT GO and MANICURE were our favourites.
Thanks, Eccles and Quirister.
Had to phone-a-friend about the French sketch and Donald’s aircraft but managed to find the American accomplice in the dictionary. Had the same thought as Tatrasman about the citizens of Bath.
POWER LUNCH made me smile, I remember that expression simply being an excuse for a p**s up during the working day!
Tops for me were KNOCKOFFS & LET IT GO.
Thanks to Eccles and to Quirister for the review.
Superb puzzle. TRUMP FORCE ONE provided welcome merriment on a dull day. Thanks to Quirister for the parsing of OCTOPUS which was beyond me and to Eccles for all the fun.