Eccles has provided a medium-difficulty puzzle for this mid-week slot, on an unusual grid with limited variety in terms of entry length.
I made swift progress through this enjoyable puzzle, with the NE quadrant proving to be the most stubborn. I am quite happy with my parsing, but I would appreciate confirmation (or otherwise) of how I have parsed 6.
My favourite clues today were 4, 9, 21 and 27, all for surface; 16A, for its surprising use of “Sugar”; and 16D and 17, both for making me smile when the penny dropped.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 09 | PARTNER | Run to seduce retiring husband?
R (=run, on cricket scorecard) + ENTRAP (=to seduce); “retiring” indicates reversal |
| 10 | GROSSER | On the radio, shopkeeper is more boorish
Homophone (“on the radio”) of “grocer (=shopkeeper); grosser is more boorish, coarser |
| 11 | OEDIPUS | Do I use power to corrupt tragic hero?
*(DO I USE + P (=power, in physics)); “to corrupt” is anagram indicator; Oedipus is a Greek tragic hero |
| 12 | TORPEDO | Overrode protestor about concealing weapon
Hidden (“concealing”) and reversed (“about”) in “overrODE PROTestor” |
| 13 | THRASH OUT | Exhaustively discuss stuff no longer popular
THRASH (=stuff, defeat convincingly) + OUT (=no longer popular, unfashionable) |
| 15 | LABEL | Name of beautiful Italian cycling
BEL-LA (=beautiful Italian, i.e. an Italian word for beautiful); “cycling” means that the last letter goes to the front of the word, then the penultimate letter, etc |
| 16 | SEALANT | Sugar, perhaps stored in hardened wax?
ALAN (=Sugar, perhaps, i.e. UK business tycoon) in SET (=hardened) |
| 19 | DRIVE-IN | Doctor beginning to inspect fissure in cinema
DR (=doctor) + I<nspect> (“beginning to” means first letter only) + VEIN (=fissure, cavity) |
| 20 | APACE | Native American husband leaves quickly
APAC<h>E (=native American); “husband (=H) leaves” means letter “h” is dropped |
| 21 | ALLIGATOR | Every one cooked goat with rare reptile
ALL (=every) + I (=one) + *(GOAT) + R (=rare); “cooked” is anagram indicator |
| 25 | CUSTOMS | Swear about male’s habits
TOM (=male, e.g. cat) in CUSS (=swear) |
| 26 | UNCAGED | Free guidance at work I ignored
*(GU<i>DANCE); “I ignored” means letter “i” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “at work” |
| 28 | MOLIERE | French playwright to a greater extent describes story
LIE (=story) in MORE (=to a greater extent); the reference is to 17th century French playwright Molière (1622-73) |
| 29 | CHAPEAU | Man with tetanus regularly removed hat
CHAP (=man) + <t>E<t>A<n>U<s> (“regularly removed” means alternate letters are dropped) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | UPMOST | Top Union appointment protects millions
U (=Union) + [M (=millions) in POST (=appointment, position)] |
| 02 | TRADER | Angry diatribe, right after being abandoned by international merchant
T<i>RADE (=angry diatribe; “after being abandoned by international (=I)” means letter “i” is dropped) + R (=right) |
| 03 | SNAP | Speak tartly: // “Those are identical!”
Double definition: to snap (at) is to speak tartly, in irritation AND “Snap!” is shouted when e.g. two identical cards are found in the game of snap |
| 04 | FRESCO | Painting of fresh cod with tails removed
FRES<h> CO<d>; “with tails removed” means last letters are dropped |
| 05 | AGITATED | Worried a contemptible chap and a delinquent youth
A + GIT (=contemptible chap) + A + TED (=delinquent youth) |
| 06 | CORRALLING | Capturing my radical final gamble failing, ultimately
COR (=My!, as exclamation) + R (=radical, in chemistry) + ALL IN (=final gamble, i.e. everything included) + <failin>G (“ultimately” means last letter only) |
| 07 | ASSEMBLE | Make meals with BSE, unfortunately
*(MEALS + BSE); “unfortunately” is anagram indicator |
| 08 | BROOKLYN | Beckham to tolerate playing occasionally
BROOK (=to tolerate, put up with) + <p>L<a>Y<i>N<g> (“occasionally” means alternate letters only); media personality Brooklyn Beckham (1999-) is the eldest son of David and Victoria Beckham |
| 14 | SKATED OVER | Avoided dealing with port covered by fish
SKATE (=fish) + DOVER (=port, in Kent) |
| 16 | SEARCH ME | I know not of cashmere pants
*(CASHMERE); “pants (=rubbish)” is anagram indicator |
| 17 | ADAM’S ALE | Where you might buy Hoover for water?
Cryptically, you might buy (the) Hoover (Dam) at “a dam sale”! |
| 18 | TRANSFER | Review of officials following wild rant leads to relocation
*(RANT) + SFER (REFS=officials, i.e. referees; “review of” indicates reversal); “wild” is anagram indicator |
| 22 | LAUNCH | Inauguration of large corporation originally cancelled
L (=large, of sizes) + <p>AUNCH (=corporation, belly; “originally cancelled” means first letter is dropped) |
| 23 | TAGGED | Monitored unusual gadget
*(GADGET); “unusual” is anagram indicator; tagged criminals are being monitored |
| 24 | RED RUM | Crows over legendary horse
MURDER (=crows, i.e. collective noun); “over” indicates reversal |
| 27 | CHAT | Tea-time conversation
CHA (=tea) + T (=time) |
Great fun as ever from this setter.
My top picks were THRASH OUT, SEALANT, BROOKLYN, SEARCH ME and CHAT with ADAMS ALE my favourite.
RR, I parsed 6d as you did.
Many thanks to Eccles and to RR.
Parsed CORRALLING as RR and RD did. I don’t see any gaps.
Thanks, Eccles and RR!
When I solved ADAMS ALE part way through, I suspected it would be my favourite, come the end. And so it is. What a delightful idea. Very amusing. A sparkling puzzle from Eccles yet again with other favourites including GROSSER, OEDIPUS, APACE, UNCAGED, MOLIERE, FRESCO, BROOKLYN, SEARCH ME and CHAT. I didn’t know radical = R so the parsing of CORRALLING escaped me (someone commented recently that we seem to have had a run of My = COR clues). I also got stuck with parsing TRADER as I was convinced the I’s were being removed from an anagram (angry) of D(i)ATR(i)BE + R and could not see how Eccles was disposing of the B!
Thanks Eccles and RR
Although Serpent used the idea of “A DAM SALE” in a puzzle from July last year, this together with the crossing SEALANT were my favourites from yet another enjoyable Eccles outing.
RADICAL is ‘one of those’ indicators for me, where Chambers is the last refuge of a scoundrel. But no-one says you can’t use it! Anyway, it made the solving of that word a bit slower than it might have been I suppose. Good puzzle however: I’ll go for 13A as a fave for today.
Yes, enjoyable and more accessible – for me at least. Lots of smiles. Thanks Eccles and RR.
Couldn’t read 15a without thinking of the old chestnut – ‘Isabel necessary on a bicycle?’
Very enjoyable. I don’t remember the previous appearance of A DAM SALE which was my favourite, together with the simple but descriptive surface for CHAT.
Interesting to see another reference to MOLIÈRE somewhere else today.
Thanks to Eccles and RR
Excellent as always from Eccles. At 6D I didn’t understand ‘all in’ as ‘final gamble’ but see it now. Lady Gewgaw @6: other dictionaries are available (eg Collins, Longmans, OED): I have in mind that one respected puzzle many years ago used to state that one dictionary (may have been Chambers) was to be referred to in case of doubt. Thanks Eccles and RatkojaRiku.
I also remembered adams ale form the Serpent puzzle but found much to enjoy here with 16D in particular raising a chuckle.
By contrast with RR I got all of the NE corner before any of the rest and found this fairly straightforward but as I’ve said before sometimes the brain is just in the right frame of mind for crosswords (and sometimes not!).
Thanks to Eccles and RR
Top drawer puzzle from this consistently good setter. I’ll join with others and put ADAMS ALE in pole position with hon. mentions for GROSSER, SEALANT, SNAP & RED RUM. I remember years ago being given the latter in the office sweepstake and winning £5, a huge amount for me in those days!
Thanks to Eccles and to RR for the review.
ADAMS ALE and RED RUM were both excellent. I misled myself in the same way as PostMark with “diatribe”. Thanks both.
Just a thought – isn’t all in only a final gamble if it loses?
‘Last chance’ might have been more accurate.
Can see the name KELLY across the middle – coincidence or a possible Nina? Can’t see any other obvious hints though…
Probably the fastest solve I’ve ever had at a smidgeon over 18 minutes. Some of the success pages on the online version have shown over 3 hours lately so this one felt like it was over in the blink of an eye.
Also very unusually for me I don’t think I missed any parsings even if lots were retrospectively worked out.
Thanks to Eccles for the puzzle, and to RR for the blog.
An unusual grid, and with only two links left to right and two top to bottom not particularly solver-friendly. However everything went in remakably smoothly so we didn’t really notice that.
Plenty to like, including OEDIPUS, ALLIGATOR, MOLIÈRE and ADAM’S ALE (which we’d forgotten from Serpent’s puzzle).
Thanks, Eccles and RR.
Like our reviewer, NE held out longest in what was otherwise a relatively swift completion. All very entertaining, I particularly liked SEALANT, ADAMS ALE ,LAUNCH, CHAT and my favourite, SEARCH ME.
Many thanks to Eccles and RR.
Thank you RR and all commenters. Apologies to Serpent if his clue was similar, I had either not seen it or forgotten it. R for radical is in Collins as well, but perhaps more well known to me as a chemist who did a PhD on radical chemistry.
I’m not very good at Ninas, but I went on holiday to Morocco recently which helped with a couple of crosswords, and one of the stars of the group I was in was Kelly, who works for Snapchat, and I promised I would sneak her in a puzzle somewhere.
What everyone else said. Great fun, as usual. Thanks, Eccles.
And thanks RR, of course.
Definitely a crossword of four corners today. Thankfully we were not held up by the lack of connections across the grid.
Favourite clue was 27D – short and sweet.
Thanks RR and Eccles.
Just like to add my voice to the general plaudits for this excellent puzzle. Not too difficult but very entertaining. Loved the idea of A DAM SALE. Also liked 27a for its succinctness.