Independent 11340 / Eccles

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Eccles makes his fortnightly Wednesday appearance today.

 

 

 

Eccles rarely, if ever, has a message or a theme in his puzzles.  He just presents well crafted clues with the odd quirk here and there.

Today’s quirk was what Eccles himself described as an outrageous homophone – A PAIR O TEEF leading to APERITIF.

Before writing the blog, I wondered why Olympic was in the clue at 1 across because you can be a FIGURE SKATER without taking part in the Olympics, until I realised that the actual Princess Royal, Princes Anne competed at the 1976 Olympics in the equestrian team, making the clue very clever.

There are many other clues where the wording conjures up a picture that is unrelated to the entry but the wordplay is clear when you parse the clue – e.g. PAST IT, ASPIRANT and HARASSES.

I also liked the definition of SARAH in the clue for HARASSES

No Detail
Across  
1

Works out Princess Royal is Olympic athlete (6,6) 

FIGURE SKATER (FIGURE SKATing is an event at the Winter Olympics).

FIGURES (follows as a logical consequence; works out) + KATE (reference KATE Middleton, Princess of Wales, among other titles) + R (royal – R is listed in Collins as a standalone abbreviation for Royal).  Possibly OLYMPIC is in there because Princess Anne, the Princess Royal is a

FIGURE S KATE R
9

Demand Far East buses can request this (5,4) 

EXACT FARE (bus companies frequently don’t give change and ask for the EXACT FARE to be paid)

EXACT (demand and obtain) + FAR + E (East)

EXACT FAR E
10

Record love making event for dancers (5) 

DISCO (club or party where music for dancing is provided by records)

DISC  (record) + O (character representing zero, the love score in tennis)

DISC O
11

South American can start to need car (6) 

SALOON (type of car)

SA (South American) + LOO (toilet; can is an informal term for the toilet) + N (first letter of [start to] NEED)

SA LOO N
12

Make error, literally picking up the perfect woman to marry (8) 

MISWRITE (make an error in wording [literature])

MISWRITE (sounds like [picking up] MISS [woman] + RIGHT [perfect] – MISS RIGHT is often portrayed as the perfect lady to marry)

MIS WRITE
13

I am jumping into river in German city (6) 

WEIMAR (city in central Germany)

I’M (I am) contained in (jumping into) WEAR (river in north-eastern England)

WE (IM) AR
15

Care of tree rather dull and old fashioned (5,3) 

FIRST AID (immediate treatment of a wounded or sick person before full medical attention; care)

FIR (tree) + STAID (rather dull and old fashioned)

FIR ST AID
18

Wear thin pants, as God intended (2,3,3) 

IN THE RAW (in a natural state; naked; as God intended)

Anagram of (pants) WEAR THIN

IN THE RAW*
19

Idiots going back over the hill (4,2) 

PAST IT (too old; over the hill)

(TIT [contemptible person idiot] + SAP [SAPhead {idiot] giving idiots) all reversed (going back)

(PAS T IT)<
21

Kinky porn sale, in private (8) 

PERSONAL (private)

Anagram of (kinky) PORN SALE

PERSONAL*
23

On a cold and ultimately windy estate (6) 

LEGACY (that which is left to one through a will; estate)

LEG (on side in cricket) + A + C (cold) + Y (last letter of [ultimately] WINDY)

LEG A C Y
26

Son caught with rotten food (5) 

SCOFF (food)

S (con) + C (caught) + OFF (not up to standard or well past it’s best to have become rotten)

S C OFF
27

Tell me explosive is put around Communist leader (4,2,3) 

SPIT IT OUT (speak out; tell me!)

Anagram of (explosive) IS PUT containing (around) TITO (reference Josep Broz TITO [1892 – 1980], once Communist leader of the former state of Yugoslavia)

SPI (T IT O) UT*
28

Scolding German for beginning to destroy robe (8,4) 

DRESSING GOWN (robe)

DRESSING DOWN (scolding) with G (GERMAN) replacing D (first letter of [beginning to] DESTROY) to form DRESSING GOWN

DRESSING GOWN
Down  
1

Female ne’er-do-well upset woodcutter (7) 

FRETSAW (toll for cutting wood)

F (female) + WASTER (good-for-nothing; ne’er-do-well) reversed (upset; down entry)

F RETSAW<
2

Left organised grand uprising – one is seen in Knotty Ash? (5) 

GNARL (lump or knot in a tree; something that would be seen in knotty ash tree)

(L [left] + RAN [organised] + G [grand]) all reversed (uprising; down entry)

(G NAR L)<
3

I earn a lot jiggling, in theory (9) 

RATIONALE (underlying principle; theory)

Anagram of (jiggling) I EARN A LOT

RATIONALE*
4

Small animal dropping (4) 

SCAT (wild animal dropping) – the definition could just be  ‘dropping’ with ‘animal’ only being used in the wordplay

S (small) + CAT (animal)

S CAT
5

Outrageous report of two canines getting drink before meal (8) 

APERITIF (drink before a meal)

APERITIF (sounds like [report] A PAIR [two] O [of] TEEF [one way of pronouncing teeth; canines]) – Eccles does say it’s an outrageous homophone

APERITIF
6

Stop old women getting grant (5) 

ENDOW (grant)

END (finish; stop) + O (old) + W (women)

END O W
7

Hopeful spat with Iran can be sorted out (8) 

ASPIRANT (hopeful)

Anagram of (can be sorted out) SPAT and IRAN

ASPIRANT*
8

Venetian magistrate naked on vacation, showing butt (3-3) 

DOG-END ([cigarette] butt)

DOGE (Venetian magistrate) + ND (letters remaining in NAKED when the central letters AKE are removed [on vacation])

DOG E ND
14

Forces United and Italian team to get people regularly dropped (8)

INTERPOL (International Police Commission; united police forces)

INTER (reference IItalian football team INTER Milan) + POL (letters remaining in PEOPLE when EPE, letters 2, 4 and 6 [regularly] are removed [dropped])

INTER POL
16

Bar welcomes large group drooling (9) 

SLAVERING (drooling)

(SAVE [except; bar] containing [welcomes] L [large]) + RING (arrangement or group)

S (L) AVE RING
17

Lancashire lass returns with seeds, oddly, for badgers (8) 

HARASSES (annoys; badgers)

SARAH (reference actress SARAH Lancashire [born 1964], recently seen starring in the TV series Happy Valley) reversed (returns) + SES (letters 1, 3 and 5 [oddly] of SEEDS)

HARAS< SES
19

Single politician is hot and playful (6) 

IMPISH (teasingly mischievous; playful)

I (Roman numeral for one; single) + MP (Member of Parliament; politician) + IS + H (hot)

I MP IS H
20

How to tell if top is too tight to get flirty with someone (3,2,2) 

TRY IT ON (a way of telling whether a top is too tight)

TRY IT ON (attempt to do something risky or audacious to see how far one can go unscathed; e.g. flirt with someone)  double definition

TRY IT ON
22

Put forward assassin? (5) 

OFFER (propose; put forward)

OFFER (a person who OFFS [kills, in United States slang]; assassin)  double definition

OFFER
24

Excited by nothing as much as you like (1,4) 

A GOGO (in abundance; as much as one likes)

AGOG (excited) + O (character representing zero; nothing)

A GOG O
25

Dictator’s important little national symbol (4) 

KIWI (national symbol of New Zealand)

KIWI (sounds like [dictator speaking to someone writing down the words] KEY [important] WEE [little])

KI WI

19 comments on “Independent 11340 / Eccles”

  1. Wonderful puzzle, thanks Eccles.
    Impish clues get me screaming “tell me the answer now!” I am a relative novice so I cheat a lot.
    Thanks to Duncan for explaining my usual mystery parses.

  3. Tasty Eccles today with sugar on top being APERITIF and MISWRITE. I also enjoyed the clueing for KIWI and SPIT IT OUT once I figured out what ‘explosive’ meant. Thanks.

  4. It’s Eccles, it’ll be brilliant, and it was., especially GNARL, MISWRITE……. I didn’t see PAST IT at first, thinking ‘idiots’ = ‘tits’ plus AP standing for something, soon resolved. Thanks Eccles and Duncan.

  5. Oh dear, well Eccles did say ‘Outrageous’ at 5d so I should have been expecting something. The dodgiest of all dodgy homophones, which completely stumped me and I entered the answer from what seemed the more plausible of the two possible defs. I was also fooled by the ‘Princess Royal’ at 1a (initially thinking of Princess Anne as intended) and didn’t know ‘Lancashire lass’ defined SARAH. PAST IT was also top notch.

    Thanks to Eccles for a homophonically memorable puzzle and to Duncan

  6. More brilliance and outrageous (!) fun from Eccles with FIGURE SKATER, MISWRITE and APERITIF my top three.

    I couldn’t believe that SCOFF could be used as a noun meaning food. It’s ghastly but it is in Chambers 🙁

    Many thanks to Eccles and to Duncan.

  7. The ‘aperitif’ homophone reminds me of ‘mass o’ chew sets’ In reference to the Bee Gees and one of their earliest hits.

  8. Excellent stuff.
    The North West frontier was the last to yield with its gnarlier clues until I figured out the skater.
    Last one in APERITIF – Clang! Brilliant.
    Hovis@7: here’s Kenny Everett “interviewing” himself as all three Bee Gees.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsE-Dqok5mY
    TRY IT ON dredged up from my memory the words “with surly Tonto” and this one-hit wonder earworm:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hchOYs_d_Bw
    “Originally released as a single in 1976, the BBC banned it due to the drug and homosexual references. However, thanks to Kenny Everett, the song received a lot of airplay on his TV & radio shows, and was re-released in 1979.”

  9. Outrageous indeed! Always guaranteed a laugh or two from this setter. Thanks for the fun, Eccles. And for the blog, Duncan.

  10. Delightful from Eccles, as always. Wit and invention and some lol moments though none as noisy as the outrageous homophone. And, when it’s clued as honestly as that, what’s not to like?

    MISWRITE, FIRST AID, IN THE RAW, LEGACY, GNARL, DOG-END and HARASSES are the ones I’ll highlight but I could have ticked anything.

    Thanks Eccles and the very hard-working (as he said he would be) duncan

  11. All the expected fun and sleight of hand from our setter with a real tooth-sucker in APERITIF.
    Tops for me were FIGURE SKATER, MISWRITE & FIRST AID.

    Many thanks to Eccles and the hard-working Duncan.

  12. Excellent puzzle, I could have nominated virtually every Across clue as worthy of special mention and the standard didn’t drop much in the Downs’ either.
    I’ll go for MISWRITE, SPIT IT OUT, OFFER and IN THE RAW for their amusement value as well as quality.
    Many thanks Eccles and DS

  13. Thanks both. I was ultra slow to grasp MISWRITE which delayed the ‘surely not’ moment for APERITIF , offset by appreciation especially for HARRASES and EXACT FARE notwithstanding for the latter it is the drivers or the companies, not the buses themselves who may insist, but not I recently learned so long as you have a debit card

  14. One of the things I admire about Eccles is the ability to spread the wordplay over the words in a multi-word answer as in SPIT IT OUT, DOG-END and PAST IT. Thanks, both.

  16. Thanks Eccles for a splendid crossword. I don’t usually pick homophones as favourite clues but I think MISWRITE and APERITIF are brilliant. FIRST AID and SPIT IT OUT were notable as well but there really wasn’t a bad clue in the bunch. Thanks Duncan for the blog.

  17. I do enjoy an Eccles. Now that I know it’s every fortnight I’ll be setting my clock. GNARL in conjunction with ‘Knotty Ash’ – wahoo!

    Thanks Eccles; thanks duncanshiell.

  18. Thanks to Duncan and all commenters. Alphalpha, delighted to hear it – but I’m afraid I am not as reliable as I used to be!

  19. FrankieG@8 Thanks for the Quantum Jump — it’s another Western Hemisphere, Hahahaha!
    Thanks, Eccles and Duncanshiell

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