Independent 11,382 by Eccles

23 comments on “Independent 11,382 by Eccles”

1. Thanks, Eccles and Quirister. Brilliant puzzle, as usual. I thought 20a was very amusing, but top favourite for me was 6d – nicely waspish surface, and Rishi was a great spot.

2. That was fun. Anyone else think about LEANDER when reading 9a. It didn’t parse so I didn’t enter it.

   A few UK Universities adopted a semester system quite some time ago. Indeed, well before I retired nigh on 10 years ago.

3. Lots to like. HERRING and ARCH (for which I needed the blog’s help). TERMINUS. I like the self-referential clueing of late. Also CARDINAL and DICTION and I liked seeing the word FIGURINE as a solution despite its whiffy appearance here. Standing ovation (for the blog as well).

4. Glad to have HERRING parsed, as although I’d realised it had to be the answer it was one of my last in, along with SHANDY, which I don’t really describe as beer, particularly after the misfortune of trying the cans.

   Thank you Eccles and Quirister.

5. Thanks, Eccles and Quirister!
   Liked HERRING, SLIME, TIRED and TERMINUS.

6. Well, Hovis @2, tackling the clues in order, as usual, I thought I’d got off to a flying start when I confidently entered LEANDER (‘cryptic definition’) @9ac – and gave it a tick! It was only when I got to the down clues, when 2dn CRITIC wouldn’t fit, that I realised my mistake. However, I chuckled over the genuine answer for 9ac, which earned an immediate tick, so there were no hard feelings.

   Other ticks were for 18ac SHIVERY, 21ac WINEGLASS, 25ac BRIGAND, 26ac SCANDAL, 29ac LACONIC, 5dn TERMINUS and 6dn NOURISHING (first appearance of RISHI as PM for me, I think).

   Another enjoyable and witty puzzle from Eccles – many thanks to him for the fun and to Quirister for a fine blog.

7. Shanne @4: I thought much the same about SHANDY; I prefer my beer straight. But the clue does say “beer that has been diluted”, so you could argue it ceases to be beer when you dilute it.

8. In 16a the Edge – with a capital E – suggests U2 are in a pub running up a bill and their guitarist is showing them the menu… 🙂
   Finished, but failed to parse HER RING & [vale]DICTION.
   Philip of Macedon: “Should I come as friend or foe?”
   The Spartans: “Neither.”
   Philip of Macedon: “If I invade Laconia, I shall turn you out.”
   The Spartans: “If.”
   Now that’s LACONIC…
   Thanks E&Q

9. FrankieG @8: I assumed it referred to the web browser Microsoft Edge, which uses tabs to display multiple information sources. But I like your idea of U2 on a night out.

10. Hovis @2 / Eileen @6 – surely the clue would have to be “Hero’s swimmer” for LEANDER to be the solution? I like your thinking though. The screamer was what tipped me off that there was funny business going on in the clue but I needed a few crossing letters before I could see it. Tbh, I didn’t think the Indy allowed that kind of thing – though now I come to think of it, I remember a Tees clue, “Vex Gove! (5)” that works in a similar way and caused much discussion at the time.

11. Widdersbel@10 – LEANDER would work if “‘s” is the possessive rather than shortened “is” – Swimmer has Hero

12. Goujeers @11 – hmmm, maybe, but then surely Hero would need to be capitalised in the clue?

13. Widdersbel @10 – you’re quite right, of course (and right again @12). It was just purely intuitive and irresistible, really – but thank you for indulging me. 😉

14. Eccles on top form yet again delivering an excellent puzzle. So many ticks on my sheet and I’ll hand out the rosettes to HERRING, SHIVERY, LACONIC & CRITIC.

    Many thanks to Eccles for the fun and to Quirister, who is far from being a ‘pain in the neck’!

15. What Jane said @14 except that TERMINUS also gets added to my list of top clues.

    Many thanks to E and Q.

16. Widdersbel @10. That’s what I meant by “It didn’t parse”. I’m not fussed on misleading capitalisation or its absence and hadn’t thought of the possessive.

17. Another LEANDER as my first in to kick off what I thought may prove to be a gentle Eccles, but of course neither the answer nor my forecast for the rest of the puzzle was correct. I don’t know that “liked” is the right word, but the surfaces of 15a and 20a brought a (sort of) smile.

    Still not used to seeing RISHI for ‘PM’ and took a long time at the end to parse CARDINAL as a double def.

    Thanks to Eccles and Quirister

18. Before the blog enlightened me, I thought the reference to Britten’s Albert Herring a bit abstruse. I parsed CARDINAL as a double definition too, but I didn’t feel the clue quite worked. “One, for example, is a priest.” would have worked, as cardinals are priests, but not all priests are cardinals. Another great crossword, though. Thanks.

19. Thanks both. For TIRED I satisfied(?) myself that ‘bum dirt’ was a collective description and not an invitation to form an anagram, so ‘tird’ was a variant spelling of something…unpleasant.

20. Reading Petert’s commen t @18: we’re pleased we weren’t the only ones to think of Albert HERRING and parse 9ac as a double definition; on the other hand we never thought of Leander.
    Plenty to like, even if a bit heavy on the toilet humour. Thanks, Eccles and Quirister.

21. Thanks Eccles for the best crossword of the day in my opinion. It was slow going for me but in a most satisfying way. Favourites were TIRED, WINEGLASS, LIMB, and FIGURINE. (I guess I enjoy “toilet humour.”) Thanks Quirister for the blog.

22. Thanks Eccles for another good puzzle. Quite a few smiles today.

    Thanks Quirister for the blog.

23. Couldn’t finish NW corner – but had no I down wrong, ‘watery’ – wary + te head of N beer(tetly ? ) – so herring was off the menu and I couldn’t see climb .
    Fairly new to cryptics of this order – so did ok . Got nourishing but didn’t see ‘rishi’ – thanks.
    I saw laconic as con(e) + ic(e) – both short ?
    Had slime but could no see quite why – so thanks again.

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