Eccles is occupying his customary mid-week spot this Wednesday.
I actually found this to be a rather challenging puzzle by Indy standards, and a harder than average puzzle from Eccles.
I needed quite a bit of dictionary help to complete the puzzle, not least because some of the trickiest clues had solutions that didn’t intersect at their initial letters, such as at 7, 12 and 19.
My favourite clues today were 4, for smoothness of surface; 5 and 11, both for entertainment value; and 26, for its misleading use of “Lancaster”.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | CO-DEPENDENTS | Cipher writer depresses emotionally needy carers
CODE (=cipher) + PEN (=writer) + DENTS (=depresses, makes indentations) |
| 09 | RETALIATE | Strike back in due course, returning before I worried
RETAL (LATER=in due course; “returning” indicates reversal) + I + ATE (=worried) |
| 10 | IDLER | American singer and comedian losing millions? She’s lazy!
<m>IDLER (=American singer and comedian, i.e. Bette); “losing millions (=M)” means letter “m” is dropped |
| 11 | IAMBUS | I have big boobs, but not extremely tickly foot
I AM BUS<ty> (=I have big boobs); “not extremely (=first and last letter drops) tickly” means letters “ty” are dropped; an iambus; in prosody, is a foot of two syllables |
| 12 | MARTIANS | Bird boxes are small, or perhaps they are far away?
[A (=are, i.e. 100 sq m) in MARTIN (=bird)] + S (=small, in sizes) |
| 13 | COMMIT | Promise short red skirt at last
COMMI<e> (=red, i.e. Communist; “short” means last letter is dropped) + <skir>T (“at last” means last letter is dropped) |
| 15 | CLASSICS | Catholic girl is taking introduction to course at university
[C (=Catholic) + LASS (=girl)] + [C<ourse> (“introduction to” means first letter only) in IS] |
| 18 | CRITERIA | More given to weeping after appeal on the radio for standards
Homophone (“on the radio”) of “cry (=appeal) + tearier (=more given to weeping)” |
| 19 | BIDENT | President Trump initially displays unusual tool
BIDEN (=President, of US) + T<rump> (“initially” means first letter only); a bident is a two-pronged tool |
| 21 | ANTELOPE | Model alone with pet gnu?
*(ALONE + PET); “model” is anagram indicator |
| 23 | FALCON | Hunter running after injured calf
*(CALF) + ON (=running, in operation); “injured” is anagram indicator |
| 26 | BURST | Sudden outbreak of scabies, primarily in Lancaster?
S<cabies> (“primarily” means first letter only) in BURT (=Lancaster, i.e. US actor) |
| 27 | TRUST DEED | She was Prime Minister, briefly, beginning to take action to get legal document
TRUS<s> (=she was Prime Minister, i.e. UK PM Liz Truss; “briefly” means last letter is dropped) + T<ake> (“beginning to” means first letter only) + DEED (=action) |
| 28 | IN THESE PARTS | Rap sheet isn’t unusual round here
*(RAP SHEET ISN’T); “unusual” is anagram indicator |
| Down | ||
| 01 | CARDIAC | Perhaps book American to stop in charge of Body Pump
CARD (=perhaps (to) book, of a referee in sport) + [A (=American) in IC (=in charge)]; the reference is to the heart, i.e. “body pump” |
| 02 | DATUM | Corporation supports New York lawyer showing piece of information
DA (=New York lawyer, i.e. District Attorney) + TUM (=corporation, pot-belly) |
| 03 | PILAU RICE | Dish of gold found in mansion
AURIC (=of gold, from aurum in Latin) in PILE (=mansion, stately home) |
| 04 | NEAT | Nice apartment on vacation is tidy
N<ic>E A<partmen>T; “on vacation” means that the words are “emptied” of all but their first and last letters |
| 05 | EYEBALLS | Stares at G Osborne’s shadow to entertain the elderly
YE (=the elderly, i.e. an archaic word for the) in E<d> BALLS (=G<eorge> Osborne’s shadow, as Chancellor in the Cameron government) |
| 06 | TAINT | Shame it isn’t contracted
‘TAINT is a contraction of “it isn’t” |
| 07 | FLEABITE | What Rimsky-Korsakov portrayed for Spooner is a slight inconvenience
Spoonerism of “bee flight (=what Rimsky-Korsakov portrayed, in his 1900 interlude The Flight of the Bumblebee)” |
| 08 | TRYSTS | Conservative drunkards completely lacking love in romantic encounters
T<o>RY (=Conservative) + S<o>TS (=drunkards); “completely lacking love (=O, i.e. zero score in tennis)” means both letter “o”s are missing |
| 14 | MOISTURE | Suit disintegrated in fresh water
*(SUIT) in MORE (=fresh, new); “disintegrated” is anagram indicator |
| 16 | SPINAL TAP | Drive in car, a circuit around Thruxton to begin with, getting puncture
SPIN (=drive in car) + {T<hruxton> (“to begin with” means first letter only) in [A + LAP (=circuit)]}; a lumbar puncture is a spinal tap in US English |
| 17 | DISPATCH | Report of spring found in gutter
SPA (=spring) in DITCH (=gutter, groove); a dispatch is a report, a bulletin |
| 18 | CRABBY | Bad-tempered taxi driver accepts rupees
R (=rupees) in CABBY (=driver) |
| 20 | TENEDOS | European doesn’t fancy Turkish island
*(E (=European) + DOESN’T); “fancy” is anagram indicator; Tenedos is a Turkish island in the north-east Aegean |
| 22 | LET ON | Left message to be written up, it is revealed
L (=left) + ETON (NOTE=message; “to be written up” indicates vertical reversal) |
| 24 | CLEAR | Explicit content found in article repeatedly
Hidden (“content”) in “artiCLE + ARticle” (“repeatedly” implies repetition of the same word) |
| 25 | BUGS | Bothers // animated character // with complaints
Triple definition: bugs means bothers, irritates AND Bugs (Bunny) is an animated, i.e. cartoon, character AND bugs are medical complaints |
Beaten by two intersecting dnk’s and some lapsed GK: BIDENT and TENEDOS – though a Google search did turn up the latter – and FLEABITE as I was nowhere near remembering the Flight of the Bumblebee, let alone Spoonerising a paraphrase of it. Those aside, this was a lot of fun with some cute plays like E BALLS and the deleted ‘O’s in TRYSTS. I liked the def for SPINAL TAP, the homophone for CRITERIA and the outrageous Body Pump in CARDIAC. MARTIANS was a pretty tough def – there are a fair few things that could be described as ‘perhaps far away’!
Thanks Eccles and RR
Thanks, Eccles and RR!
Liked CRITERIA, PILAU RICE, EYEBALLS, TAINT and CLEAR.
CO-DEPENDENTS
I think the definition should include the word ’emotionally’ as well.
CARDIAC
‘to book’ and ‘to card’ are synonymous. The ‘perhaps’ seems superfluous, if a synonym (as opposed to an example) is indicated. I was looking for a book titled ‘CARD’. There is ‘The Card’ by Arnold Bennett. In that case, leaving out ‘the’ was troubling me.
I found this really quite tough but as enjoyable as ever from this setter.
BIDENT was a new word for me but nicely clued.
I’m not sure, but isn’t “with” in 25d surface padding?
With ticks galore all over my page, IAMBUS, EYEBALLS, FLEABITE and CLEAR were my top picks.
Many thanks to Eccles and to RR.
Excellent as always from Eccles. I couldn’t parse MARTIANS having forgotten that a= are in the area sense. Loved the Spoonerism at 7D. Thanks Eccles and RatkojaRiku.
Postmark@1
I share your views on FLEABITE. Spoonerism involved was a bit of a stretch. I thought of FLEABITE first from the definition (at that time it was a guess) and then googled ‘Bee Flight by Rimsky-Korsakov’. Found the bumblebee thing.
Excellent inventive puzzle.
Jorums for TENEDOS and BIDENT – it had to be a tool with two teeth.
Then MARTIANS – a reference to Father Ted?:
“These…” (toy cows in his hands) “…are small, but the ones out there…” (nodding towards real cows out of the window) “..are far away”
And finally – after sleeping on it – the Blight of the Fumblebee – clang! cotd.
Thanks E&RR
Testing ‘taint.
Great puzzle, lots of fun, agree it was somewhat more difficult than usual from Eccles, but very satisfying.
I remembered A=are so worked out the parsing pretty quickly but took forever to think of a suitable bird. The definition is oblique but I love the nod to Father Ted.
Thanks, Eccles and RR.
‘taint doesn’t work – the WordPress software converts the apostrophe to an opening (6-shaped) single quote.
’tain’t does work – one of the few times that the software gets it right.
Could not finish without a couple of reveals. Didn’t know IAMBUS and I was sure 1d was Carotic. I had TENEDOS but not the parsing so the blog has been very helpful. MARTIANS also stumped me but it’s a great clue now it has been explained. My favourite is SPINAL TAP because I have fond memories of the movie. Much appreciation to RR and Eccles for a great blog and puzzle respectively.
Lovely puzzle!
I had ticks for IAMBUS, CRITERIA, ANTELOPE, ANTELOPE, BURST and TRYSTS, which all made me smile, CLASSICS, which I read at University, which meant I knew TENEDOS (it’s the island behind which the Greeks hid their fleet, tricking the Trojans into thinking the war was over, so that they took the wooden horse into the city) and FLEABITE, because Spoonerisms that actually work are so rare.
Many thanks to Eccles for the fun and RR for the blog.
Thanks both. Needed help on clues already highlighted here, where knowledge of classical music and Turkish geography was lacking. In EYEBALLS ‘elderly’ seems a stretch, where ‘old’ might have been clearer, and the clue reads well either way – I can almost picture the scene
I could only come up with RARER SHARD for FLEABITE, with the slight inconvenience that it matched neither the enumeration nor the definition and fixated on TRUMAN for BIDENT with the vague hope that an “an” was a tool. A very enjoyable puzzle, though I am inclined to agree with TFO about elderly.
Quite a tough challenge from Eccles I thought and I almost reached the tearing out of hair stage with a couple in the NE. Lack of GK assailed me with the unusual tool and the Turkish island, both of which required confirmation from the BRB and it took a long time for the land measurement to surface from my ancient brain.
No problem with the musical content of the Spoonerism but I hadn’t heard of it being used to describe a slight inconvenience which seems like something of an understatement!
Prize money went to MARTIANS, FALCON & EYEBALLS.
Thanks to Eccles and to RR for the review.
Hard work, especially with the crossing MARTIANS, BIDENT (new to me) and FLEABITE in the NE corner. TENEDOS also went as the most likely arrangement of the remaining anagram fodder. I liked the reference to BURT Lancaster and the poetry meets porn (of the most gentle sort) IAMBUS.
Thanks to Eccles and RR
Thanks RR and Eccles.
Excellent!
Spooner takes the cake, plus CLASSICS, BURST, TRYSTS, SPINAL TAP and CLEAR make my list.
Thanks Eccles. This took me awhile but I was able to complete it; I couldn’t parse FLEABITE, EYEBALLS, and the nicely hidden CLEAR and I guessed TENEDOS from the anagram fodder. Favourites included IDLER, IAMBUS, COMMIT, BURST, and DISPATCH, the latter for using report as the definition and not a homophone indicator. Thanks RR for the blog.
Thanks RR and Eccles. Got it out after an extra long day at work. Some real stinkers after a long day. Oh well roll on tough Thursday
This was very good-in fact too good for me at the time-twice he dropped a shoulder and nutmegged me
I’ll be on the look out next time.
meanwhile Chapeau Eccles!