Eccles makes his familiar appearance on a Wednesday.
As usual it’s full of Eccles’s witty enjoyment of the English language, and all clearly clued (particularly for the less common entries). I liked the outrageous pun of 1a, the image of Romeo without his uniform in 26a, the “Italian jerk” in 17d, and the two long anagrams in 8d and 9d. I wondered about the appearance of THE BLUES BROTHERS in two across clues, but can’t find anything else to make a theme. Thanks Eccles for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DISAPPOINTED |
Upset to be sacked? (12)
|
| Double definition, the second rather whimsical: someone who has been appointed to a position and then dismissed could be said to have been dis-appointed. | ||
| 10 | DEFILES |
Some of those life drawings displayed back passages (7)
|
| Hidden answer (some of . . .), reversed (back), in [tho]SE LIFE D[rawings].
Defile = a narrow passage between mountains. |
||
| 11 | JACKDAW |
Lift up, bundle over and crow (7)
|
| JACK (to lift up a vehicle temporarily, for example to change a wheel), then WAD (bundle) reversed (over).
A bird in the crow family. |
||
| 12 | NEARS |
New Listener crossword’s crux gets closer (5)
|
| N (new) + EAR (listener) + central letter (crux) of [cros]S[word]. | ||
| 13 | BROTHERS |
Annoy son describing radical siblings (8)
|
| BOTHER (annoy) + S (abbreviation for son), containing (describing) R (abbreviation for radical, in chemistry). | ||
| 15 | INEVITABLE |
Certain popular musical combo’s fourth cover of Lucille (10)
|
| IN (popular = fashionable) + EVITA (Lloyd Webber / Rice musical) + fourth letter of [com]B[o] + outer letters (cover) of L[ucill]E. | ||
| 16 | KNIT |
Picked up idiot’s tie (4)
|
| Homophone (picked up = overheard) of NIT (idiot).
Knit = tie = join together. |
||
| 18 | ERSE |
Celtic language introduction removed from poetry (4)
|
| [v]ERSE (poetry) with the first letter (introduction) removed.
An old word for the Irish language. |
||
| 20 | PASSIONATE |
Asian poet’s surprisingly intense (10)
|
| Anagram (surprisingly) of ASIAN POET’S. | ||
| 22 | THE BLUES |
Melancholy in Chelsea FC? (3,5)
|
| Double definition. A low mood; or an example of several football teams who are known by the colour of the shirts they play in. | ||
| 24 | ASPEN |
A small enclosure for tree (5)
|
| A + S (small) + PEN (enclosure for livestock). | ||
| 26 | MONTAGE |
Composite photo of Romeo, say, removing uniform? (7)
|
| MONTAG[u]E (the family name of Romeo in Shakespeare’s play) without the U (uniform). | ||
| 27 | NOT HALF |
Absolutely unspoilt Saharan cliffs occasionally seen (3,4)
|
| One letter from every three (occasionally seen) in [u]N[sp]O[il]T [sa]H[ar]A[n c]L[if]F[s]. | ||
| 28 | METASILICATE |
Came across note about church dispatching bishop to get mineral (12)
|
| MET (came across) + TE (a note in the sol-fa musical scale), around (about) [b]ASILICA (historical name for a type of church building) without the B (abbreviation for bishop).
Not a substance I’d heard of, but a logical enough name for a type of mineral. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | INFLAME |
Lime fan fans fan (7)
|
| Anagram (. . . fans = spreads out?) of LIME FAN. | ||
| 3 | APLASTIC |
New capitals unable to develop properly (8)
|
| Anagram (new) of CAPITALS.
Medical term for “failing to develop”, as in aplastic anaemia (where the body is unable to produce enough blood cells). |
||
| 4 | PAST |
History of divine gold leaves (4)
|
| PAST[or] (divine, as a noun = a religious minister) without OR (heraldic name for the colour gold). | ||
| 5 | INJURY LIST |
Current decision-makers in court tip those unfit to take part (6,4)
|
| IN (current = fashionable) + JURY (decision-makers in a law court) + LIST (tip = lean away from the vertical).
The subset of players in a sports squad who are currently injured and unable to play. |
||
| 6 | TACIT |
Understood emperor to be missing us (5)
|
| TACIT[us] (Roman emperor in the 3rd century AD, not the earlier historian of the same name) without the letters US. Perhaps not one of the best-known emperors; he only held the title for about six months before he died.
Tacit = implied rather than stated, as in a tacit agreement. |
||
| 7 | DUDGEON |
Reproduction has gone wrong, leading to anger (7)
|
| DUD (a fake = reproduction) + anagram (wrong) of GONE. | ||
| 8 | ADENOIDECTOMY |
Comedian toyed with gyrating to afford nose-job (13)
|
| Anagram (. . . with gyrating) of COMEDIAN TOYED. “Afford” is just there for the surface I think.
Nasal surgery to remove the adenoids. |
||
| 9 | TWIST THE KNIFE |
Wine kit thefts managed to make things worse (5,3,5)
|
| Anagram (managed) of WINE KIT THEFTS.
Twist the knife = deliberately cause additional distress to someone who’s already suffering. |
||
| 14 | PARAMETERS |
Average dilettantes announced limits (10)
|
| PAR (average, as in the expected score on a golf course) + homophone (announced) of AMATEURS (dilettantes). As usual, the homophone works for some people’s pronunciation but not everyone’s.
The original mathematical sense of “parameters” is nothing to do with “limits”, but this usage is now common enough to be recognised by dictionaries (whether or not mathematicians like it). |
||
| 17 | ROMANTIC |
Italian jerk gets sentimental (8)
|
| ROMAN (from Rome, hence Italian) + TIC (jerk = an involuntary movement). | ||
| 19 | STERNUM |
Bone in back starts to undergo manipulation (7)
|
| STERN (the back of a boat) + first letters (starts) of U[ndergo] M[anipulation].
The breastbone. |
||
| 21 | ASPHALT |
When to stop hosts parking in bitumen? (7)
|
| AS (when, as in “I’ll deal with it as it arrives”) + HALT (stop), containing (hosting) P (abbreviation for a parking area on maps or road signs). | ||
| 23 | LEAPT |
Rose suddenly allowed to include American Pie’s introduction (5)
|
| LET (allowed) including the first letters (introduction) of A[merican] P[ie]. | ||
| 25 | ANIL |
A zip that is indigo (4)
|
| A + NIL (zip = slang for zero = nothing).
Another name for the indigo plant or the dark blue dye produced from it. |
Good fun. Especially liked the LOL clue for DEFILES. Bunged in PARAMETERS under the assumption that some people might pronounce “amateurs” that way even though I’ve never met any of them.
Eccles as excellent as ever.
I don’t think I have come across that meaning for DEFILES before but it was readily derived from the clue.
1a made a great start and it carried on at that standard all the way.
Many thanks to Eccles for the fun and to Quirister for the review.
Hovis@1 – I pronounce it hammer chewers.
Thanks E&Q
I struggled with the 13-word answers at 28A and 8D, despite having all the crossing letters, and eventually needed a wordlist to check that my guesses were right. Apart from that, everything was straightforward and all very enjoyable as always for the ‘cake baker’, so thanks Eccles and Quirister.
Very smooth done, as always, and very reassuring having ground to a halt in another place. I was doubting my solving abilities and this puzzle got me back on track. Which is not to say it was a doddle! I think our blogger has got it bang on in the preamble – it is clear that Eccles delights in the language and uses that delight to both entertain and deceive us. Too many favourites to list so I shall stick to a podium of MONTAGE, NOT HALF and ASPHALT. My Goodness, though – ADENOIDECTOMY and METASILICATE are two pretty monstrous words to work into a grid!
Thanks Eccles and Quirister
Another super puzzle from Eccles, with a blog to match. Like PostMark, I agree entirely with Quirister’s preamble.
Whenever I see ‘understood’ in a clue – and it is quite often – I immediately think TACIT[us]: it was quite refreshing to see the emperor get a look in today.
I’ve been muttering ‘parameters / amateurs’ to myself and am reasonably happy. I was interested to hear the more precise US pronunciation here: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/pronunciation/english/amateur
Many thanks to Eccles for a lot of fun and Quirister for an entertaining blog.
Another excellent puzzle from this setter in which, as is often the way, I needed to check on the correct definition of some of my answers – APLASTIC, METASILICATE & ANIL fell into that category today.
Top clues for me were DISAPPOINTED, INEVITABLE & MONTAGE.
Thanks to Eccles for the fun and to Quirister for the review.
Pretty much what everyone else said
A reliable setter
Very good and challenging enough without having to disentangle too much complicated parsing or come up with unheard of words…, well maybe with the exception of METASILICATE.
No further involvement by Jake and Elwood but lots I enjoyed, especially the surface for DEFILES and ROMANTIC.
Thanks to Eccles and Quirister
Thanks both. Liked the surface for DEFILES even though I was unfamiliar with that specific meaning. Cheated by checking synonyms for church to arrive at METASILICATE which fails a spell check on my iPad with the excuse I thought basilica was more a term relating to architecture than religion. For PARAMETERS I and most people I know pronounce both the answer and the homophone that way….it’s grim up North
Very enjoyable with some very clever wordplay and clue construction, which is always something I admire.
I liked the use of “to afford” as a link between wordplay and definition in ADENOIDECTOMY (I may try to slip it in to one of my puzzles!) but my podium contenders are INEVITABLE, PARAMETERS, DUDGEON and the amusing ROMANTIC.
Thanks Eccles and Quirister
Very good with some challenging words as others have noted. Afford was quite a novel linkword, but in its sense of ‘give’ it works quite well, and provides a lovely surface.
Thanks Eccles and Quirister.
Thanks Eccles. I thought this was excellent. I had knot instead of KNIT otherwise it was smooth sailing. My favourite was ROMANTIC. Thanks Quirister for the blog.