Eccles has provided our mid-week cruciverbal entertainment.
I found this to be a medium-difficulty puzzle that revealed itself to me gradually. I was eventually held up in the bottom right-hand corner, with 22, 25 and 26, and needed to do some cheating to complete the puzzle, since I knew neither the sport at 25 or the film at 22.
I think that I am happy with my parsing of all the clues.
My favourite clues today were 11 and 12/17, both for making me smirk; 2, 8A, 16 and 18, all for smoothness of surface;
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 08 | LEARNER | Novice’s knight trapped between king and queen
N (=knight) in [LEAR (=king, in Shakespeare) and ER (=queen, i.e. Elizabeth Regina)] |
| 09 | HEAVE TO | Stop that man getting a ban
HE (=that man) + A + VETO (=ban); to heave to is to bring a vessel to a standstill |
| 10 | BEDFORD | Base supporting Democrat in county town
BED (=base, bottom) + FOR (=supporting, in favour of) + D (=Democrat) |
| 11 | DENTIST | Study abnormal tits, being a health professional
DEN (=study, private room) + *(TITS); “abnormal” is anagram indicator |
| 12/17 | ALL THINGS MUST PASS | George Harrison’s message of hope for constipation sufferers?
The reference is to the 1970 song by George Harrison; the word “pass” implies excretion! |
| 14 | QUITO | Stop at nothing to get capital
QUIT (=stop, cease) + O (=nothing, zero); Quito is the capital of Ecuador |
| 15 | PUTTNAM | Golf shot by chap backing film producer
PUTT (=golf shot) + NAM (MAN=chap; “backing” indicates reversal); the reference is to British film producer David Puttnam (1941-) |
| 18 | ALIGNED | Joined in dodgy dealing
*(ALIGNED); “dodgy” is anagram indicator |
| 19 | CELLS | Over the phone markets basic rooms
Homophone (“over the phone”) of “markets (=sells, trades)” |
| 20 | SINUSITIS | Onset of syphilis: in America it is something requiring treatment
S<yphilis> (“onset of” means first letter only) + IN + US (=America) + IT IS |
| 24 | FOG LAMP | Golf shot by a politician revealing aid for driving
*(GOLF) + A + MP (=politician, i.e. Member of Parliament); “shot” is anagram indicator |
| 25 | PARKOUR | Running and jumping in playground or around centre of Truro
PARK (=playground) + [<tr>U<ro> (“centre of” means middle letter only) on OR]; parkour is an athletic training disciple inspired by military obstacle course training |
| 27 | SEA LEGS | Ageless criminal’s ability to avoid illness, in the main
*(AGELESS); “criminal” is anagram indicator; the “main” of the definition is the sea! |
| 28 | INSTANT | Second collection of books found with unusual stain
*(STAIN) + NT (=collection of books, i.e. New Testament); a second is a moment, jiffy |
| Down | ||
| 01 | SANDAL | Shame Charlie is leaving: I am on foot
S<c>ANDAL (=shame); “Charlie (=C, in radio telecommunications) is leaving” means letter “c” is dropped |
| 02 | UNDO | Cancel round of drinks
Hidden (“drinks”) in “roUND Of” |
| 03 | DRYDEN | Poet’s hideaway for consumption of non-alcoholic drinks?
Cryptically, a “dry den” would be a “hideaway for consumption of non-alcoholic drinks”!; the reference is to English poet John Dryden (1631-1700) |
| 04 | RHODESIA | Former country house checked by royal aides, excitingly
HO (=house) in [R (=royal, as in RSPCC) + *(AIDES)]; “excitingly” is anagram indicator |
| 05 | MANNEQUINS | Models much of behaviour of horses when unconfined on sheep, primarily
MANNE<r> (=behaviour; “much of” means last letter is dropped) + <e>QUIN<e> (=of horses; “when unconfined” means first and last letters are dropped) + S<heep> (“primarily” means first letter only); a mannequin is a fashion model |
| 06 | DECISION | Finding unwanted signals nearly killed American from the south
NOIS<e> (=unwanted signals, distractions; “nearly” means last letter only) + ICED (=killed; “American”, i.e. in US criminal English); “from the south” indicates vertical reversal |
| 07 | FOOTHOLD | Secure position in part of yard with cradle
FOOT (=part of yard, in imperial measures) + CRADLE (=(to) hold, embrace) |
| 08 | LIBYA | State Austria supports 51 times
LI (=51, in Roman numerals) + BY (=times, i.e. multiplied by) + A (=Austria, in IVR) |
| 13 | HANDSHAKES | Chinese director gets rid of formal greetings
HAN (=Chinese, member of native Chinese people) + D (=director) + SHAKES (=gets rid of) |
| 15 | PACIFIST | Top-up provided first for conscientious objector perhaps
PAC (CAP=top, on bottle; “up” indicates vertical reversal) + IF (=provided) + 1ST (=first) |
| 16 | TELEGRAM | Spread rent out, which is rising, to afford cable
MARGE (=spread, i.e. margarine) + LET (=rent out); “which is rising” indicates vertical reversal |
| 21 | NAPKIN | Briefly sleep on largely pleasant square sheet
NAP (=briefly sleep) + KIN<d> (=pleasant, nice; “largely” means last letter dropped) + S (=square) |
| 22 | TOO BAD | Uplifting German war film not special? What a shame
DA<s> BOOT (=German war film, from 1981, directed by Wolfgang Petersen); “not special (=S)” means letter “s” is dropped |
| 23 | STRUT | Walk ostentatious in stone trough
ST (=stone) + RUT (=trough, furrow) |
| 26 | REST | Support // seen in interlude
Double definition: a rest is a support, e.g. for a snooker cue AND a rest is a break, interval, hence “interlude” |
I have run out of superlatives for Eccles’ puzzles and this one is right up there with the best of his canon. It was not too difficult and huge fun from start to finish.
PARKOUR was a new word for me but readily derivable from the wordplay, and it was good to see the American indicator in 6d.
Picking a favourite from such an excellent selection would not have been easy except that the magnificent ALL THINGS MUST PASS stood head and shoulders above the rest.
Many thanks to Eccles and to RR.
I had no trouble with this, even got a bonus on the app for finishing quickly. The dated GK suited me:
ALL THINGS MUST PASS(1970), DAS BOOT(1981), MARGE(1950?)
And I had heard of PARKOUR.
The 2 golf shots PUTT NAM & FOGL AMP are clever.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Puttnam
reminded me of all the films I went to see in the ’70s and ’80s when he seemed to be producing everything, some better than others:
That’ll Be the Day (1973) Stardust (1974) Bugsy Malone (1976) The Duellists (1977) Midnight Express (1978)
Chariots of Fire (1981) Local Hero (1982) The Killing Fields (1984) Cal (1984) The Mission (1986)
The puzzle was great fun, but over all too quickly.
Thanks E&RR
Thanks, Eccles and RR!
Liked A T M PASS, UNDO, MANNEQUINS, FOOTHOLD and TELEGRAM.
Thanks both. Failed to fully parse UNDO which is clever now I see it, and DECISION wherein I remain unconvinced that ‘noise’ can be ‘unwanted signals’. In my fading brain I found ALL THINGS MUST PASS which I suspect references his first solo album and not the song. I also thought this yesterday too, and today reference a 1970 piece of pop culture, that we will eventually be left to research rather than recall such things, although I hope it proves not to be so
SE corner proved to be a bit tricky, mostly down to the fact that I didn’t know the war film and had to trawl through the old grey matter to come up with the ‘running and jumping’.
Plenty of inventive clueing as always from our setter and the top entries for me were HEAVE TO, DRYDEN & HANDSHAKES.
Many thanks to Eccles and thanks also to RR for the review.
The Beatles reference is timely as it was announced yesterday that Paul McCartney has put together, using AI and an old demo recording, a ‘new’ release featuring John Lennon’s vocals. Much enjoyed, so thanks Eccles and RatkojaRiku.
I liked the two different golf shots but was slightly surprised by the two dens. I would add PACIFIST to the favourites mentioned above.
TFO @5. Received signals invariably consist of the actual transmitted signals corrupted by unwanted signals, called “noise”. Is that convincing? Also, hiss on a tape is called noise and similar examples can be given.
Apart from the grid not being very solver-friendly (basically four mini-gids with minimal linkage) we found this a not too taxing puzzle for a hot day. We liked the Geo H reference and the different uses of ‘shot’ in relation to ‘golf’. We weren’t really bothered, either, by the two dens as they were clued differently. Favourite was HEAVE TO.
Thanks, Eccles and RR.
Thanks Eccles for a superior crossword. For some reason I found this on the easy end of the Eccles spectrum but just as clever as the more difficult ones. I liked TOO BAD, PACIFIST, DECISION, and FOG LAMP among others. Thanks RR for the blog.
Thanks Hovis@5. Further reading suggests we are talking about ‘radio noise’ specifically, which is likely something I don’t miss from the 70s