Independent 11,670 by Eccles

Hurrah, it’s Eccles – always brightens up a dull Wednesday morning.

An enjoyable puzzle, though with a few references only dimly remembered: a country name that hasn’t been used for several decades, a musician with a brief career in the 80s, an unremarkable political party, and some foodstuffs that I’ve heard of but wouldn’t choose to eat. Still, it’s always interesting to see what’s hiding in the back corners of my memory that I haven’t needed for years. I liked the long anagram in 1a, the surprising hidden answer in 9a, the reverse wordplay (and perhaps double definition?) in 21a, and the surface of 18d (if only . . .). Thanks Eccles as always.

Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
1	DISAGREEMENT	Engineer denigrates me to generate debate (12)
		Anagram (engineer, as a verb = construct) of DENIGRATES ME.
9	NYASALAND	Former protectorate in Germany, as Alan Davies describes (9)
		Hidden answer (. . . describes = contains) in [germa]NY AS ALAN D[avies]. Former name for Malawi (which was a British protectorate until 1964).
10	UPEND	Greatly affect writer in university department (5)
		PEN (something that writes = writer) in U (abbreviation for university) + D (abbreviation for department).
11	IN-LAWS	Home rule beginning to suck for those on partner’s side (2-4)
		IN (home = at home, as in “Will you be in this evening?”) + LAW (rule) + beginning letter of S[uck].
12	SCRAPPLE	Mess is eating place serving meat loaf (8)
		SCRAPE (mess = an awkward situation) containing (eating) PL (abbreviation for place, especially on streetmaps). Traditional American meat loaf made with pork offcuts.
13	SATIRE	Parody defunct right-wing party not starting to make comeback (6)
		[v]ERITAS (right-wing political party formed in 2005; the name disappeared when it merged with the English Democrats in 2015), without the first letter (not starting) and reversed (to make comeback).
15	TRAMP ART	Folk work in wood hut, ultimately, next to defensive mound (5,3)
		Last letter (ultimately) of [hu]T + RAMPART (defensive mound). A style of woodwork involving complicated carving and construction, usually with simple hand tools and whatever wood is available.
18	NOAH’S ARK	On the contrary, I see Channel Island can provide refuge (5,3)
		NO (on the contrary! = expression of disagreement) + AH (I see! = expression of understanding) + SARK (one of the Channel Islands, near Guernsey).
19	ANSELM	Old monk, drunk, means well in the end (6)
		Anagram (drunk) of MEANS + end letter of [wel]L. St Anselm of Canterbury (11th century) – or possibly an earlier St Anselm in Italy.
21	GOLF BALL	Clue to go for driven type (4,4)
		Reverse wordplay: GO could be clued as GOLF (G in the radio alphabet) and BALL (O = circle). I think there are two different definitions here. A golf ball is an object (type?) that is driven along a fairway (by hitting it with a club); or we could be talking about a golfball typewriter, where the characters (type) are on an electrically-driven sphere.
23	CAPERS	Frolics in thorny shrubs (6)
		Double definition. Frolic = caper = to jump or dance joyfully; or a plant (Capparis spinosa) with edible flowers and berries.
26	TINGE	Cast of Educating Essex (5)
		Hidden answer (of . . .) in [educa]TING E[ssex]. Tinge = cast = a slight colour, especially an alteration to the overall colour balance of an image.
27	FALCONINE	Austrian pop star gets number of bird (9)
		FALCO (stage name of an Austrian pop star in the 1980s, whom I remember vaguely from my teenage years) + the number NINE. Adjective meaning “relating to falcons” (birds of prey).
28	METRIC SYSTEM	Policemen regularly sit by with crimes unfolding – a method now adopted worldwide (6,6)
		MET (short for the Metropolitan Police = London policemen), then an anagram (unfolding) of alternate letters (regularly) from S[i]T [b]Y + CRIMES.
DOWN
1	DIN-DINS	Clamour multiple times to get kids’ meal (3-4)
		DIN (clamour, as a noun = noise), then DINS (two or more clamours), hence “multiple times”. Baby talk for “dinner” = kids’ meal.
2	SMALL	Entrance to shopping arcade is narrow (5)
		First letter (entrance) of S[hopping], then MALL (arcade = row of shops).
3	GOALWARDS	At last Arsenal overwhelmed by accolades following shot on target (9)
		Last letter of [arsena]L contained in (overwhelmed by) AWARDS (accolades), following GO (as in “have a go” = shot = an attempt).
4	ELAN	Style of uplifting new beer (4)
		N (abbreviation for new) + ALE (beer), all reversed (uplifting = upwards in a down clue).
5	MEDICARE	Agencies claiming compliance on insurance scheme (8)
		MEDIA (agencies? Perhaps as the plural of medium = agency = the means by which something is achieved?) containing (claiming) C (which can stand for “compliance” in various abbreviations, but I don’t think it’s something many of us would use), then RE (on = on the subject of). This all seems pretty obscure to me, unless there’s a simpler explanation that I’ve missed. The US federal health insurance scheme, or similar schemes in Australia and Canada.
6	‘NDUJA	Spicy sausage from New Delhi used jalapeno alternative, originally (5)
		First letters (originally) of N[ew] D[elhi] U[sed] J[alapeno] A[lternative]. A pork sausage from Calabria in southern Italy; it does indeed use the local hot chilli peppers rather than jalapenos.
7	TEMPLATE	The vacuous politician’s overdue blueprint (8)
		T[h]E (vacuous = emptied out) + MP (Member of Parliament = politician) + LATE (overdue).
8	ADVENT	Bill’s name instead of Rex turning up (6)
		ADVE[r]T (short for advertisement = bill, as in handbill) with N (abbreviation for name) instead of R (abbreviation for Rex = Latin title for a king). Advent = arrival = turning up.
14	TRAMLINE	Terminal affected where public transport runs? (8)
		Anagram (affected) of TERMINAL.
16	MANDATORY	Required Ms Platell to reject a party that she supports (9)
		[a]MANDA (journalist Amanda Platell) rejecting the initial A, then TORY (her political party: she worked for the Conservative Party under William Hague and writes for the right-leaning Daily Mail).
17	PRO-LIFER	Biographer’s left to swap places with female for anti-abortionist (3-5)
		PROFILER (one who writes profiles = biographer), with the L (left) and F (female) swapping places.
18	NEGATE	Cancel Britain’s terminal European exit (6)
		Last letter (terminal) of [britai]N + E (abbreviation for European) + GATE (an exit or entrance).
20	MISTERM	Wrongly label or title male (7)
		MISTER (title for a man) + M (abbreviation for male). Misterm = use the wrong name for = wrongly label.
22	BREVE	Note British never getting naked (5)
		BR (abbreviation for British) + [n]EVE[r] (getting naked = outer letters stripped off). A long-held musical note.
24	EXIST	Be discriminatory, but not at first (5)
		[s]EXIST (discriminatory) without the initial letter (not at first).
25	BLOC	Union preventing monarch leaving (4)
		BLOC[king] (preventing), with KING (monarch) removed (leaving). As in “trading bloc” = a group of countries that act together for their common interest.

19 comments on “Independent 11,670 by Eccles”

It’s funny you know, I really thought that the Independent was a British organ, but on the evidence of today’s puzzle I was obviously wrong about that. SCRAPPLE, TRAMP ART and MEDICARE are all American terms (although at least I had heard of the last of these as I used to work for an American firm before I retired).

With the inclusion of an obscure (to me) Austrian pop star and several extremely tough parsings (two of which I failed to work out: SATIRE and GOLF BALL), I am very sorry to say that I struggled to enjoy this as much as usual.

However, there were of quite a number of the excellent clues that we have come to expect from this setter. METRIC SYSTEM was my favourite – absolutely brilliant surface.

I am sure normal service will be resumed next time.

Thanks to Eccles and to Quirister.

Thanks Eccles and Quirister!
Lovely puzzle! Excellent blog!
Top faves:
NOAH’S ARK, GOLF BALL, PRO-LIFER and BLOC!

Eccles certainly tested us with some of his content, today, as both blog and RD maintain. Maybe I got lucky but I was able to piece it all together with a satisfying ending on dictionary checking LOI and nho SCRAPPLE. I thought GOLF BALL was great fun, though, and it was a real pdm when I discovered that SATIRE is almost the reversal of Veritas. NYASALAND may be a very dated word indeed but what a delightful hidden resulted from its inclusion.

Thanks Eccles and Quirister

Never heard if SCRAPPLE, NDUJA or TRAMP ART.

I do have “Rock Me Amadeus” by Falco in my music collection but didn’t know he was Austrian and would never have guessed FALCONINE without help. If you haven’t heard the song, it’s worth listening too, imo. Here’s a link

I think COMPLIANCE is the ‘compliance’ in Physics – the inverse of stiffness. Dictionary Ref :

Compliance (C) is the change in volume (ΔV) due to a given change in pressure (ΔP).

When I was a kid we used to sing this PARODY to the tune of Max Bygraves’ “Out of Town”:

Say what you will
School dinners make you ill,
The cabbages are yellowy brown
Our school DIN DINS
Come from pig bins
Out of town

Nice to see old kiddies’ talk clued

Thank you Eccles and Quirister.

Thanks Flea. Given that I compile the odd puzzle and have a general preference for abbreviations over SLI’s, I have stared at the C entry in Chambers on many an occasion. And I do not think I recall ever noticing the Symbol C = compliance (and electrical capacitance) before! How strange. It’s a pretty tough ask for the solver as our blogger observes – but it has dictionary support so it’s certainly fair. If cruel 😉

Something of a GK fest from our setter and I did need to ask Mr G about the meat loaf, defunct party, folk work and Austrian singer.
Top clues for me were IN-LAWS, NOAHS ARK and BLOC.

Not one of my favourite puzzles from Eccles but thanks to him anyway and also to Quirister for the review.

I only know one Austrian pop star. Fortunately, it was the same one Eccles knows!

Great fun all round. Thanks, Eccles and Quirister.

Happy 58th birthday to 9a NYAS ALAN Davies – fellow Arsenal supporter and QI stalwart.
‘Davies has appeared in almost every regular episode of the show, though in one episode (Episode 10 of Series D, “Divination”) he appeared, pre-recorded, in only the first few minutes, as he was in Paris attending the UEFA Champions League Final between Barcelona and his beloved Arsenal during the recording.’

Got the FALCO bit, but stupidly couldn’t think of NINE. Missed a couple of others too. GOLF BALL and PRO-LIFER were smart.
Isn’t the clue for NYASALAND scuppered by the in?

Hi, thanks to Quirister and all commenters.
James, yes it does. This time I did know about it but ignored it. For those who wonder what he is talking about (and may think he is making it up or being unfair!) the linking ‘in’ effectively is shorthand for ‘is found in’ which means there are two main verbs in the sentence: Definition is found in wordplay surrounds. Hence it is not grammatically correct. At least I know now you are on to me…

Sorry, in this case – where definition is first – ‘in’ is meaning ‘consisting of’, but it still means the grammar is iffy.

Following up (again).
If it is Wordplay ‘in’ definition, it is a different meaning of ‘in’ that is being used, so third person singular intransitive verbs can be used.
Word rearranges in definition. OK
Definition in word rearranges. Iffy

Good fun from one of the most reliable setters – a couple of NHOs (TRAMP ART & SCRAPPLE) but was pleased to discover my parsings checked out and grateful for the unambiguous cluing. I know MEDICARE, which must be from occasionally looking at the US section of the BBC website.

And now I have an earworm. Amadeus Amadeus…

Thanks Eccles & Quirister.

Excellent. Nho SCRAPPLE, TRAMP ART, NDUJA or FALCONINE. My bad. ANSELM was around last week. Couldn’t parse GOLF BALL at all until I read the blog. EXIST for the misdirection at the start, 9a for the superb disguise, 20d for MISTER T, and BREVE the favourite. Kudos to Quirister and ECCLES.

Thanks Eccles – we were pleased we had the check button today for SCRAPPLE, and TRAMP ART. We worked out the parsings in each case but needed confirmation. ANSELM came from some obscure part of our brain. GOLF BALL was certainly devious as were a few others! All fair though so no complaints – good to keep our brains ticking over.

TERMINAL and TRAMLINE were surprising anagrams.

Thanks Quirister.

Falconine made me smile as I only know of one Austrian singer – and I’d initially read it as Australian!

Tramp Art and Scrapple were new to me.

A nice evening work out. And thanks to Falco and Eccles I have a new earworm.

Thanks Eccles and Quirister

Thanks Eccles – tough but fair; hadn’t heard of FALCO but guessable from crossers & wordplay; similarly SCRAPPLE. I liked the mechanical aspect of GOLF BALL but missed the ‘ball = O’. Veritas and Nyasaland were great spots, and the two 1s share joint Clue of the Day! Thanks also Quirister for helpful explanations.

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