Independent 11,682 / Eccles

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Eccles is occupying the Wednesday compiling slot this week.

I found this to be a medium-difficulty puzzle, although I got off to a pretty slow start. Solving some of the longer perimeter entries gave me a helping hand in terms of supplying (first) letters. I think that I am happy with my parsing overall.

My favourite clues today were 1, for its cruciverbal reference; 14, for its brevity and for keeping me guessing until all four crossing entries were in; 20, for its exquisitely smooth surface; and 21, for topicality. 6D was new to me, but it could arrived at satisfactorily thanks to the wordplay.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

Across    
     
01 ATHEMATICALLY How this puzzle was compiled: in a calculating manner, with no introduction

<m>ATHEMATICALLY (=in a calculating manner); “with no introduction” means first letter is dropped
     
10 OUNCE Big cat’s claw quietly removed

<p>OUNCE (=claw, of a hawk); “quietly (=p, piano, in music) removed” means letter “p” is dropped
     
11 EMPLOYEES Members of staff appear to backtrack over stratagem following closure of site

<sit>E (“closure of” means last letter only) + [PLOY (=stratagem, ruse) in MEES (SEEM=appear; “to backtrack” indicates reversal)]
     
12 WORKMATES Confuse smart, woke colleagues

*(SMART WOKE); “confuse” is anagram indicator
     
13 OMEGA Love extremely good conclusion to series

O (=love, i.e. zero score in tennis) + MEGA (=extremely good, brill); omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet, hence “conclusion to series”
     
14 ROMANSH Cantonese?

Cryptic definition: Romansh is a language spoken in  some Swiss cantons, hence “Cantonese”
     
16 EPHESUS American chases lost sheep in ancient city

*(SHEEP) + US (=American); “lost” is anagram indicator
     
18 HALCYON Half-cut conservative tycoon oddly not prosperous

HAL<f> (“cut” means last letter is dropped) + C (=conservative) + <t>Y<c>O<o>N (“oddly not” means even letters only are used)
     
20 SLICKEN Polish revolt about introduction of Leninism

L<eninism> (“introduction of” means first letter only) in SICKEN (=revolt, disgust); to slicken is to polish, make glossy
     
22 IZMIR Pilgrim zips around inspiring Turkish port

Reversed (“around”) and hidden (“inspiring”) in “pilgMIR ZIps”
     
24 SPLASH OUT React violently after some people initially spend a lot of money

S<ome> P<eople> (“initially” means first letters only) + LASH OUT (=react violently)
     
26 LOOK SHARP Hurry up! Agitated shark in swimming pool

*(SHARK) in *(POOL); “agitated” and “swimming” are both anagram indicators
     
27 OTAGO Content to snog a Tory backing southern region

Reversed (“backing”) and hidden (“content to”) in “snOG A TOry”; Otago is a region on the Southern Island of New Zealand
     
28 SOUTH-EASTERLY Art house style changes like a prevailing breeze

*(ART HOUSE STYLE); “changes” is anagram indicator
     
Down    
     
02 TANTRUM Process hides most of President’s petulant display

TAN (=process hides, i.e. into leather) + TRUM<p> (=President, i.e. of US; “most of” means last letter is dropped)
     
03 EVEN-MONEY Flatbread sliced, as likely as not

EVEN (=flat) + MONEY (=bread, dough); “sliced” implies that “flatbread” has to be split into two words for the purposes of the wordplay
     
04 AGENT Representative is mature, not heartless

AGE (=mature, ripen) + N<o>T (“heartless” means middle letter is dropped)
     
05 IMPOSTERS One million people who tweet possibly could be bots?

I (=one) + M (=million) + POSTERS (=people who tweet possibly); in computing, imposter bots impersonate e.g. human behaviour on the internet
     
06 ADOBO Bother bishop over Filipino dish

ADO (=bother, fuss) + B (=bishop, in chess) + O (=over, on cricket scorecard); adobo is a Filipino dish of meat cooked in soy sauce and vinegar
     
07 LIENEES People with interest in property mostly want to stop falsehoods

NEE<d> (=want; “mostly” means last letter is dropped) in LIES (=falsehoods); a lienee is a person or organisation who officially keeps property owned by someone else until money owned to them is paid back
     
08 BOSWORTH FIELD Forbids the low blows in fighting area

*(FORBIDS THE LOW); “blows” is anagram indicator; the reference is to the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485
     
09 ASSASSINATION Fools country about international slaughter

I (=international) in [ASS (=fool) + ASS (=fool) + NATION (=country)]
     
15 HANDSHAKE Gives swimmer indication that a deal has been agreed

HANDS (=gives, offers (to)) + HAKE (= “swimmer”, i.e. fish)
     
17 HAILSTONE Welcomes quality bit of cold weather

HAILS (=welcomes, greets) + TONE (=quality, of sound)
     
19 LIMPOPO Father breaks into large car in river

POP (=father) in LIMO (=large car); the Limpopo is a river in southern Africa
     
21 KNOW-ALL Wise guy back to crack MAGA’s problem with much of the Mexican border

<crac>K (“back to” means last letter only) + NO WALL (=MAGA’s problem with much of the Mexican border, referring to US politics)
     
23 RESET Put back prop holding base

E (=base, in maths) in REST (=prop, support)
     
25 LAPIS Deep Blue is following the Sicilian opening in Palermo

LA (=the Sicilian, i.e. an Italian word for the) P<alermo> (“opening of” means first letter only) + IS; lapis lazuli, or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock
     
     

 

 

17 comments on “Independent 11,682 / Eccles”

  1. What is there left to say about an Eccles puzzle? A perfect mixture of straightforward and complex clues, some very cunning definitions, super-smooth surfaces. a handful of new things to learn, and a lot of fun.

    Today, I needed to look up the claw in 10a and the Filipino dish in 6d.

    From a plethora of ticked clues, my top picks were 1a (great start), 14a (short and sweet), 2d, 15d, 21d & 25d (great chess surface).

    Many thanks to Eccles and to RR.

  3. Goodness me, I found this tough today. Eventually hauled myself across the finish line with just ROMANSH unsolved. I have come across the word before – but not sufficiently often for it to come to mind – and I had even noted the fact that Switzerland is divided into cantons! I didn’t know the claw, the LIENEES or that particular meaning of HALCYON (I see it is also a kingfisher which would be a horribly evil def to use in a clue). ‘Southern region’ is a very tough def for OTAGO. So I felt a bit bruised by the end.

    Not that that detracted from the pleasure of much of the rest of the puzzle with highlights being the lovely chess surface for LAPIS as noted by RD, the superb ‘Process hides’ for TAN and the neat anagrams for WORKMATES, LOOK SHARP and BOSWORTH FIELD.

    Thanks Eccles and RR

  4. OTAGO (agree with PM@3 that it’s a tough def; quite appealing nonetheless)
    “located in the southern half of the South Island”
    South-ern region indeed!

  5. Yes, 2d TANTRUM was the reverse of a ‘lift and separate’ where two words – “process” and “hides” – looking suspiciously like anagram, insertion or hidden indicators, had to be stuck together to get a TAN. Nice one.
    Thanks E&RR

  6. TANTRUM (was there an allusion to Trump’s orange tan?) HALCYON for that moment where you get the word from the wordplay, but don’t immediately get the definition and SLICKEN (as RR says) for the surface were my favourites today.

  7. Otago should be familiar to wine lovers-alas its become expensive but still a bargain compared with Burgundy
    I liked LIENEES as word searchers didnt want to know

    So it was down to following the instructions on the tin

  8. Frankie@5 My thoughts exactly on TANTRUM. Amazing how long I was looking for some sort of insertion there.

    This seemed tough for an Eccles, but not excessively, and maybe that’s just because I didn’t get much of a start. EVEN MONEY was lovely, BOSWORTH FIELD also very good and surprisingly challenging even with the fodder, KNOW-ALL was amusing, and lots of other very nice clues. Special mention to LOI ROMANSH – whenever I see a clue like that, I suspect I’ll either love it or hate it. This was the former.

    Thanks Eccles and RR

  9. A fair amount of exposure for my failings on the GK front, but still plenty to make me smile. My top picks were SPLASH OUT, LOOK SHARP, TANTRUM, EVEN MONEY & HANDSHAKE.

    Thanks to Eccles and to RR for the review.

  10. We were glad of the check button today as we parsed a number of clues without understanding the definition.

    Lots to enjoy – 1ac was our last one in but so obvious when we saw the answer.

    Thanks Eccles for the fun. Thanks RR for the blog.

  11. Thanks both. I immediately suspected the clue for ROMANSH was taking us to Switzerland, but have never heard of the language, so it was a lucky guess. Enjoyed visiting EPHESUS not so long ago, and have a trip to NZ later this year, so will look out for OTAGO which I think I have now encountered twice in crosswords

  12. ….meant to ask re ATHEMATICALLY whether the intention is to say there is no theme to the puzzle, as I looked up the meaning, but still didn’t fully understand!

  13. TFO @12. “Athematic” means “without a theme”, which I imagine is the setter’s intention.

  15. Not a lot left to say after RD@1’s comments. OTAGO not too hard for me and I stumbled on the property person and the Swiss person. CANTONESE was a favourite. I lived In Guangzhou for 6-7 years so I was perplexed until I had a few crossers to help. Liked HANDSHAKE and HAILSTONE too but my tops is EVEN MONEY and ‘flatbread’ and ‘likely as not’ Thanks RR and thanks Eccles who only gets better.

  16. Great crossword. Lienee is an ugly word but more than made up for by lovely cluing all round. Thanks Eccles and RatkojaRiku

  17. Golly that was very tough indeed. Eventually beaten by LIENEES – never heard of the word but disappointed not to have pegged NEE(d). Plenty of post solve confirmation required too. Ticks aplenty but EVEN MONEY my pick.
    Thanks to Eccles & to RR.

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