As he often does, Eccles is filling the Wednesday slot this week.
I found this to be towards the harder end of the Indy spectrum, perhaps in no small measure due to the grid providing very few initial letters. In the end, Eccles had the last laugh on me, as I needed to “cheat” to find 7 and as I cannot parse 22 – thanks for input, blog now amended! I am also not sure that I haven’t missed something at 12 and 20.
My favourite clues today are 9, for sheer audacity; 13 for concision and overall construction; 6 and 16, both for smoothness of surface; 18, for ingenuity; and 21, for its misleading reference to 6d.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | SEVILLA | Bill’s vice is returning in Spanish city
AL (=Bill’s vice, i.e. Al Gore, Vice President to Bill Clinton) + LIVES (=is); “returning” indicates reversal |
| 08 | BRAMBLE | Rabble-rousing nurses head off Mary berry in Glasgow
M<ary> (“head off” means first letter only) in *(RABBLE); “rousing” is anagram indicator; bramble is a Scottish word for blackberry |
| 10 | LEAD UP TO | Prepare the way for metal pot somehow to hold uranium
LEAD (=metal, i.e. Pb) + [U (=uranium, i.e. garden party) in *(POT)]; “somehow” is anagram indicator |
| 11 | MUNICH | Eat around one in site of Oktoberfest
I (=one) in MUNCH (=eat); the Oktoberfest is an annual beer festival held in Munich |
| 12 | WALESA | Reserve national team for national leader
WALES A (=reserve national team, in sport); the reference is to former Polish President Lech Walesa |
| 13 | BLOOMING | Flipping bighead John Campbell
B<ig> (“-head” means first letter only) + LOO (=john, lav) + MING (=Campbell, i.e. former leader of the Liberal Democrats) |
| 14 | ANTIGUERRILLA | Caribbean Island accepts mistake, sick of opposition to the activity of partisans
[ERR (=mistake, in judgment) + ILL (=sick)] in ANTIGUA (=Caribbean island) |
| 17 | OPTIONAL | Free oil on tap is not compulsory
*(OIL ON TAP); “free”, release is anagram indicator |
| 20 | DOGATE | Partygate in magistrate’s office
DO (=party) + GATE; the dogate was the office of the chief magistrate in Venice and Genoa |
| 22 | IRONIC | Dry Fe (III)?
Cryptically, ferrIC could described as IronIC, i.e. Fe (III), as opposed to Fe (II), which is ferrOUS; a dry sense of humour is ironic |
| 23 | FLAGRANT | Highlight organised demonstration’s centrepiece being outrageous
FLAG (=highlight, e.g. an issue) + RAN (=organised) + <demons>T<ration> (“centrepiece” means middle letter only); cf. a flagrant breach of the rules |
| 24 | INGRATE | I’m not obliged, but try to leave the cost, generally
<go>ING RATE (=the cost, generally; “try (=go, attempt) to leave” means letters “go” are dropped); the “obliged” of the definition means ungrateful, unthankful |
| 25 | LEGATEE | Supports welcoming a recipient of bequest
A in [LEG (=support, for e.g. table) + TEE (=support, in golf)] |
| Down | ||
| 01 | GENEVA | Get payback for turning up to promote German city
AVENGE (=get payback for, wreak vengeance); “turning up” indicates vertical reversal; “to promote German (=G)” means letter “g” moves to the top (=first letter) of the entry |
| 02 | WILD WEST | American frontier stew?
Wild West defines “stew?”, i.e. an anagram, indicated by “wild”, of *(STEW) |
| 03 | SLAP-BANG | Friends is returning with immediate impact? Absolutely
SLAP (PALS=friends; “is returning” indicates reversal) + BANG (=immediate impact); cf. slap-bang in the middle of the room |
| 04 | CRIMBO | Millions in bed over the festive period?
[M (=millions) in CRIB (=bed, for child)] + O (=over, on cricket scorecard); Crimbo is slang for Christmas |
| 05 | EMINEM | “Mine”, repeatedly claims songwriter
When the word “mine” is written out three times (“repeatedly”), minE MINE Mine, it contains (“claims”) the name of the American rapper Eminem (1972-) |
| 06 | PLACENTA | Organ put next to altar, initially
PLACE (=put, position) + N<ext> T<o> A<ltar> (“initially” means first letter only) |
| 09 | DOUBLE BLUFF | Double bluff?
The solution simply reproduces the clue in the ultimate double bluff!! |
| 14 | ASPIRING | Hoping to be American secret agents, say?
A (=American) + homophone (“say”) of “spy ring (=secret agents)” |
| 15 | RADIATED | I traded with a crook, and beamed
*(I TRADED + A); “crook”, bend is anagram indicator; radiated is beamed, emitted, shone |
| 16 | LEG BREAK | Delivery left for one dodgy baker
L (=left) + E.G. (=for one, for example) + *(BAKER); “dodgy” is anagram indicator |
| 18 | IGNORE | Pay no attention to topless foreign eccentric (or topless foreign man)
Two forms of wordplay: *(<f>OREIGN); “topless” means first letter is dropped from anagram, indicated by “eccentric” AND <s>IGNORE (=foreign man, i.e. Italian; “topless” means first letter is dropped) |
| 19 | NICETY | Delicate point raised in church extremely tetchily
NI (IN; “raised” indicates vertical reversal) + CE (=church, i.e. Church of England) + T<etchil>Y (“extremely” indicates first and last letters only) |
| 21 | TANNER | Leather worker // in 6d
Double definition: a tanner is a worker who tans animal hide AND a sixpence, hence 6d (which is not a reference to the solution at 6 Down!) |
IRONIC (my take)
Fe(III) is Ferric=IRON-IC (the ? tells us it’s whimsical).
WALESA and DOGATE: Parsed them as you did RR!
Thanks both!
COTD: DOUBLE BLUFF!
I also parsed IRONIC that way; as I recall from chemistry lessons, ferric is iron with valency three (III) as opposed to ferrous which is valency two. Ah, fond memories of school: “Sorry sir, the 20Ac my homework”.
Ground to a halt on this one. Failed on no less than 7. Looking at the blog, the clues are all excellent (especially DOUBLE BLUFF, one of the 7). Still don’t get 22a though. Oh, it’s a valency reference. Who knew? The above 2 apparently, but not me.
As an aside, I was surprised that BRAMBLE is considered Scottish (as Chambers confirms). I’m not Scottish but “bramble” for “blackberry” has always been in common usage, pretty much interchangeable. Also ‘blackberry picking’ was always referred to as ‘brambling’ in my youth.
This was very much at the tougher end of Eccles spectrum, but I really enjoyed the challenge even though I was a DNF courtesy of 12a.
The setter’s creativity is much in evidence. He is a master of pushing the boundaries in order to formulate innovative wordplay. In this puzzle at least 7a, 14a, 22a, 5d, 9d & 21d fell into this category, and my favourite could be any one of these.
Is “is” necessary in 3d?
Many thanks to Eccles and to RR.
Rabbit Dave @5. I took “Friends” to refer to the sitcom in the surface reading, hence the “is”.
Quizzy_Bob@2 – 😉 – It’s a better excuse than ‘ambushed with a cake’ for 20a DOGATE.
12a WALES A (Rugby) haven’t played a game since 2002.
Phew! Definitely at the tougher end of the Eccles oeuvre. I was beaten by WALESA – the Welsh sports team concept simply never crossed my mind and ‘national leader’ for a Polish luminary whose heyday was thirty to forty odd years ago counts as a ‘tough’ def in my mind. Fair but tough. I also had an unparsed SEVILLE for the Spanish city – Bill’s vice – of COURSE that’s AL !!! Fair but very tough. TANNER, LEG BREAK, EMINEM, WILD WEST, OPTIONAL and BRAMBLE were my faves.
Thanks Eccles and RR
Even though I was born in the era of pounds shillings and pence (14 days before decimalisation) – I struggled with Tanner because I thought a tanner was 3d – the old dodecagonal thrupenny bit. Loved double bluff which is just very cool setting.
Thought this was an excellent crossword – just hit the sweet spot as far as I am concerned
Thanks Eccles and RatkojaRiku
Hovis@3&4 – I couldn’t parse 22a Fe(III), either. And was equally puzzled by BRAMBLE being Scottish.
oed.com doesn’t have it as a verb(!) – BRAMBLING can only be the bird – and appears to have been unaware that it’s a blackberry until 2019(!)
‘Additional sense (2019) Frequently Scottish and English regional (northern). The fruit of a bramble; esp. a blackberry.’
Last 2 in: AVENEG; then Bill (Clinton)’s vice (President) AL (Gore) LIVES. Great stuff.
9d was a ‘write-in’, though.
Thanks E&RR
That was tough! Only filled the NW by desperate gap-filling more than clue-solving, and initially went for SEVILLE without a clue why.
DOUBLE BLUFF was certainly audacious and memorable. Probably a Marmite clue, as I’m afraid it didn’t really do much for me. I considered it early, pulled a face and checked all the crossers before entering it, because it felt plausible but not compelling. But I’ll remember it long after the rest of this puzzle is chip paper, which is arguably a bigger win than immediate approval. EMINEM, BRAMBLE, INGRATE and LEGATEE my favourites.
Thanks Eccles and RatkojaRiku
I’m another who found this tough – chemistry and pre-decimal currency not my strong suits, and there was also some very tricksy wordplay as others have mentioned. DOUBLE BLUFF elicited a major groan when the penny eventually dropped – the crossing letters made me think the second word might be CLIFF (can be a synonym for BLUFF) so I spent ages trying to come up with a suitable word to partner it before the obvious became obvious to me…
All good stuff, though. I do like Eccles’ inventiveness – thanks, you devious so-and-so. And thanks RR for unravelling the bits I struggled with.
Phew! Soundly beaten by 9d and NW corner. Nho WALES A. (although Lech Walesa is of course unforgettable) And DOUBLE BLUFF is a bit lame, in my opinion. Thanks E and R.
Thanks both. A fine challenge but one I fell just short in mastering. I still don’t fully see IRONIC which went in partially unparsed – if FE is iron and we take ‘ic’ from ferric, where do the middle r’s disappear to? WALESA beat me, partly as I hit reveal word intending to reveal a letter – reserve teams in most sport are a thing of the past, as is the leader, but not clued as such so I was expecting someone contemporary. TANNER took longer than it should, and though I was 5 on the day it disappeared, I don’t recall ever knowing it’s value
Double bluff is a great clue, and it’s not April 1st! I found some of the rest of this pretty hard and failed on 13A and 7A (unparsed Seville here, and I’d never heard of John Campbell, not that it mattered. Unfortunately I googled the name and found a fount of idiotic disinformation and not the Lib Dem leader). All very inventive, and I liked IRONIC. Thanks to Eccles and RatkojaRiku.
Yes, like others, found this tough going. The southern hemigrid being less tricky then the top half but much help needed.
As a Scot, I would be puzzled if you asked what a blackberry is, BRAMBLE being much more common usage than it is in England.
Thanks to Setter, Parser and Bloggers
Tough end of our setter’s spectrum for me and I didn’t quite make a full grid courtesy of the DOUBLE BLUFF. I also struggled with the parsing of IRONIC & INGRATE. Goodness knows how I made sense of WALESA but that was probably my finest moment. Favourites were the ones that made me smile – WILD WEST & SLAP-BANG. Deplore the use of CRIMBO and the more I think about it, the less I like DOUBLE BLUFF!
Thanks to Eccles and to RR for the review.
Cheers RR and all commenters. Sorry if it was too tough, I knew it was harder than normal, mainly (I thought) down to the grid. I had had the double bluff clue for a while, but knew it was likely to divide opinion. Few grids have eleven letter entries so it had never appeared as an option in my gridfills. I eventually decided to put it in, so picked a grid that would fit it (I know, I could have split it!) despite all the unchecked starting letters. I don’t think I have any quite this difficult in the pipeline.
Only 3/4 finished, but no complaints. Just my inability to unpick the clues today. The ferric reference beat me, which should be embarrassing as I once embarked on a chemistry degree at the uni of Bristle. Bill’s vice is clever, but I really needed a nudge in the right direction. Bill’s Vice maybe? I remember getting four blackjacks for 1d from the sweet shop, so the tanner made me smile. One grouse, already mentioned by jane@18, I detest the word, if you can call it that, CRIMBO. Ugh.
Thanks Eccles and RR.
That’s certainly mixing it up a bit.
I can’t tell if the clue for double-bluff is that or a single bluff, who’d like to explain it for me?
Surely anyone who got Walesa cheated.
I thought in LEG BREAK ‘left for one’ was an example of a leg, like that one either way and CRIMBO particularly
Thanks both