Every second Wednesday, Eccles comes along with an Independent cryptic puzzle to challenge us.
There was good mix of vocabulary in today’s puzzle.
I had LAMPOONING in at 9 across for a while even though I couldn’t parse the ending, before I realised SOROSIS would clash. I then moved to the correct LAMPOONERY which I could parse. I think the clue to FLEA-MARKET is probably &Lit given what you can buy at such a market.
Eccles is known for the smoothness of the surfaces of his clues and we had some good examples to day. A couple stood out for me – the ones for ENERGISE and ETON.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Steamship with room to change, for a change (13)
METAMORPHOSIS (change of shape) Anagram of (to change) STEAMSHIP and ROOM METAMORPHOSIS* |
| 8 | Cassowary’s back to collect bones (4)
OSSA (bones) OSSA (reversed [back] hidden word in [‘s to collect] CASSOWARY) OSSA< |
| 9 | Mickey taking hit over working nearby at regular intervals (10)
LAMPOONERY (ridiculing; mickey taking) LAMP (slang term for punch or thump; hit) + O (over, in cricket scoring notation) + ON (working) + ERY (letters 2, 4 and 6 [at regular intervals] of NEARBY) LAMP O ON ERY |
| 10 | Prohibit headwear for chicken (6)
BANTAM (small variety of the common domestic fowl; chicken) BAN (prohibit) + TAM (TAM‘o’shanter; cap; headwear) BAN TAM |
| 11 | Liven up green pants with one small bit of embellishment (8)
ENERGISE (liven up) Anagram of (pants) GREEN + I (Roman numeral for one) + S (small) + E (first letter of [bit of] EMBELLISHMENT) ENERG* I S E |
| 12 | Fix marathon’s start and finish (4)
MEND (fix) M (first letter of [start] MARATHON + END [finish]) M END |
| 14 | Frank abandoning house and home (4)
NEST (home for a bird) HONEST (frank) excluding (abandoning) HO (house) NEST |
| 15 | Pass for one is in Bayeux (5)
EGEST (expel from the body in any way; pass) EG (for example, for one) + EST (French [Bayeux is a town in France] for ‘is’) EG EST |
| 16 | Mean bit of sorcery (5)
SPELL (indicate; mean) SPELL (incantation; charm; a bit of sorcery) double definition SPELL |
| 18 | Draw rupees in bank (4)
TIER (level; row; bank) TIE (draw [together] or knot) + R (rupees) TIE R |
| 20 | Skipping German, be successful in school (4)
ETON (public secondary school for boys in Berkshire) GET ON (be successful) excluding (skipping) G (German) ET ON |
| 23 | Close pit to break one million northern lefties, essentially (8)
IMMINENT (fast approaching; close) MINE (pit) contained in (to break) (I [Roman numeral for one] + M [million] + N [northern] + T [central letter of [essentially] LEFTIES) I M (MINE) N T |
| 24 | Discredited, got rid of guards in the morning (6)
SHAMED (discredited) SHED (got rid of) containing (guards) AM (ante meridiem; before noon; in the morning) SH (AM) ED |
| 26 | Fake metal bust encapsulating king may be bought here? (4,6)
FLEA MARKET (collection of stalls, etc selling second-hand goods, where you can buy almost anything including fake metal busts of kings) Anagram of (bust) FAKE METAL containing (encapsulating) R (rex; king) FLEA MA (R) KET* |
| 27 | Female suppressing Welsh nation (4)
OMAN (country [nation] on the Arabian peninsula) WOMAN (female) excluding (suppressing) W (welsh) OMAN |
| 28 | Ring roads tend to fit long-term directive (8,5)
STANDING ORDER (instruction from a customer to his or her bank to make regular payments from his or her account; long-term directive) Anagram of (to fit) RING ROADS TEND STANDING ORDER* |
| Down | |
| 1 | Rub American uncle up the wrong way with authority (7)
MASSAGE (rub) SAM (reference Uncle SAM [personification of the federal government of the United States or the country in general]) reversed (up the wrong way; down entry) + SAGE (expert; authority) MAS< SAGE |
| 2 | Characteristic of eternalist oddly ignored (5)
TRAIT (characteristic) TRAIT (even numbered letters 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 [oddly ignored] of ETERNALIST) TRAIT |
| 3 | One who delivers middle class mother’s children, at last (7)
MILKMAN (a person who delivers) M (middle) + ILK (class) + MA (mother) + N (final letter of [at last]) M ILK MA N |
| 4 | Liquor kept in stills blended for impish character (15)
RUMPELSTILTSKIN (in a tale by the Brothers Grimm, RUMPELSTILTSKIN is a mysterious gnomelike man who spins straw into gold for the benefit of a beautiful miller’s daughter, in exchange for her future firstborn child; impish character) RUM (liquor) + an anagram of (blended) KEPT IN STILLS RUM PELSTILTSKIN* |
| 5 | Clean hotel over and over (6)
HOOVER ([vacuum]-clean) H (hotel) + (O [over in cricket scoring notation] + OVER – giving over and over) H O OVER |
| 6 | Reportedly excited after misdemeanour in place of worship (9)
SYNAGOGUE (place of worship) SYN (sounds like [reportedly] SIN [misdemeanour]) + AGOGUE (sounds like [reportedly] AGOG [excited]) SYN AGOGUE |
| 7 | Billionaire philanthropist is procuring fleshy fruit (7)
SOROSIS (fleshy fruit formed from a crowd of flowers, such as the pineapple) SOROS (reference George SOROS [born 1930], Hungarian-American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. As of October 2023, he had a net worth of US$6.7 billion, having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundations, of which $15 billion has already been distributed, representing 64% of his original fortune) + IS SOROS IS |
| 13 | Boy upset, upset by a master, a spiritual master (5,4)
DALAI LAMA (head of the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy; spiritual master) LAD (boy) reversed (upset) + AIL (to trouble; to upset) + A + MA (Master [of Arts]) DAL< AI L A MA |
| 17 | Only cleaning equipment that climbs tropical trees (7)
POMELOS (tropical trees yielding fruit of the same name) (SOLE [only] + MOP [cleaning equipment]) all reversed (that climbs; down entry) (POM ELOS)< |
| 19 | Most of tortoise cooked in dish (7)
RISOTTO (dish of rice cooked in stock with meat or seafood, onions and other vegetables, and cheese, etc) Anagram of (cooked) TORTOISE excluding the final letter (most of) E RISOTTO* |
| 21 | Writer in row about Iraqi leader being outside (4,3)
OPEN AIR (outside) PEN (writer) contained in (in) (OAR [to row a boat] containing [about] I [first letter of {leader} IRAQ]) O (PEN) A (I) R |
| 22 | Left-winger eats fish to get respect (6)
REGARD (respect) RED (political left winger) containing (eats) GAR (pike-like fish) RE (GAR) D |
| 25 | Very keen to conceal hole for escape (5)
AVOID (escape) AVID (very keen) containing (to conceal) O (hole shaped character) AV (O) ID |
Another excellent crossword from Eccles, which was a real pleasure to solve. Many thanks to him, and thanks too to Duncan.
I have too many ticked clues to list them all.
SOROSIS was a new word I learnt along the way but it was very fairly clued.
Lots of fun as we would expect from an Eccles. SOROSIS is nho and I’d have taken it for a disease had I encountered it in the wild – probably thinking of psoriasis. METAMORPHOSIS is a nice spot, as are STANDING ORDER and the partial anagram for RISOTTO. Other ticks went to BANTAM, MEND, NEST, MASSAGE, MILKMAN, HOOVER and AVOID. I haven’t ticked the most fiendish of constructions but these felt very smooth.
Thanks Eccles and duncan
Like Duncan, I started with a not-totally-parsed LAMPOONING at 9ac and realised my error when I discovered SOROSIS, which, like PostMark, I would have taken as a disease – by analogy with sclerosis, et al, though, rather than thoughts of psoriasis.
Favourites were METAMORPHOSIS, ENERGISE, EGEST, SHAMED, STANDING ORDER, MILKMAN, SYNAGOGUE, DALAI LAMA and RISOTTO (perhaps, like Rabbit Dave’s, too many to list, really!).
Thanks to Eccles for a lot of fun and Duncan for the blog. (Now for Goliath – it’s a good morning!)
Very enjoyable – I find Eccles is often in a different wavelength to me which makes them more of a challenge. As always love learning new words especially when clued well enough that they are obvious
Rumpelstiltskin is now firmly embedded in my mental list of 15 letter words that appear more than they should in crosswords
Thanks Eccles and Duncan
Loi & nho 7d SOROSIS. It looks like a Latin etymology: SOROr = SISter, and has a secondary (US historical) meaning of sorority or sisterhood.
Buit it’s really derived ‘From Ancient Greek σωρός (sōrós, “heap”)’ – nho that either.
Thanks E&DS
FrankieG @5: ‘Soros’ appears a very apt name for a billionaire, therefore. Recalling one of Harry Enfield’s comedic personas, the Greek equivalent of ‘Loadsamoney’ I guess.
[Parsed 18a TIER with “Draw” = TIE in football]
5d HOOVER – liked “over and over”, reappearing from yesterday’s Guardian by Qaos 15a “Wears small garments over and over, right (6)”
PostMark@6 😉 and Pete HA3@9 😉
Beaten by 7d even with the crossers.
[Must be easier to be a philanthropist when you’re a billionaire, but most of them just seem plain greedy. I see Georgie made his pile from merchant banking and funding hedges. Reminds me of a Tony Benn quote referring to all the financial institutions that had relocated to Bristol in the 1970s and 80s. “These people don’t make anything. They just move money around.”]
Liked 3d for the nostalgia of sparrows pecking the silver tops. Maybe George is The MILKMAN of Human Kindness.
Thanks Eccles and duncan.
[FrankieG @8: that’s a neat bit of editing. First time I can recall seeing a note in a 225 thread that refers to a subsequent comment!
You probably knew I was going to post that.]
Another excellent puzzle from this setter although he did have me scurrying to the reference books for both the billionaire and his fruit. Top three for me were METAMORPHOSIS, LAMPOONERY & NEST.
Thanks to Eccles and to Duncan for the review.
PS PostMark@10 – why was there no review of your recent puzzle?
I have to admit to becoming addicted to Eccles puzzles.
And a hatred of MrX
[jane @11: thanks for mentioning it. The puzzle appeared on Friday. Reviewed by RR.]
Jane @11. Funny you should mention that. I solved Stamp’s puzzle early on Friday morning and there was no sign of the review when I dropped in to comment at about 7.30 am. I refreshed the Fifteensquared Independent page several times during the day but the review still didn’t appear. Mid-evening, my computer shut down due to a low battery. When I rebooted it and then opened the Independent page, lo and behold, the review was there and, judging from the time of some of the comments, it had been posted soon after 8 am. Weird or what?
3D didn’t quite work for me as the apostrophe s in ‘mother’s’ jarred, otherwise well up to Eccles’s usual high standard. Thanks Eccles and Duncan.
Tatrasman @15. Re 3d, you need to read “mother’s” as possessive for the surface reading and as “mother has” for the wordplay.
Thanks both. This featured two words I routinely lack confidence to spell correctly i.e. RUMPELSTILTSKIN and DALAI LAMA, otherwise very little hesitation though I did have to dredge Mr Soros to deliver the previously unknown SOROSIS which, as others have suggested, I might hesitate to order after my RISOTTO. Took me a while to see ‘to fit’ as the anagrind in STANDING ORDER which I assume is in the sense of to have a convulsion.
Thanks Eccles for a nicely written crossword. I used a reference for the nho SOROSIS but all else seemed easy for Eccles. My top picks were ENERGISE, NEST, MILKMAN, and HOOVER. My only quibble was the use of O for ‘over’ in two clues. Funny seeing OPEN AIR twice today. Thanks duncanshiell for the blog.