Every second Wednesday Eccles comes along with a crossword free of themes and special cluing devices that offers a calm period of solving a well constructed puzzle.
Having said that, someone will probably tell me that there is a theme in this puzzle.
Eccles writes clues with very good surfaces that mask the definition on first read through. Definitions of course are usually at the beginning or end of a clue, but there seemed to be one today with the definition within the clue (1 down, where ‘improper application’ is not quite at the end of the clue)
I liked the two supermarkets used to clue ICELAND SPAR at 29 across.
The best surfaces today, for me, were those cluing ANGEL DUST, TA-TA, COME OFF IT, CRUMMY, MAHARISHI and OUTED.
CHAD brought back a few memories for me as I worked there as a land Surveyor in the early 1970s.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| Across | 1 Make up crap about universal truth (11)
MANUFACTURE (make or make up) MANURE (excrement; crap) containing (about) (U [universal] + FACT [truth]) MAN (U FACT) URE |
| 7 | Head of oil drilling company gives expression of surprise (3)
COO (expression of surprise) O (first letter of [head of] OIL) contained in (drilling) CO (company) C (O) O |
| 9 | Devil’s new advanced jolly personality (5)
SANTA (SANTA Claus, a character with a jolly personality) SATAN (devil) with the N (new) advanced within the word to form SANTA SANTA |
| 10 | Hallucinogen obtained from fermented stale dung (5,4)
ANGEL DUST (the drug phencyclidine, a hallucinogen) Anagram of (fermented) STALE DUNG ANGEL DUST* |
| 11 | Brew ale with subtle colour (5-4)
SLATE-BLUE (a dark greyish-BLUE colour) Anagram of (brew … with …) ALE and SUBTLE SLATE-BLUE* |
| 12 | Good boss makes soup with okra (5)
GUMBO (soup thickened with okra pods) G (good) + UMBO (the central boss of a shield) G UMBO |
| 13 | Ring Frenchwoman covered in dirt (7)
GROMMET (a ring of rope or metal MME (mademoiselle [a form of address to, or with capital letter, a title for, an unmarried Frenchwoman or French-speaking woman]) contained in (covered in) GROT (rubbish; dirt) GRO (MME) T |
| 15 | So long, and thanks again (2-2)
TA-TA (goodbye; so-long) TA (thanks) + TA (thanks again) TA-TA |
| 18 | Conservative conned country (4)
CHAD (landlocked country where North and Central Africa come together) C (Conservative) + HAD (deceived; conned) C HAD |
| 20 | Light pollution finally stops after November (7)
LANTERN (light) (N [last letter of {finally} POLLUTION] contained in [stops] LATER [after]) + N (November is the International Radio Communication codeword for the letter N) LA (N) TER N |
| 23 | Preside over meeting daily, about one (5)
CHAIR (preside over meeting) CHAR (a cleaner; a daily) containing (about) I (Roman numeral for one) CHA (I) R |
| 24 | I don’t believe you become celibate? (4,3,2)
COME OFF IT (expression indicating that what you are hearing is ridiculous; I don’t believe you) COME OFF (desist from; stop) IT (sex) – become celibate. Possibly a double definition rather than definition and wordplay COME OFF IT |
| 26 | Frenchman and Scotsman are in a state (9)
LOUISIANA (US State) LOUIS (name of a Frenchman) + IAN (name of a Scotsman) + A (are; unit of area) LOUIS IAN A |
| 27 | Those people initially establish unifying idea (5)
THEME (recurrent or unifying idea) THEM (those people) + E (first letter of [initially] ESTABLISH) THEM E |
| 28 | Couple beginning to want closed borders (3)
TWO (couple) TO (closed, as in the ‘door is to’) containing (borders) W (first letter of [beginning to] WANT) T (W) O |
| 29 | Transparent form of calcite found in supermarkets (7,4)
ICELAND SPAR (a transparent calcite with strong double refraction) ICELAND (name of a British supermarket chain) + SPAR (name of another supermarket franchise chain operating in nearly 50 countries) ICELAND SPAR |
| Down | |
| 1 |
Eccles is upset over American leaving meat in case improper application results (8) MISUSAGE (wrong use; improper application) I’M (Eccles [the crossword setter] is, I AM) reversed (upset; down entry) + SAUSAGE (meat) excluding (leaving) A (American) MI< SUSAGE |
| 2 |
Religious female at school, reportedly, in West Midlands town (8) NUNEATON (market town in Warwickshire; West Midlands town) NUN (religious female) + EATON (sounds like [reportedly] ETON [British public school]) NUN EATON |
| 3 |
Counterfeit pens left in bar (5) FLAKE (reference Cadbury’s chocolate FLAKE; a chocolate bar) FAKE (counterfeit) containing (pens) L (left) F (L) AKE |
| 4 |
Man allowed to display garland (7) CHAPLET (garland or wreath for the head) CHAP (man) + LET (allowed) CHAP LET |
| 5 |
A French man carries Uniform? That’s topical! (7) UNGUENT (ointment; TOPICAL is a term descriptive of an ointment for application to the skin) UN (one of the French forms of ‘a’) + (GENT [man] containing [carries] U [Uniform is the International radio Communication codeword for the letter U]) UN G (U) ENT |
| 6 |
I lengthen changes in order to educate (9) ENLIGHTEN (impart knowledge; educate) Anagram of (changes) I LENGTHEN ENLIGHTEN* |
| 7 |
Start of computer game is second-rate (6) CRUMMY (not good; second rate) C (first letter of [start of] COMPUTER) + RUMMY (a card game) C RUMMY |
| 8 |
Choice of brew with bubble rising (6) OPTION (choice) POTION (brew) with the first O (bubble-shaped character) rising in this down entry to form OPTION OPTION |
| 14 | Hi, I’m Sarah Batty, religious sage (9)
MAHARISHI (leading instructor in the Hindu faith; religious sage) Anagram of (batty) HI I’M SARAH MAHARISHI* |
| 16 | DIY ledge on bookcase with rockers hard to lower (4-4)
SELF-HELP (doing things for oneself without assistance from others; DIY [do it yourself]) SHELF (ledge on a bookcase) + ELP (Emerson, Lake & Palmer, English progressive rock supergroup formed in London in 1970; rockers) with H (hard, when describing pencil lead) being lowered to a place further down the entry to form SELF-HELP SELF-HELP |
| 17 | Caught idiot with flower in Cardigan? (8)
KNITWEAR (a cardigan is an example of knitwear) KNIT (sounds like [caught] NIT [idiot]) + WEAR (river in North East England; flower [something that flows]) KNIT WEAR |
| 19 | Labour cleared broadcast (7)
DECLARE (make known; broadcast) Anagram of (labour) CLEARED DECLARE* |
| 20 | Greek character hosts a dance (7)
LAMBADA (rhythmic and energetic dance originating in Latin America) LAMBDA (character of the Greek alphabet) containing (hosts) A LAMB (A) DA |
| 21 | Revolutionary stole coat, partly to get fur (6)
OCELOT (the fur of feline animal like a small leopard of the same name) OCELOT (reversed [revolutionary] hidden word in [partly] STOLE COAT) OCELOT< |
| 22 | Marxist captures state capital (6)
MAPUTO (capital city of Mozambique) MAO (reference Chairman MAO Zedong [1893 – 1976], Chinese Marxist) containing (captures) PUT [state [one’s case]) MA (PUT) O |
| 25 | Initially opposed unidentified Tory’s extensive dalliances being made public knowledge (5)
OUTED (made public knowledge) OUTED (first letters [initially] of each of OPPOSED, UNIDENTIFIED, TORY’S, EXTENSIVE and DALLIANCES) O U T E D |
Good fun as usual from Eccles. MAHARISHI made me grin. I didn’t know GUMBO needed okra, but I know the soup from Forrest Gump, where prawn gumbo features heavily. In fact, isn’t it from LOUISIANA? Maybe just coincidence, but better theme-spotters than me might dig further…
MAPUTO was a bit of a hit & hope, but for once a successful one!
Thanks both.
Interesting point about the def not being at the end. I feel certain exceptions can be made before the clue gets into ‘radical’ territory and in 1d, it’s only the link that is making it depart from convention. It did not confuse the clue for me and it seems like solid enough grammar. It puts me in mind slightly of the single letter indicator ‘what gets … started’ for some reason. And I’m very pleased Eccles did not resort to using ‘of’ as an alternative; it would have made less sense in the surface and resulted in ‘WP of def’, a construction that leaves me dissatisfied.
So much to like in this smoothly crafted puzzle. As always. And I learned what an UMBO might be! As well as another meaning for TOPICAL. Really, there are too many favourites to list – I guess my biggest ticks/smiles are linked to MANUFACTURE, SLATE BLUE, LANTERN, ICELAND SPAR, MAHARISHI and OCELOT.
Thanks Eccles and duncan
As everyone has said so far… took some time for all the pennies to drop, liked KNITWEAR especially, took a long time to realise a homophone was involved.. quite a lot of checking with GUMBO requiring 2 dips into a lexicon, couldn’t see the meat for the SAGE in MISUSAGE, as I’d nailed myself to US for American, so the exact position of the def was the least of my worries..
There was definitely a theme in there, 27ac, I believe… beyond that I can’t help you..
Thanks Eccles n duncansheill
Well up to Eccles’s high standard, though for several I needed to come here for confirmation that I had solved correctly. ICELAND SPAR was brilliant! Thanks Eccles and Duncan.
Thanks both. Whilst previously unaware of it, I am a little surprised we have waited this long for ICELAND SPAR to feature in a crossword. Neither TWO nor LOUISIANA held me up, and the clues are entirely fair, however if someone asked me to ‘pull the door to’ I would leave it just open, rather than closed, and I still haven’t met a Scotsman called Ian.
[13a GROMMET – Mme is a married Madame (Mrs). An unmarried Mademoiselle is a Mlle (Miss/Ms)]
4d CHAPLET – “Déjà vu all over again”, from a puzzle that’s not yet been blogged, again.
Thanks E&DS
At the easier end of Eccles’ spectrum, this was a joy to solve from start to finish.
Wonderful!
Many thanks to him and to Duncan.
Never really considered what the ingredients are for gumbo so if Eccles wants to tell me that it contains okra I’m happy to believe him! Laughed at the double supermarket although I did need to confirm the type of calcite and thought it a shame that the clue for 24a had to use ‘come’ when ‘came’ would have been so much better for the surface read. Particularly liked LANTERN, CRUMMY & KNITWEAR.
Thanks to Eccles for another great puzzle and to Duncan for another colourful review.
I enjoyed this a lot, particularly the misbehaving Tory, the thieving insurgent and the IKEA bookshelf. I laughed at iceland spar, and indeed guessed Iceland from the ‘I’ crosser long before I finally gave up on Aldi!
Having the link word at the end didn’t concern me much; it turns up from time to time. That the puzzle fearured a nice variety of link words (to get, being, obtained from, to display…) helped it to feel more natural.
… In fact, it was the surface of the MISUSAGE clue that took me a few moments to parse, until I twigged that we should be reading ‘in case’ as ‘lest’. I was then somewhat disappointed that the definition turned out not to be something to do with faulty entrance exam results (i.e. didn’t require a mental rephrasing of the surface, a sort of inverse lift-and-separate). In the meantime, I of course got hung up on the impossible answer MISTAKES, trying to force it to be a Yank-less STEAK. All fun and games 😛
The sausage, of course, is “meat in case”.
Lovely puzzle. “Fermented stale dung” made me chuckle! Thanks Eccles and Duncan.
Did enjoy very much today, as others have said. Favourites ICELAND SPAR and MANUFACTURE.
I could not parse KNITWEAR at all. The river Wear is pronounced like ‘weir’ or ‘we’re’ Even in Geordie, so the clue made no sense.
I remember Roger Whitaker having to apologise to us in the North East for the words of ‘I’m going to leave old Durham town’ – sitting by the banks of the river WEAR wouldn’t rhyme. Even if you pronounce it wrong.
PS. Thanks Eccles and DS
@Xmac, the homonym indicator only applies to the idiot, not to the river. Thanks for teaching me how to pronounce the river though; this Devon lad didn’t know.
I rarely do the Indy crossword these days because I solve on paper and the printout omits the enumerations so I have to go back to the online version to add them in. However, I decided to give this one a go to fill in a bit of time. It was quite a stiff challenge in places but with a few easy ones (NUNEATON and ICELAND SPAR for example) to get one started. The surface for ANGEL DUST raised a smile, and I also liked GUMBO and LAMBADA.
Thanks, Eccles and Duncan.
@allan_c We also solve on paper and have the problem with the lack of enumeration, but only on the Saturday GK crossword. The cryptic always prints with the enumerations. Can anybody enlighten us?
I print out from the puzzles site and always get enumerations.
http://puzzles.independent.co.uk/games/cryptic-crossword-independent/
Dormouse at 17: Thanks; problem solved – I print from that site but I’ve always used the ‘large print’ layout which doesn’t have enumerations. Just tried ‘right handed’ and ‘left handed’ and there they are. D’oh!