Independent 11844 / Eccles

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Eccles is a regular Independent setter, usually appearing on a Wednesday every two weeks.

 

 

 

Eccles focuses on good clues and rarely, if ever, includes a theme in his puzzles.  He is a setter who uses a wide vocabulary as the source of his entries.  His entries today also encompass several centuries.  I feel sure that PTOLEMY who developed his planetary SYSTEM in the 2nd century AD never used the word SHARENTING.  I’m not sure I want to use the word but it’s part of an evolving language and is in some dictionaries already, which makes it available to setters.  HELVETII and HI-TECH also belong to different eras.

The two long anagrams for NATIONAL SERVICE and PTOLEMAIC SYSTEM were excellent and read very smoothly in the text of the clue.

I liked the word pictures painted by the clues for CHOPIN  and HAIR OF THE DOG.

I wonder whether MOCHA and CAPPUCCINO, associated with the clue at 3 down are similar drinks.  No doubt there will be a coffee specialist among the solvers who can tell us.

No Detail
Across  
1 You may get a lift following introduction to classical composer (6) 

CHOPIN (reference Frédéric CHOPIN [1810 – 1849], Polish composer)

C (first letter of [introduction to] CLASSICAL) + HOP IN (an invitation to get into someone’s car for a lift)

C HOP IN
5 Orwellian language points to climax (8) 

NEWSPEAK (a type of English described by George Orwell in his book Nineteen Eighty-four (1949), developed by reducing vocabulary to such a point, and forming new words of such ugliness and so little emotive value, that literature and even thought will be impossible)

NEWS (North, East, West and South [compass points]) + PEAK (climax)

NEWS PEAK
9 Most keen to have toilets close to bidet (8) 

POTTIEST (most keen – someone keen about a subject could be said to be potty about it)

POTTIES (chamberpots; toilets) + T (last letter of [close to] BIDET)

POTTIES T
10 Selfishness, say, over one’s millions (6) 

EGOISM (selfishness)

E.G. (for example; say) + O (over) + IS (ones) + M (millions)

EG O IS M
11 Where Venetian leader sits naked for another drink (4,2,3,3) 

HAIR OF THE DOG (another alcoholic drink taken as an antidote to a hangover)

The title of the Chief Magistrate in republican Venice of years ago was DOGE so he would sit in the CHAIR OF THE DOGE.  Exclude the outer or clothing letters, C and E to leave the naked HAIR OF THE DOG

HAIR OF THE DOG
13 China caught drone (4) 

CHUM (pal; china)

C (caught) + HUM (drone)

C HUM
14 Assistant follows lead criminal in state capital (8) 

ADELAIDE (State capital of South Australia)

Anagram of (criminal) LEAD + AIDE (assistant)

ADEL* AIDE
16 Solvers to get biscuits (8) 

CRACKERS (people who solve mysteries or puzzles or codes)

CRACKERS (biscuits)  double definition

CRACKERS
17 Bit of American broadcast overheard (4) 

CENT (coin [bit] of American money)

CENT (sounds like [overheard] SENT [broadcast])

CENT
19 Short pause to rest in outskirts of Rugby, between Warwick and Leicester Unis? (12) 

INTERVARSITY (played between or involving two Universities, such as Warwick and Leicester)

INTERVAL (pause) excluding the final letter (short) L + (SIT [rest] contained in [in] RY [outer letters of; outskirts of] RUGBY])

INTERVA R (SIT) Y
21 Unmarried woman and Parisian adjust badly (6) 

MISSET (set or place wrongly; adjust badly)

MISS (unmarried woman) + ET (Fremch [Parisian] for ‘and’)

MISS ET
22 Perhaps neon light at last regains flickers (5,3) 

INERT GAS (neon is an example of an INERT GAS)

Anagram of (flickers) T (final letter of [at last] LIGHT) and REGAINS

INERT GAS*
23 I have to follow spy, in case (8) 

AGENTIVE (a grammatical case denoting the agent of a verb, eg the suffix -er in speaker)

AGENT (spy) + I’VE (I have)

AGENT IVE
24 Kind of shade worn by bishop, possibly (6) 

HUMANE (kind)

HUE (shade) containing (worn by) MAN (a piece in chess such as a bishop)

HU (MAN) E
Down  
2 Old sexy nurses giving hilarious performance (4) 

HOOT (hilarious performance)

HOT (sexy) containing (nurses) O (old)

H (O) OT – either O could be the one contained
3 How to break Cappuccino-only loyalty card, we hear? (3,3,7,2) 

PUT THE MOCKERS ON (put an end to; how to break something)

PUT THE MOCKERS ON (sounds like [we hear] PUT THE MOCHAS [cappuccinos] ON [this loyalty card]) – I expect coffee aficionados will tell us that there is a difference between cappuccinos and mochas

Hovis has given a much better interpretation of this clue at Comment 1 below.

PUT THE MOCKERS ON
4 Refer to old nationalist revolutionary as intellectual (6) 

NOETIC (purely intellectual)

(CITE [quote; refer to] + O [old] + N [nationalist]) all reversed (revolutionary)

(N O ETIC)<
5 Vast ocean liner I damaged in work for armed forces? (8,7) 

NATIONAL SERVICE (compulsory work for the armed services)

Anagram of (damaged) VAST OCEAN LINER I

NATIONAL SERVICE*
6 Fought lewd comic pinching rump (8) 

WRESTLED (fought)

Anagram of (comic) LEWD containing (pinching) REST (remainder; rump)

W (REST) LED*
7 Theory about planets‘ movement in space and time, mostly (9,6) 

PTOLEMAIC SYSTEM (PTOLEMY [circa 100 – 170 AD] was an Alexandrian mathematician and astronomer who formulated a planetary theory, according to which the heavenly bodies revolve about the earth in motions compounded of eccentric circles and epicycles)

Anagram of (movement in) SPACE TIME and MOSTLY

PTOLEMAIC SYSTEM*
8 Running away from a nonsense Tory racket? Good (10) 

ABSCONDING (leaving quickly; running away)

A + BS (bullshit; nonsense) + CON (Conservative; Tory) + DIN (noise; racket) + G (good)

A BS CON DIN G
12 Eccentric has let in German overdoing the family photos on social media (10) 

SHARENTING (the habitual use of social media to share news, images, etc of one’s children)

Anagram of (eccentric) HAS + RENT (let) + IN + G (German)

SHA* RENT IN G
15 Briefly assist veteran stalked by two Celts in central Europe (8) 

HELVETII (a Celtic tribe or tribal confederation occupying most of the Swiss plateau at the time of their contact with the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC)

HELP (assist) excluding the final letter (briefly) P + VET (veteran) + II (Roman numerals for two)

HEL VET II
18 Whitechapel houses extremely advanced (2-4) 

HI-TECH (advanced, sophisticated technology in specialist fields, eg electronics, involving high investment in research and development)

HI-TECH (hidden word in [houses] WHITECHAPEL)

HI-TECH
20 Buff wife punches lover (4) 

FAWN (a yellowish-brown colour; Chambers defines BUFF as a brownish-yellow colour)

W (wife) contained in (punches) FAN (lover)

FA (W) N

Blog No 1100

15 comments on “Independent 11844 / Eccles”

  4. As well as always providing us with very enjoyable crosswords, Eccles can be relied upon to increase our vocabulary. I learnt three new words today, although I won’t be sorry never to encounter SHARENTING again.

    CHOPIN, HAIR OF THE DOG, CRACKERS and PUT THE MOCKERS ON were my top picks.

    Many thanks to Eccles and to Duncan.

  5. NHO SHARENTING and, rather like RD, shall be happy to let that one die a death in due course. I had every letter bar the S and H and still had to reveal! The CAD for PTOLEMAIC SYSTEM is very neat, as is the construction of INTERVARSITY. I think PUT THE MOCKERS ON is sort of CAD as well. Plenty of others to like but HAIR OF THE DOG takes the biscuit – absolutely sublime and what a spot by the compiler. I am almost inclined to overlook ‘old’ = O appearing twice in the first three down clues which was my only raised eyebrow1

    Thanks Eccles and duncan

  6. I loved this. A bit chewy but very enjoyable. Took me an age to to unravel Ptolomaic, despite having system in early on; I was fooled by the “mostly”, not expecting it to be part of the fodder, and “pt” isn’t a starting combination that one is attuned to looking for!

    INTERVARSITY, SHARENTING, HELVETII, CHOPIN and the marvellous HAIR OF THE DOG were my favourites, and PUT THE MOCKERS ON was fun and I agree with Hovis@1; trying to put Mochas on a Cappucini-only card would break it (the card, or the rules, I’m not sure; doesn’t really matter). A nebulous definition+wordplay-cum-CD clue, and nothing wrong with the occasional one of those.

    Nho AGENTIVE but totally plausible c.f. dative etc; nor my loi NOETIC which was a hope-for-the-best from the wordplay and checkers.

    Thanks both.

  7. AP@6 and others
    PUT THE MOCKERS ON
    Interesting clue indeed. The whole clue participates in the WP but only a part of the clue is the def (break).
    Dunno if we can call it a CAD. It’s a CAWP? 🙂
    ‘PUT MOCHAS ON the loyalty card’ may not be the idea. I think. ‘PUT Mocha-only loyalty card ON’ or ‘PUT Mocha’s ON’ sounds better to me.

  8. Yeah I don’t know how to classify it. It’s an implicit definition rather than an explicit one, unless the def is solely “break” in which case it’s interspersed with the wordplay/cd. Either way, Ximenes wouldn’t approve; and either way, I don’t care :-p. I liked it (and it was sufficiently fair I think; it leapt out at me once I had the H – hence likely THE -, M and C from the checkers).

  12. I can see the appeal to some of Eccles’ puzzle but they just do not hit the mark for me. Too many hmms and not enough smiles for this solver. But got the yellow tick with no reveals after a lot of brain-wrangling so overall it is a positive.

    Thanks Eccles and Duncan

  13. For 3d PUT THE MOCKERS ON, I was puzzled by DS’s definitions as “How to break” and “put an end to”.
    As far as I knew it meant to jinx or bring bad luck to. And oed.com agrees. How was that equivalent to “put an end to”?
    Of course – “It’s in Chambers“: ‘… (slang) to put an end to, put paid to’. So that’s all right then, isn’t it? 🙁
    [I suppose it might be just about equivalent, if you added on a lot of extra words: “put and end to … a run of good luck or lucky break”]
    Thanks E&DS

  14. Thanks both. Enjoyed quite a lot of this notably HAIR OF THE DOG, CHOPIN and PUT THE MOCKERS ON but some was a blindfolded ordeal such was the number of unknowns, including the all-intersecting HELVETII SHARENTING and AGENTIVE. More or less gave up hope with PTOLEMAIC SYSTEM even with just the non-crossing cells empty, as I could see system but like AP@6 I never considered ‘mostly’ as part of the anagram fodder

  15. Quite a work-out from one of my favourite setters although it may take me a while to forgive him for including the dreadful SHARENTING which I’d never heard of and hope disappears into the ether very soon!
    Top clues for me were those for CHOPIN, HAIR OF THE DOG & PUT THE MOCKERS ON.

    Thanks to Eccles and to Duncan for the review.

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