Independent 11,880 by Eccles

by

Eccles appears again in the mid-week slot.

Another great puzzle from Eccles. Lovely surfaces and a good mix of clues. If we have any criticism at all it would be that the clue for 10ac was a little below the high bar that Eccles sets for himself. At the end, we puzzled why Eccles chose the capital of Kosovo (requiring some GK) as the entry for 20d, when ‘pristine’, which is needed for the wordplay would have fitted. If there is a theme or nina needing the ‘a’, we can’t find one. Are we missing something (again!).

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
9. Reform bring up diversity (9)
REARRANGE

REAR (bring up) RANGE (diversity)

10. Accepted women are enlightened (5)
AWARE

A (accepted) W (women) ARE

11. Extra responsibility follows job’s termination (5)
BONUS

ON US (responsibility) following B (last letter or ‘termination’ of job)

12. Police fire on pub which produces drug (9)
IBUPROFEN

An anagram (‘police’) of FIRE ON PUB

13. Hormone transforms common bird (7)
MOORHEN

An anagram (‘transforms’) of HORMONE

14. Dry and skiddy, oddly? Turned round, creating inconvenience (7)
DISTURB

A reversal (‘turned round’) of BRUT (dry) S I D (alternate or ‘odd’ letters of skiddy)

17. Left-winger receives a card (5)
TAROT

TROT (left-winger) round or ‘receiving’ A

18. Bladed tool in Mike’s shed (3)
HOE

HOmE (in) missing or ‘shedding’ the ‘m’ (Mike in the phonetic alphabet)

19. Japan losing first point that would win match (5)
IPPON

nIPPON (Japanese name for Japan) missing the first letter – a winning point in judo and karate

21. France not just an exciting place for kids (7)
FUNFAIR

F (France) UNFAIR (not just)

23. Say I test solved Enigmatic Variations, primarily after recalling hint (7)
VESTIGE

A reversal (‘after recalling’) of EG (say) I + T S E V (first or ‘primary’ letters of test solve Enigmatic Variations) – a clue for crossword buffs

24. Contrite, urge left and right to adapt (9)
REGRETFUL

An anagram (to adapt’) of URGE LEFT and R (right)

26. Pitiable soul told gag (5)
RETCH

A homophone (‘told’) of WRETCH (pitiable soul)

28. Little cycling seen in shopping centres (5)
MALLS

SMALL (little) with the first letter moved to the back, or ‘cycling’

29. Fire nukes at sea? I say no (9)
REFUSENIK

An anagram (‘at sea’) of FIRE NUKES

DOWN
1. Cut short drum’n’bass in club (4)
DRUB

DRUm missing the last letter or ‘cut short’ + B (bass)

2. Easy target saving crooked donor (4,4)
BARN DOOR

BAR (saving, as in ‘bar none’) + an anagram (‘crooked’) of DONOR

3. Singer James Blunt reportedly goes ahead to make open sandwich (10)
BRUSCHETTA

ETTA (singer Etta James) after a homophone (‘reportedly’) of BRUSQUE (blunt)

4. Some funding is never returned; this could be a red flag (6)
ENSIGN

Hidden (‘some’) and reversed (‘returned’) in fundiNG IS NEver

5. Feud led bishop to stir disorder (8)
BEFUDDLE

An anagram (‘stir’) of FEUD LED and B (bishop)

6. Broadcast follows Labour leader in retreat (4)
LAIR

AIR (broadcast) following L (first letter or ‘leader’ of Labour)

7. Head of Football League stopping team getting debilitating illness (3,3)
MAN FLU

F (first letter or ‘head’ of football) L (league) in or ‘stopping’ MAN U (team)

8. Observed setting for audition (4)
SEEN

A homophone (‘for audition’) of SCENE (setting)

13. Second place for twisting symbolic design (5)
MOTIF

MO (second) + a reversal (‘twisting’) of FIT (place, as in fitting a washing machine for example)

15. Unmarried woman plays with hair (10)
SPINSTRESS

SPINS (plays – as in spinning a disc) TRESS (hair)

16. Drink a lot, being reckless (5)
BINGE

An anagram (‘reckless’) of BEING

18. Thus gets naked with duke in county town (8)
HEREFORD

tHEREFORe (thus) missing the first and last letters or ‘naked’ + D (duke)

20. Almost immaculate American city (8)
PRISTINA

PRISTINe (immaculate) missing the last letter or ‘almost’ + A (American) – the capital of Kosovo

22. Annoy Germans in river (6)
NIGGLE

G G (‘Germans’) in NILE (river)

23. Degenerate briefly provided end to discriminatory abuse (6)
VILIFY

VILe (degenerate) missing the last letter or ‘briefly’ IF (provided) Y (last letter or ‘end’ of discriminatory)

24. Remains bottom (4)
RUMP

Double definition

25. Queen Street, at an earlier time (4)
ERST

ER (the former queen) ST (street)

27. Whisker regularly plucked for tramp (4)
HIKE

wHIsKEr missing the 1st, 4th and 7th letters or ‘regularly plucked’

 

23 comments on “Independent 11,880 by Eccles”

  1. I echo the bloggers’ comments: immaculate as always from Eccles. No problem with Pristina – crosophiles should be up to speed with European capitals! Thanks Eccles and B&J.

  2. A nice puzzle though I find myself in a dispirited mood this morning and I’m not sure even an Eccles could provide the pick me up. PRISTINA does seem an odd choice, given the alternative but I don’t see a nina or a theme to explain its inclusion. MAN FLU, ENSIGN, HOE, BONUS and FUNFAIR my faves today.

    Thanks Eccles and B&J

  3. A nice puzzle indeed. I was held up by struggling to recall NIPPON, only very vaguely knowing IPPON, and not being 100% sure about SPINS for ‘plays’. It’s only now that I properly realise how the latter works!

    No problem with PRISTINA here either – I assume it was chosen for the wordplay potential rather than anything else. I also thought the surface for AWARE more than compensated for the simple wordplay.

    Thanks Eccles and B&J.

  4. I imagine Eccles was just amused by the idea of an almost immaculate American city, which seems even more improbable today. I liked FUNFAIR for the surface and BRUSCHETTA for the lift and separate.

  5. I share PostMark’s low spirits this morning, not helped by the anger evoked by Vlad’s brilliant Guardian puzzle – but, yes, this is a nice puzzle.

    My favourites were BONUS, FUNFAIR, VESTIGE and BRUSCHETTA (brilliant homophone).

    My query was for SPINSTRESS – surely that couldn’t be a word since ‘spinster’ is already feminine? – but it’s in Chambers (not Collins) with the definition ‘spinster’!

    Thanks to Bert and Joyce and to Eccles for going some way to lifting the spirits, as always.

  6. Very enjoyable fare from Eccles as usual, but today with a bit of a sting in the tail in the SE corner.

    I learned two new words: IPPON and SPINSTRESS, but both were fairly clued.

    I can’t see why “police” functions as an anagram indicator in 12a.

    MAN FLU, VESTIGE and BRUSCHETTA were my top picks.

    Many thanks to Eccles and to B&J.

  7. Rabbit Dave @6

    I think I’ve seen ‘police’ as an anagram indicator more than once before. It works for me: ‘to put in order, regulate, control’.

  9. I could just put ‘ditto’ under RD’s comments today particularly when it comes to ‘police’ as an anagram indicator and the two new things to learn.
    The debilitating illness made me laugh………

    Thanks to Eccles and to B&J for the review.

  10. Thanks both. BRUSCHETTA took a while to parse, but it was very worth the endeavour, and it strikes me ‘open sandwich’ might be considered an oxymoron. Also, what’s not to like when MAN FLU gets a name-check?

  11. I liked this puzzle, but I didn’t quite love it.

    ETTA James? OK, but not for me.

    “place” = FIT?
    “police” = anagram indicator?
    “A” from “accepted?

    “L” from “League” seems a bit niche to me, when “Heads of Football League” might have worked as well?

    I realise I’m in a minority of one on those.
    To even the score, I did actually enjoy the irony of MAN FLU, and VESTIGE, HIKE and VILIFY were nice tests.

    Lots to like, niggles apart.

    Thanks to Eccles, Bert & Joyce

  12. ENB @ 11

    You should check out Etta James, she has a fantastic voice.

    “Can you place / fit the piece in the jigsaw?”

    Police – see Eileen @ 7

    A = accepted has dictionary support, so is fair game for the setter, whether one agrees with it or not

    L = League: EPL, SPL, WSL, IPL etc ad infinitum are all in common usage

  14. Thanks Eccles. I liked FUNFAIR, REFUSENIK, BINGE, and HEREFORD among others, I failed with the nho PRISTINA, and I didn’t understand ‘police’ as an anagram indicator until Eileen @ 7 explained it. Thanks B&J for the blog.

  15. Nice puzzle but surprised nobody mentioned that bruschetta isn’t a homophone of brusque etta if it’s pronounced correctly is it?

  16. I had the same thought, Ericw @15, but I “hear” from the Cambridge Dictionary that “brusque” is pronounced “brusk” in the US and “broosk” in the UK. Thanks to Eccles and Bertandjoyce. Could you explain how “pristine” could work for 20d? I’m not seeing it in the wordplay.

  18. The hop-skip in 27 wHIsKEr was very smart, had me fooled for a while.
    I raised an eyebrow at 23d VILIFY, since that and the component part VILE share the same Latin origin and I thought that was ‘not done’. Perhaps I’ve got that wrong though.
    18a beat me. I totally missed the ‘in = HO[m]E’ trick!

  20. Coloradan @ 16 I was unsure of the correct pronunciation, so when in Italy a few years ago I asked. The first syllable is BROOSH, so Ericw is right.

  21. Thanks Bertandjoyce @19.
    I’m intrigued to go out and order the nho BRUSCHETTA, so now thanks to Simon S @20 I can do so properly!

  22. Colaradan @21. I don’t know who Simon S asked in Italy, but it wasn’t an Italian – the Italians pronounce the ch as they do in Chianti, as do we (according to Collins),

    Cheers all, and B&J

Comments are closed.