The puzzle is available to solve online or download here.
Hello again. Eccles on a Sunday? Whatever next?
The usual “Ecclesiastic” fun (I laughed at the sexy apostle) with a couple of lessons thrown in too. (At least for me: my history, dairy and needlework knowledge is lacking.) However, I will not be taking any soup recipe suggestions from this setter. Thanks Eccles!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | Policeman having a threesome beginning to titillate fellow citizen (9) |
| COPATRIOT — COP (policeman) + A + TRIO (threesome) + the beginning to Titillate | |
| 6a | Perhaps something in miniscule fragment of pretty pottery (4) |
| TYPO — Part of (fragment of) pretTY POttery. The clue features a common misspelling of minuscule – so common, it’s made its way into some dictionaries and is in Chambers as a “non-standard” spelling. | |
| This is the kind of clue you have to be very careful doesn’t get “corrected” in the edit! | |
| 8a | Austria hit by disorder returning in killers’ domain (8) |
| ABATTOIR — A (Austria) + BAT (hit) + RIOT (disorder) back (returning) | |
| 9a | Journalist’s stream over, over, over at last (6) |
| EDITOR — TIDE (stream) flipped over + O (over) + the end letter of (… at last) oveR | |
| 10a | Get back American trapped in African country undergoing revolution (6) |
| REGAIN — A (American) inside (trapped in) NIGER (African country) reversing (undergoing revolution) | |
| 11a | Concentrates, being caught going in 3 directions, some more than once (8) |
| ESSENCES — C (caught) going in E, S and N (3 directions), some more than once | |
| 12a | Confused tot supervised (6) |
| ADDLED — ADD (tot – tot up) + LED (supervised) | |
| 15a | Overwhelm single lady with vow of chastity at romantic encounter (8) |
| INUNDATE — I (single) NUN (lady with vow of chastity) + DATE (romantic encounter) | |
| 16a | Chinese right-wing politician initially regrets the result of over-indulging (8) |
| HANGOVER — HAN (Chinese) + GOVE (right-wing politician) + initially Regrets | |
| 19a | Favourite pupil welcoming and unusually academic (6) |
| PEDANT — PET (favourite pupil) taking in (welcoming) an anagram of (… unusually) AND | |
| 21a | Constituent of popular Tory leader with substantial backing (8) |
| INTEGRAL — IN (popular) + Tory leader with LARGE (substantial) in reverse (backing) | |
| 22a | Rich, like lamb sauce? (6) |
| MINTED — Two definitions | |
| 24a | He’s too drunk to be calm (6) |
| SOOTHE — An anagram of (… drunk) HE’S TOO | |
| 25a | Eccles printed out game (8) |
| INTREPID — I (Eccles) + PRINTED anagrammed (out) | |
| 26a | Broadcaster with radical culture (4) |
| SKYR — SKY (broadcaster) with R (radical). A Scandinavian dairy product, not a brand name as I had previously thought | |
| 27a | Solitude: year wasted in a boring manner (9) |
| TEDIOUSLY — SOLITUDE anagrammed (wasted) + Y (year) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Message bishop wearing lace pants (5) |
| CABLE — B (bishop) in (wearing) an anagram of (… pants) LACE | |
| 2d | Spooner’s sexy apostle is in difficulty (7) |
| PITFALL — A spoonerism of FIT PAUL (sexy apostle) | |
| 3d | God, Norse, shows spine (5) |
| THORN — THOR (God) + N (Norse) | |
| 4d | Begin perhaps boosting current king? Yes, in Madrid (7) |
| ISRAELI — We are raising (boosting) I (current), LEAR (king) and SI (Yes, in Madrid). Menachem Begin, 6th Prime Minister of Israel | |
| 5d | Setter confused over Unionist politician’s memorial for the fallen? (4,5) |
| TREE STUMP — An anagram of (… confused) SETTER over U (Unionist) + MP (politician) | |
| 6d | Combined, like some soup containing whiskey? (7) |
| TWINNED — TINNED (like some soup) containing W (whiskey) | |
| 7d | Pregnancy hormone for good developing isn’t blocked by drug (9) |
| PROGESTIN — PRO (for), G (good) and an anagram of (developing) ISN’T containing (blocked by) E (drug) | |
| 13d | Haggard book, perhaps, is something from the sewer? (5,4) |
| DRAWN WORK — DRAWN (haggard) + WORK (book, perhaps). Ornamental needlework in which threads are drawn out of fabric to create a pattern of openings and holes. | |
| 14d | Maybe loon meets chap following a different path (9) |
| DIVERGENT — DIVER (maybe loon) goes next to GENT (chap) | |
| 17d | More magnificent kitchen implement picked up (7) |
| GREATER — Sounds like (… picked up) GRATER (kitchen implement) | |
| 18d | Got better recipe combined (7) |
| RALLIED — R (recipe) + ALLIED (combined) | |
| 20d | Beasts of burden put on islands (7) |
| DONKEYS — DON (put on) + KEYS (islands) | |
| 22d | Slogan of TV comedy originally ignored, then taken up (5) |
| MOTTO — bOTTOM (TV comedy, with Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson) without the first letter (originally ignored), then written upwards in the grid (taken up) | |
| 23d | Delighted if your hosts strengthen spiritually (5) |
| EDIFY — DelightED IF Your holds (hosts) the answer | |
A couple of little hiccups in the blog. PITFALL comes from ‘fit’ Paul and DIVERGENT has ‘gent’ not ‘man’.
Thanks Hovis! Fixed.
Great fun as always from this setter with TYPO, INUNDATE, PITFALL & ISRAELI my top picks.
I’ve never heard of SKYR but it couldn’t be anything else.
Many thanks to Eccles and to KItty.
DNF for me, as two of my entries were desperate, wrong and unparsed, i.e ‘pothaul’ at 2D and ‘drawn cork’ at 13D. Was initially thrown at 1A as I’ve always known it as ‘compatriot. Despite which much enjoyed, so thanks Eccles and Kitty.
Perfect for a Sunday – at least for me. PITFALL the rare Spoonerism that really lands. Thanks so much to Eccles and Kitty!
I also wondered if POTHAUL was a word, and only finished after googling and discovering that it wasn’t.
Lots to enjoy here, and ISRAELI was especially nicely disguised.
Tatrasman @4 and PJ @6 – you’re not alone with pothaul. I stared at that for ages, having similar thoughts but held back by “surely not.” I also spent time checking the intersecting entries (wondering about pothole, but obviously that wouldn’t work ether). This will explain why initially I absent-mindedly put HOT into the blog instead of FIT (not helped by considering illustrating it with Fleabag’s “hot priest”) …
Another pothaul here. ISRAELI, INUNDATE my favourites.
Thanks for the blog. Had to do this over two sittings after hitting a wall. I had DRAIN WORK (half hoping it was a phrase) rather than the correct answer so a bit gutted not to have this in the solved fully pile.
Got ISRAELI from the parsing but thanks for the explanation about the definition. I thought it must have been something biblical.
Favourite clue: TREE STUMP
Thanks Eccles for the Sunday treat. This took me two sittings but I was able to solve & parse everything, a rarity for me. My top picks were REGAIN, INUNDATE, INTEGRAL, SOOTHE, ISRAELI, and DIVERGENT. Thanks Kitty for the blog.
‘Real life’ got in the way yesterday so I never found the time to comment. However, I must confess that our setter won the battle this time as I was firmly in the POTHAUL camp and never found the sewing term
required for 13d. Can’t even blame it on a HANGOVER!
Thanks and well done to Eccles and thanks to Miss Kitty for the review.