Independent 11,929 by Eccles

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Eccles, but not in his usual Wednesday slot; everything tends to move around a bit at this time of year.

I always enjoy Eccles – witty and a fair challenge, with clear wordplay for the occasional obscure entry. We have a bit of political comment today; our setter obviously doesn’t care for right-wing politicians, though in the interest of fairness he has a go at a former Labour leader too. I liked “cash on the counter” in 11a, the sneaky hidden-answer trick in 7d, and the misdirection of 12a and 4d. Thanks Eccles for the fun. And, because this is my first blog of 2025: Happy New Year to everyone.

Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
1 CORONER
Public official in difficult position, hiding love (7)
CORNER (difficult position, as in “get backed into a corner”), containing (hiding) O (zero = love, in tennis scoring).
5 EGGNOG
For example, award for knocking back alcoholic drink (6)
EG (e.g. = abbreviation for Latin exempli gratia = for example), then GONG (slang for a medal = award) reversed (knocked back).

Drink made with raw eggs, milk or cream, sugar and alcohol.
10 UMBER
Brown more stupid to get rid of gold, ultimately (5)
[d]UMBER (more stupid), without the D which is the last letter (ultimately) of [gol]D. The surface apparently refers to former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who sold a large chunk of the country’s gold reserves while Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Brown pigment derived from metal oxides.
11 DRACONIAN
“Cash only” put on the counter, quietly, to avoid banks being severe (9)
NO CARD (cash only) reversed (on the counter), then [p]IAN[o] (Italian-derived musical term meaning “quietly”) without the outer letters (banks).

Harsh (as a description of regulations or punishments) = severe.
12 BALALAIKA
Instrument spinning a laboratory animal in astronomical experiment (9)
A + LAB (short for laboratory), reversed (spinning), then LAIKA (animal in astronomical experiment: a dog that travelled on the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 2 craft during early experiments in space flight). We have to separate the obvious “laboratory animal” to make this one work.

Russian musical instrument, like a triangular three-stringed guitar.
13 ETHIC
Essentially, Richard Tice corrupted moral principles (5)
Anagram (corrupted) of the middle letter (essentially) from [ric]H[ard] with TICE. For the surface, Richard Tice is a right-wing MP, whose moral principles I won’t comment on.

The plural form “ethics” is more common, but for example “work ethic” = the principles governing someone’s attitude to their work.
14 NIMBLE
Active local protester allowed to have terms removed (6)
NIMB[y] (abbreviation for Not In My Back-Yard = someone who objects to building developments etc where they live = local protester) + LE[t] (allowed), with the last letters (terms) removed.
16 ENQUIRE
Ask gentleman to swap pole (7)
E[s]QUIRE (title for a gentleman), with the S (South Pole) swapped for N (North Pole).
18 CANDELA
Unit is able to lead off (7)
CAN (is able to) + anagram (off) of LEAD.

Scientific unit of light intensity.
20 BLEACH
Disinfect shore around lake (6)
BEACH (shore) around L (abbreviation for lake).

Bleach, as a verb = to disinfect using a bleach solution.
22 PRANK
Parking area for taxis, possibly, is a joke (5)
P (abbreviation for parking, on maps and road signs) + RANK (area where taxis wait for business).
24 AUNT SALLY
Colleague following blundering Tory leader Sunak mostly an easy target (4,5)
ALLY (colleague), following an anagram (blundering) of the leading letter of T[ory] + SUNA[k] (mostly = all but the last letter).

A target in a fairground game, or (metaphorically) a person, object or opinion set up as a target for criticism.
26 CORRELATE
Match centre includes activity in real time (9)
CORE (centre), including an anagram (activity in . . .) of REAL + T (abbreviation for time).

Match, as a verb = correlate = correspond.
27 TWAIN
Author, one wunning along a wailway twack (5)
Sounds like TRAIN (one running along a railway track) by someone with a non-standard pronunciation of the letter R.

The US author Mark Twain (real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens).
28 SHEIKH
Told to frighten Arab ruler (6)
Homophone (told) of SHAKE (to frighten).
29 TRAGEDY
Attempt to conceal old catastrophe (7)
TRY (attempt) containing (to conceal) AGED (old).
DOWN
1 CRUMBS
Goodness shown by Conservative? Suspect codswallop (6)
C (abbreviation for Conservative) + RUM (as an adjective = suspect = dodgy) + BS (abbreviation for bullsh*t = codswallop = nonsense).

Goodness! = crumbs! = an expression of surprise.
2 REBELLION
Beer drunk by liberal man of courage in act of defiance (9)
Anagram (drunk) of BEER, then L (abbreviation for Liberal) + LION (man of courage).
3 NEROL
Emperor left component of perfume (5)
NERO (Roman emperor) + L (abbreviation for left).

I didn’t know this one, but I’d heard of neroli oil as a perfume ingredient; nerol is a chemical derived from it.
4 RED KITE
Bird, iconic identifier of Liverpool, on top of edifice (3,4)
RED KIT (identifier of Liverpool Football Club, who play in an all-red strip) + first letter (top, in a down clue) of E[difice].

A bird of prey. The surface suggests the Liver Bird, an iconic symbol of Liverpool, two of which appear on top of the Royal Liver Building – but that’s more like a cormorant than a red kite.
6 GROTESQUE
Go and request muffs for gargoyle, perhaps (9)
Anagram (muffs, as a verb = makes a mistake) of GO + REQUEST.

Grotesque = a carved stone creature attached to a building, often a mythical creature or a whimsical representation. A gargoyle is a specific type of grotesque, designed to act as a spout diverting rainwater away from the building.
7 NEIGH
The cry of a horse in 1984 (5)
Hidden answer (in . . .) in [ninetee]N EIGH[ty four].
8 GANACHE
Chocolate sauce is a change when cooking (7)
Anagram (when cooking) of A CHANGE.

Sauce or filling made from chocolate and cream. Naughty but nice.
9 CARAFE
Flying ace describes Air Force in which one might serve (6)
Anagram (flying) of ACE, surrounding (describing) RAF (abbreviation for the Royal Air Force).

A serving vessel for drinks, typically used for wine or water.
15 BREAKNECK
Swift kiss following time away (9)
NECK (slang for kiss) following BREAK (a period of time away from work).

Dangerously fast.
17 INCULPATE
Rubbish: Clean it up, and charge (9)
Anagram (rubbish) of CLEAN IT UP.

To incriminate or accuse of wrongdoing = charge.
18 COPECKS
Males taking exercise bringing about change in Russia (7)
COCKS (male poultry) containing PE (abbreviation for physical education = exercise).

Variant spelling of kopecks = the smallest monetary unit in Russia, 1/100 of a rouble = small change.
19 AVATAR
Wife of Mickey, Artie, Frank and Jack provides online image (6)
AVA (actress Ava Gardner; she was married to Mickey Rooney, then to Artie Shaw, then to Frank Sinatra) + TAR (Jack = slang for a sailor).
20 BENNETT
Playwright stooped to collect bag (7)
BENT (stooped) containing (to collect) BAG (as a verb = net = to capture).

The playwright Alan Bennett: writer of The Madness of George III, The Lady in the Van, The History Boys etc.
21 SYDNEY
City‘s extremely shady objective overturned by end of May (6)
End letters (extremes) of S[had]Y, then END (objective = target) reversed (overturned), then the end letter of [ma]Y.

Australian city.
23 AGREE
Meagre earnings covering 26 (5)
Hidden answer (. . . covering) in [me]AGRE E[arnings].

Reference to 26a CORRELATE = correspond = agree.
25 SUTTA
Buddhist scripture seems underwhelming to the atheists, initially (5)
Initial letters of S[eems] U[nderwhelming] T[o] T[he] A[theists].

A guess-and-check: it’s a Buddhist term for a scriptural text.

13 comments on “Independent 11,929 by Eccles”

  1. Happy New Year to one and all.

    This was great fun as usual from this setter, and less challenging than his puzzles can sometimes be.

    Chambers says that BS needed for the parsing of 1d is an American abbreviation.

    Many thanks to Eccles and to Quirister.

  2. Yes, everything is happening a day or so late at this time of year – I would say like our dustbin collections but that might be interpreted as an insult to the estimable Eccles who certainly gets 2025 going with a bit of a bang. Lots of invention and fun in this fairly approachable puzzle. I did have to check the alternative spelling for COPECKS and was briefly thrown when Chambers did not acknowledge the existence of NEROL. I was pleasantly surprised to find INCULPATE and CANDELA coming to mind and, whilst it is a terribly sad image, the use of the dog in BALALAIKA was neatly done. NEIGH is clever, I like ‘muffs’ as an anagram indicator and ENQUIRE is a nice spot. Amusing to encounter DRACONIAN …

    Thanks Eccles and Quirister

  3. Enjoyed the puzzle. Many good clues. Particularly liked DRACONIAN, NIMBLE, TWAIN, NEIGH and SUTTA (the atheists must have found the suttas somewhat acceptable eventually. Liked the surface!).
    Very good blog.

    Thanks Eccles and Quirister.

  6. So glad that we didn’t miss out on our Eccles treat this week – another highly enjoyable puzzle.

    As usual, I have a string of ticks, which I’ll reluctantly whittle down to 11ac DRACONIAN, 27ac TWAIN, 1dn CRUMBS, 4dn RED KITE, 6dn GROTESQUE, 7dn NEIGH, 19dn AVATAR and 21dn SYDNEY.

    Many thanks to Eccles and Quirister.

  7. Pleased to report that our setter didn’t beat me today although I did need to verify a few of my answers along the way. Top three here were PRANK, CRUMBS & BREAKNECK.

    Thanks to Eccles and to Quirister for the review – a very Happy New Year to both of you.

  8. Thanks Eccles for a solid set of clues. I did a bit of guessing-then-parsing but all made sense eventually. Top picks were CORONER, TRAGEDY, RED KITE, CARAFE, AVATAR, and SUTRA. Thanks Quirister for the blog.

  9. This took some teasing out and I eventually needed a wordfinder for AVATAR, although the parsing/explanation was then immediately obvious. Otoh I just couldn’t parse RED KITE; having simply taken RED as the ‘iconic identifier’ I couldn’t equate any of the possible meanings of KITE with ‘edifice’.
    Plenty more to enjoy, though, including GANACHE, CARAFE and TWAIN.
    Incidentally, the Liver Bird is, I understand, a Norse raven.
    Thanks – and Happy New Year – to Eccles and Quirister.

  10. Trying to parse NEIGH once it was obvious from the crossers, was racking my brains to think of any horses in the book (as far as I can remember there are none). I could only think of “doublespeak’ (1984) referring to NAY and NEIGH, though that really doesn’t work! Thanks Eccles and Quirister for a great puzzle and veryhelpful blog..

  12. Thanks Eccles and Quirister. I was lucky to get the nho expression at 24 from the wordplay, and it’s surely apposite that TWAIN’s Tom and Huck play a PRANK on Tom’s AUNT SALLY to keep her from foiling their plan to help Jim escape. HNY to all!

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