Independent 11,946 / Eccles

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Eccles has provided us with some mid-week cruciverbal entertainment this Wednesday.

I found this to be a highly enjoyable, medium-difficulty puzzle, just right for the middle of the working week. I found the NE quadrant to be the most challenging, and I need help from fellow solvers in parsing 8, where I hope that I have at least found the correct answer. Perhaps I am barking up the wrong tree here, but I cannot think of any alternative solution. Many thanks – blog now updated

My favourite clues today were 2, for making me laugh out loud when I twigged how “butter” was to be parsed; 19, for smoothness of surface; and 30, for humour and, alas, topicality.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

Across  
   
01 RAGE Frenzy in shooting gallery when Nationalist released

RA<n>GE (=shooting gallery; “when Nationalist (=N) released” means letter “n” is dropped)
   
03 MAASTRICHT Asthmatic Republican vandalised Dutch city

*(ASTHMATIC + R (=Republican); “vandalised” is anagram indicator
   
10 VAT Barrel is enormous, not small

VA<s>T (=enormous; “not small (=S, of sizes)” means letter “s” is dropped)
   
11 NURSE Eagle’s running back eats treat

Reversed (“back”) and hidden (“eats”) in “eaglE’S RUNning”
   
12 GONER Individual with no hope shot Norse queen

GO (=shot, stab, attempt) + N (=Norse) + ER (=queen, i.e. Elizabeth Regina)
   
13 LATHE French article and English translation for metalworker

LA (=French articles, i.e. a French word for the) + THE (=English translation, of the); a lathe is a machine for turning and shaping e.g. metal, hence “metalworker”
   
14 POSITION Job? No, it is work to be rebuffed

NO IT IS + OP (=work, i.e. opus); “to be rebuffed” indicates reversal
   
16 TACTICS Plans to do something to stop twitches

ACT (=to do something) in TICS (=twitches)
   
18 ASH-HEAP Refuse pile of money, economical when Conservatives ditched

<c>ASH (=money) + <c>HEAP (=economical); “when Conservatives (=Cs) ditched” means 2 x letter “c” are dropped
   
20 ON TERMS Corrupt monster having friendly relations

*(MONSTER); “corrupt” is anagram indicator; to be on (good) terms with is to have friendly relations
   
22 BETWEEN In joint possession of punt, we went naked

BET (=punt) + WE + <w>EN<t> (“naked” means external letters are dropped)
   
23 ENCROACH Redneck regularly gets swimmer to overstep the mark

<r>E<d>N<e>C<k> (“regularly” means alternate letters only are used) + ROACH (= “swimmer”, i.e. fish)
   
25 AD HOC Reportedly put wine in for a particular purpose

Homophone (“reportedly”) of “add (=put in) hock (=wine)”
   
28 ALERT Warning! Beer at room temperature, primarily

ALE (=beer) + R<oom> T<emperature> (“primarily” means first letters only)
   
29 REVUE Critical examination in audition for theatrical performance

Homophone (“in audition”) of “review (=critical examination)”
   
30 ELM Half of Elon Musk’s head is wood

EL<on> (“half of” mean two of four letters only are used) + M<usk> (“head” means first letter only)
   
31 NATIONWIDE I waited on Northern criminal throughout the land

*(I WAITED ON N (=Northern)); “criminal” is anagram indicator
   
32 PAIR Couple one over par? Just the opposite

I (=one) in PAR
   
Down  
   
01 REVOLUTION I love to run around in circle

*(I LOVE TO RUN); “around” is anagram indicator
   
02 GOT AT Criticised, as bit of toast found in butter

T<oast> (“bit of” means first letter only) in GOAT (= “butter”, i.e. an animal that butts)
   
04 ATROPOS Fate of American soldiers with pressure rising

A (=American) + TROPOS (TROOPS=soldiers; “with pressure (=P) rising” means letter “p” moves to an earlier position in the word; Atropos is one of the three Fates in Greek mythology
   
05 SHEESHA That woman has managed to inhale drug in hookah

E (=drug, i.e. Ecstasy) in [SHE (=that woman) + *(HAS)]; “managed” is anagram indicator
   
06 RIGHT Clever to start late, correct?

<b>RIGHT (=clever); “to start late” means that the first letter is disregarded
   
07 CANTONESE French footballer, mostly with no difficulty, picked up foreign language

CANTON<a> (=French footballer, i.e. Éric Cantona; “mostly” means last letter is dropped) + homophone (“picked up”, heard) of “ease (=no difficulty)”
   
08 TORI Spelling // of ‘doughnuts’?

Double definition: Tori Spelling (1973-) is an American actress and media personality AND a (ring) torus, plural tori, is the shape of a (ring) doughnut
   
09 INFERIOR Conclude I love rector’s pants to a greater degree

INFER (=conclude) + I + O (=love, i.e. zero score in tennis) + R (=rector); the “pants” of the definition means of poor quality, rubbish
   
15 UP-AND-COMER Promising individual shot unarmed cop

*(UNARMED COP); “shot” is anagram indicator; noun formed from adjective up-and-coming
   
17 COTANGENT Function of powerful whip cracking

TAN (=whip, flog) in COGENT (=powerful, convincing, of an argument); a cotangent is a function in trigonometry
   
19 HOT WATER Eat and throw up, creating trouble

*(EAT + THROW); “up” is anagram indicator; to be in hot water is to be in trouble
   
21 SPARROW Bird box with chain

SPAR (=(to) box, fight) + ROW (=chain, series, line)
   
22 BEHAVED Roger, in bed, didn’t cause problems

HAVE (=(to) roger, screw) in BED
   
24 RETRO Old-fashioned baggage attendant quietly declined to go back

<p>ORTER (=baggage attendant; “quietly (=p, for piano) declined” means letter “p” is dropped); “to go back” indicates reversal
   
26 HYENA Carnivore in hotel with desire to get ham, essentially

H (=hotel) + YEN (=desire, urge) + <h>A<m> (“essentially” means middle letter only is used)
   
27 MAIN Soldier captures island in ocean

I (=island) in MAN (=soldier)
   

 

21 comments on “Independent 11,946 / Eccles”

  1. Most enjoyable. COTANGENT took some unravelling, and ATROPOS was only vaguely known to me, but neatly clued.

    TORI is correct according to the website, although I remain confused by ‘spelling’! I did wonder if TORI was some branch of magic/voodoo, but seemingly not.

    Thanks both.

  4. Aha! Thanks, Andrew – I was scratching my head over that one but I remember her now. As I recall, she got her acting break in Beverly Hills 90210, of which her father Aaron was the producer. Entirely a coincidence, I’m sure.

    Otherwise found this quite breezy for an Eccles. And very enjoyable, as always!

  5. I had even more ticks than usual for an Eccles puzzle today, which is very impressive!

    8d puzzled me for a while until I eventually found the very obscure actress. Also I’m not sure about “of”. Is it a link between two definitions, or is the second definition “of doughnuts”?

    My top picks were LATHE, TACTICS, BETWEEN, AD HOC, ELM, PAIR, GOT AT, INFERIOR, SPARROW and RETRO.

    Many thanks to Eccles and to RR,

  6. A DNF for me as I couldn’t see 8D, mightily obscure imho, but otherwise very much enjoyed so thanks Eccles and RatkojaRiku.

  7. LOi: 8d TORI Spelling of Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990–2000 … ) – Not fans of daddy Aaron’s series, then?

  8. Great fun for me. A DNF by one word (I put TYRE instead of TORI for the simple reason it is the same shape as a doughnut and I couldn’t think of anything else).

    Needed the blog to understand COTANGENT but my maths brain got it from the definition. Sadly it couldn’t pull out the above answer.

    Liked: ASH-HEAP and UP-AND-COMER. The anagrams were all pretty neat in this one.

    Thanks Eccles and blogger

  9. 11a should read “EaglES’ RUNning back” (Philadelphia’s Saquon Barkley, apparently) – a neat ‘lift and separate’ for US solvers.

  10. My first guess for 8d was TORI (hey, I was a mathematician) but left it until I had both crossers. I guessed Tori Spelling must be a person, so googled her (sounds terribly rude).
    I love anagrams that lead to such a nice surface as in 1d. Ok, a better surface would have ‘circles’ but that’s just being persnickety.
    Who would have guessed Maastricht was an anagram of ‘asthmatic’ with an ‘r’ left over? Eccles, presumably.

  11. I always enjoy an Eccles, but just a few too many frowns about this one.
    11(ac), my clue has [Eagles’ ], RatkojaRiku has Eagle’s, either way, it’s a clumsy surface just get NURSE in reverse.

    12(ac) ditto, Norse queen is a bit lame, to get NER

    20(ac) ON TERMS means “level”; “friendly relations” is ON GOOD TERMS.
    25(ac) AD HOC……”as necessary or expedient” is a key part of the idiom, so ” for a particular purpose as required”.

    9(down) Again, the surface reading is dismal, but “to a greater degree” is, firstly, superfluous, and secondly, awry.
    It implies “MORE INFERIOR”.
    I suppose “pants, to a certain degree” works, but…..ugh.

    22(down), OK, it’s a puzzle for adults, but Roger = “TO HAVE”, is a bit ugly.

    Oddly enough, I knew TORI (the actress), but the “of” separator throws the clue out unfairly in meaning.

    So, not my favourite Eccles, but I’m keeping the faith.

    Ta, Ecc + Ratkoja

  12. [@7…Can’t remember the character’s name, but the actor was Ian Ziering, and he drove a car with the number plate i8A4RE (I ate a Ferrari).]

  13. Defeated by 8d- nho the actor and never been a mathematician, liked LATHE, GOT AT, RETRO. Smiles all round. Thanks to setter and blogger

  14. Freely admit that I had to use my ‘phone-a-friend’ to get 8d but managed fairly well elsewhere despite a couple of hiccoughs. Not keen on what I now see is the wordplay for 22d – I solved it from the checkers and enumeration. Ah well, I suppose this is an Indie puzzle………
    Top three here were TACTICS, BETWEEN & GOT AT.

    Thanks to Eccles for another enjoyable puzzle and to RR for the review.

  15. Thanks both. After a relatively unhindered solve, I guess congratulations are due for my wholesale defeat on TORI as I knew neither element, and needed about 35 guesses to arrive at that ‘really?’ moment.

  16. Thanks Eccles for an excellent crossword. I nho MAASTRICHT but I had no problem with TORI, one of my favourite clues. Others I ticked were NURSE, GONER, ALERT, REVOLUTION (COTD), GOT AT, COTANGENT (finally), and RETRO. Thanks RR for the blog.

  17. ENBoll& @11: the surface for NURSE is nice, actually–as FrankieG pointed out, you’re meant to picture Saquon Barkley (the star RB for the Eagles) having a snack. Good to see an American sport figure in this for once.

    Tony @16: the MAASTRICHT Treaty created the EU, which is most people’s reference for that one. But I didn’t know the French football player. Fortunately, that was the only language that fit.

  18. [To amplify: a running back (RB) is a player who lines up in the backfield and whose primary assignment is to run with the football (on running plays, that is–on passing plays he’ll either run decoy routes or just help block, if he’s even on the field at all).]

  19. Fun with a few obscurities (The actress seemed unusually obscure).
    And I’m sure they are trying to help, but I have no idea what mrpenney@18 is talking about. The clue seemed straightforward but I hope I’m not being expected, in a British newspaper, to know about a US sport, especially in a week when we all want to pretend that country doesn’t exist.

  20. Ericw, the earlier commenter @11 was saying that the surface of the clue makes no sense. My point at 17 was that it does–if you read it as specifically referencing NFL football. The comment at 18 was added background detail, one of my bad habits. And I do hope you don’t spend the next four years being rude to Americans!

  21. Had to come here to understand TORI, and NHO a couple. But otherwise an enjoyable outing from Eccles, as ever.

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