Another week, another Eccles: we seem to be meeting a lot lately.
Typically witty fun from one of our most regular setters. I thought 28a was a little obscure, and I imagine non-UK solvers may have found a couple of unfamiliar references in 7d and 15d, but it’s all fairly clued. I liked the ingenious reversal in 3a, and the plausible surfaces of 16a, 1d and 27d. Thanks (again) to Eccles as always.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CAPO |
Bridge that moves about quietly close to Soho (4)
|
| CA (abbreviation for Latin circa = about = approximately) + P (p, in musical notation = abbreviation for Italian piano = quietly) + last letter (close) of [soh]O.
Short for Italian capotasto: a movable device that can be attached across the neck of a guitar in different positions, to change the pitch of all the strings at once. It’s not the same as the “bridge” of a guitar, which supports the strings, but it spans the gaps between the strings like a bridge. |
||
| 3 | METROPOLIS |
Grain store left overturned on outskirts of Maine’s largest city (10)
|
| SILO (grain store) + PORT (left, in nautical terminology), all reversed (overturned), after the outer letters (outskirts) of M[ain]E.
A large city, considered to be a significant economic or political centre in its region. |
||
| 10 | NUT |
Fan of Greek character tense (3)
|
| NU (the Greek letter N) + T (abbreviation for tense).
As in “a crossword nut” = someone who is very enthusiastic about something. |
||
| 11 | HABIT |
Custom dress for monk (5)
|
| Double definition. Something you do regularly; or the distinctive clothing worn by a member of a religious order. | ||
| 12 | LEMON |
Agile monkey hides fruit (5)
|
| Hidden answer (. . . hides) in [agi]LE MON[key]. | ||
| 13 | UTHER |
Old King Cole’s head removed from dock by that woman (5)
|
| [c]UT (dock, as in to dock someone’s pay) without the C which is the first letter of C[ole], then HER (that woman).
King Uther Pendragon, father of King Arthur according to legend. |
||
| 14 | ADMONISH |
Tell off a sexy man eating instant noodles, primarily (8)
|
| A DISH (slang for an attractive man), containing (eating) MO (slang abbreviation for moment = an instant) + first letter (primarily) of N[oodles].
Tell off = admonish = to reprimand someone for their actions. |
||
| 16 | METHANE |
Name the ground that is the target of fracking proposals (7)
|
| Anagram (ground = reduced to small fragments) of NAME THE.
Fracking = a process for extracting natural gas (mainly methane) from underground rock layers. |
||
| 18 | SUCCOUR |
Victim called for help (7)
|
| Homophone (called = spoken out loud) of SUCKER (slang for a victim, especially one who is easily deceived). | ||
| 20 | TIDIEST |
Extremely handsome prat passes on bungs (7)
|
| DIES (passes on, euphemistically) inserted into (. . . bungs = fills or is pushed into) TIT (prat = a stupid person).
A slightly loose definition, but “tidy” can be a general slang term for approval: perhaps as in “a tidy profit” = “a handsome profit”. |
||
| 22 | MOPHEAD |
Hairy individual crazy to entertain forlorn hope (7)
|
| MAD (crazy), containing (to entertain) an anagram (forlorn = lost) of HOPE.
Slang for someone with long untidy hair. |
||
| 23 | IMPRISON |
Naughty child is playing around front of Ranby jail (8)
|
| IMP (naughty child) + IS ON (is part of the team currently in action on a sports field = is playing), around the front letter of R[anby]. The surface refers to HM Prison Ranby in Nottinghamshire.
Jail, as a verb = imprison. |
||
| 25 | THYME |
Herb Alpert at last extremely happy to meet me (5)
|
| Last letter of [alper]T + end letters (extremes) of H[app]Y + ME. | ||
| 28 | APRON |
A mostly flat part of chair frame (5)
|
| A + PRON[e] (lying down = flat) without the last letter (mostly).
A rather obscure definition: Chambers says it’s a flat horizontal part of a chair frame to strengthen the legs. |
||
| 29 | IN TOW |
Enthusiastic about women by one’s side (2,3)
|
| INTO (enthusiastic about, as in “she’s really into crosswords”) + W (abbreviation for women).
In tow, as in “he arrived with two children in tow” = slang for accompanying someone. |
||
| 30 | AGO |
An attempt to get past (3)
|
| A GO = an attempt. | ||
| 31 | POSTER GIRL |
Ogler trips up model (6,4)
|
| Anagram (up) of OGLER TRIPS.
A woman whose picture is used in advertising campaigns. |
||
| 32 | ANAL |
Obsessive and uninspiring bishop dismissed (4)
|
| [b]ANAL (boring and predictable = uninspiring) without B (abbreviation for bishop).
Term originally from Freudian psychology (with a rather unpleasant definition), but now generally used as a disparaging term for someone who cares a lot about details. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CONSUMMATE |
Conservative friend claiming result is perfect (10)
|
| CON (abbreviation for Conservative in politics) + MATE (friend), containing SUM (result). | ||
| 2 | PITCH |
Beginning to practise long throw (5)
|
| First letter of P[ractise] + ITCH (long, as a verb = yearn).
To throw a ball, especially in baseball. |
||
| 4 | EMBRACE |
Receive award from king for cycling competition (7)
|
| MBE (abbreviation for Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire = an award from the King), with the letters “cycling” so the E moves to the start, then RACE (competition).
Receive = embrace = to welcome something or someone gladly. |
||
| 5 | RETIMES |
Again measures duration on paper (7)
|
| RE (on = on the subject of) + TIMES (a newspaper).
I’d probably write this as “re-times”, but US usage usually drops the hyphen in such words and UK usage is increasingly following it. |
||
| 6 | PYLON |
Artificial leg picked up universal criticism (5)
|
| Homophone (picked up = heard) of PILE ON (to add one’s own criticism of someone who has already been criticised by others; not necessarily “universal criticism” but from multiple people). | ||
| 7 | LIMESTONE |
Rock found in Liverpool station, on front of engine (9)
|
| LIME ST (ST = abbreviation for street; Liverpool Lime Street is the city’s main central railway station) + ON + first letter (front) of E[ngine]. | ||
| 8 | SAND |
Start of shoreline with beach (4)
|
| Starting letter of S[horeline] + AND (with). | ||
| 9 | SHORTAGE |
Want photograph with mature nurses destroyed, essentially (8)
|
| SHOT (a photograph) + AGE (mature, as a verb = get older), containing (nursing) the middle letter (essentially) of [dest]R[oyed].
As in “for want of food” = because of a shortage of it. |
||
| 15 | BRIDGE ROLL |
Function of spanner, say, that can be found in picnic basket (6,4)
|
| Homophone (say) of BRIDGE ROLE = the role (function) of a bridge (something that spans a gap = spanner).
A finger-shaped bread roll, generally soft white bread, served with a filling at picnics or buffets. |
||
| 17 | TIDEMARKS |
Dirt makes unusual lines at high water point (9)
|
| Anagram (unusual) of DIRT MAKES. | ||
| 19 | CAPE TOWN |
A cop went rogue to get port (4,4)
|
| Anagram (rogue) of A COP WENT.
Port city in South Africa. |
||
| 21 | TESTING |
Hard to leave classic heist film analysis (7)
|
| T[h]E STING (1973 classic heist film), without the H (abbreviation for hard, as in 2H pencils). | ||
| 22 | MONITOR |
Keep tabs on fool entering uncultivated expanse (7)
|
| NIT (fool = stupid person) inserted into MOOR (an expanse of uncultivated land). | ||
| 24 | RANGE |
Variety of fruit, peeled (5)
|
| [o]RANGE[s] (fruit, plural) without the outer letters (peeled). | ||
| 26 | YEARN |
Yen to take home yen (5)
|
| Y (abbreviation for yen = Japanese currency) + EARN (to take home = to receive as a wage for employment).
I’m familiar with “yen” as a noun = a longing, and “yearn” as a verb = to long for something; but Chambers tells me that each of these words can be either a noun or a verb. |
||
| 27 | CARP |
Fish and chips are rather pricey, at first (4)
|
| Initial letters (at first) of C[hips] A[re] R[ather] P[ricey].
Name for various species of freshwater fish. |
nho BRIDGE ROLL and funny to have half of the answer in the clue for 1a which may have jogged the memory. A super sort of extended def for TIDEMARKS and the assembly of LIMESTONE amused me with its Liverpool reference. UTHER and CONSUMMATE were very smooth.
Thanks Eccles and Quirister
It’s great that Eccles is appearing so often. His puzzles are always a joy to solve, and this one was no exception.
Many thanks to him and to Quirister.
Nice – spent too long trying to parse Adonis into 14A….no complaints. Thanks both
I did need to check on the moving bridge and the chair frame part and struggled with the parsing of PYLON but this was another superb puzzle from our setter. Many thanks to him and to Quirister for the review.
[LOi 6d “PILE-ON” (oed.com hasn’t got it as a noun, yet)]
As for PM @1, and perhaps others, bridge roll was a total nho, almost a wtbleep. Otherwise, nothing too scary, ta E and Q.
A DNF for me as I didn’t know/couldn’t see CAPO – frustrating! Otherwise much enjoyed as always so thanks Eccles and Quirister.
Nice to see CAPO and of course Eccles
You can rely on Eccles. Favourite was UTHER. Couldn’t parse PYLON, but fair enough. Thanks to Quirister for the blog
A Northern-friendly puzzle with Lime St and the use of tidy for good-looking which I have only heard up here. Another good one from Eccles.
As expected by the blogger, I indeed didn’t know of Lime St Station or the BRIDGE ROLL, but the fun thing about cryptics is that there are (almost) always two ways to the answer, so I got there anyway in both cases. As with Kelvassos @3, I tried too long to get an Adonis in there. I believe a dish can be either male or female, so by making it a guy, I believe Eccles was intentionally trying to get us to do that. (Or maybe while setting, he was playing with Adonis +M +H, couldn’t get there satisfactorily, and saw a way to save the clue without starting over.)
mrpenney@11, that’s a good call, I suspect, re ADONIS: the fall back wordplay is rather clunky for an Eccles clue…..”eating instant noodles, primarily”.
Actually, I felt a few clues were a bit weakish, but that’s because this setter sets the bar very high.
I enjoyed this puzzle, as usual, even though CAPO, BRIDGE ROLL, and APRON were new ones on me.
Today’s school lesson was that a PYLON is a metal “leg” propping up a plane’s wing.
Thanks, Mr. E & Quirister
ENB&@8: Actually, Chambers gives one meaning of PYLON as a medical term for an artificial leg.
Incidentally, about 50 years ago I started work for the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) and we were always told the metal structures you see supporting power lines are called towers, and not pylons.
Dormouse@13: I worked for National Grid for 10 years, and you are absolutely right – they are still referred to as towers. Since I left, I’ve reverted to calling them pylons. Don’t tell them!