Independent 11,982 by Eccles

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Eccles in his usual Wednesday slot.

Not one of his easiest today: there are a couple of unfamiliar words, and some definitions that took a bit of thought and/or checking. Lots of fun along the way, though: I liked the misdirection of Partick Thistle and Sweet Caroline, the lying hat, and especially “dead centre”. Thanks Eccles as always.

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

ACROSS
1 TROUT
Fish and Turkey not popular (5)
TR (ISO 3166 country code for Turkey, now officially the Republic of Türkiye) + OUT (not popular = no longer fashionable).
4 PLAY A PART
Have role in what naughty siblings might be forced to do? (4,1,4)
Children who won’t agree to “play nicely” with each other might be made to PLAY APART (separately).
9 ARTICHOKE
Man receiving fine follows core characters from Partick Thistle (9)
HE (that man) containing (receiving) OK (fine, as an adjective = acceptable), after the inner letters from [p]ARTIC[k]. Those who don’t follow Scottish football might like to know that Partick Thistle is the name of a Glasgow football club.

Globe artichoke: a vegetable, botanically a variety of thistle.
10 ELEGY
European, on play’s conclusion, creates lament (5)
E (abbreviation for European) + LEG (on, in cricket terminology = the side of the wicket at which the batter stands) + last letter (conclusion) of [pla]Y.

A serious and thoughtful poem, usually (but not always) a lament for the dead.
11 PORK-PIE HAT
It might lie on one’s head? (4-3,3)
Cryptic definition. a “pork-pie hat” (one with a flat crown and usually a fairly narrow brim) is worn on the head, and “pork pie” is Cockney rhyming slang for a lie.
12 STYE
Large shed in fashion; it’s an eyesore? (4)
STY[l]E (fashion) with the L dropped (shed, as a verb).

A painful swelling on the eyelid caused by a bacterial infection.
14 NEUSTON
Organisms floating on water found in north London station (7)
N (abbreviation for north) + EUSTON (London railway station).

I’d never have guessed the word from the definition alone (or vice versa), but Wikipedia assures me it’s correct (derived from a Greek word for swimming).
16 EYE-DROP
Very tender, poop regularly, resulting in tear once? (3-4)
Alternate letters (regularly) of [v]E[r]Y [t]E[n]D[e]R [p]O[o]P.

Shakespearean word (“once” = in the past but probably not now) for a tear, as in a drop falling from the eye. These days it normally means liquid medicine applied to the eye.
18 SHALLOT
Photograph contains every vegetable (7)
SHOT (a photograph) containing ALL (every).

A small variety of onion.
20 TIRASSE
Flag-wearing idiot displaying device on organ (7)
ASS (idiot), contained in (wearing) TIRE (flag, as a verb = become weary).

A device for linking two pedals in a pipe organ so that they move together. A guess-and-check for me.
21 BETA
Greek character to help with Austria retreating completely (4)
ABET (to help, especially to help someone do something that they shouldn’t, as in the legal term “aiding and abetting”), with the A (vehical registration code for Austria) moved to the back (retreating completely).
22 GIANT PANDA
Soldiers criticise American lawyer, a playful individual (5,5)
GI (American soldier) + ANT (possibly a soldier ant) = two “soldiers”; then PAN (as a verb = criticise harshly) + DA (abbreviation for District Attorney = American lawyer).

I’m not sure about the definition. It’s a big bear with teeth, spends most of its time eating, and (as an adult at least) is generally solitary. But I suppose baby ones are considered playful.
25 SYRAH
Son Hector, losing heart, turns red (5)
S (abbreviation for son), then HA[r]RY (hector, as a verb = harass) without the middle letter (heart), reversed (. . . turns).

A French grape used in wine-making, or the red (short for red wine) made from it.
26 KNOWLEDGE
Ken King, new member of parliament, meets creep (9)
K (abbreviation for king) + N (abbreviation for new) + OWL (member of parliament; an old crossword joke, from the collective noun “a parliament of owls”) + EDGE (as a verb = creep = move slowly and carefully).

As in “beyond my ken” = an old word for knowledge or understanding, particularly in Scottish and Northern English dialects.
27 SIDE-WHEEL
Like a paddle steamer is, on reflection: with drops of water by hind part (4-5)
IS reversed (on reflection) + DEW (drops of water) + HEEL (hind part).

Adjective describing a paddle steamboat driven by a pair of wheels, one on each side (rather than by a single wheel at the stern).
28 SHEET
These pants can be made into coat (5)
Anagram (pants = slang for terrible) of THESE.

An awkward definition, but I suppose you could talk about a sheet of ice on a road surface in winter = a coat of ice.
DOWN
1 TRAPPINGS
Well-built for cycling in symbolic adornments (9)
STRAPPING (well-built = tall and muscular) with the first letter “cycling” round to the end.
2 OTTER
Swimmer in earthenware factory stripped (5)
[p]OTTER[y] (a factory or workshop producing earthenware) with the outer letters stripped off.

A mammal that swims.
3 TO CAP IT ALL
On top of everything, money invested in area of land returned (2,3,2,3)
CAPITAL (money invested), in LOT (an area of land) reversed (returned).
4 PROTEIN
Perhaps insulin for juvenile delivered (7)
PRO (for = in favour of), then a homophone (delivered = spoken out loud) of TEEN (short for teenager = juvenile).
5 AVERAGE
To state the duration of life could be mean (7)
AVER (to state) + AGE (the duration of life).

The average of a set of values could be (and usually is) the arithmetic mean, but there are other ways to define it (including the median and the mode).
6 ABED
President Biden essentially retired (4)
ABE (short for Abraham, and especially for former US President Abraham Lincoln) + middle letter (essentially) of [bi]D[en].

Retired = having gone to bed.
7 APERTURES
Dicky put eraser in holes (9)
Anagram (dicky, as in “a dicky heart” = faulty) of PUT ERASER.
8 THYME
Leaves while in audition (5)
Homophone (in audition) of TIME (a short while = a short time).

Leaves of an aromatic plant used as a herb.
13 NECROPOLIS
Dead centre of fresh lesion around cut (10)
Anagram (fresh = renewed) of LESION, around CROP (cut).

A large formal burial site with monuments = a centre for the dead.
15 UNALTERED
Led nature rambles without modification (9)
Anagram (. . . rambles = wanders around) of LED NATURE.
17 PREVALENT
Stop entertaining naked walk becoming accepted (9)
PREVENT (stop), containing (entertaining) [w]AL[k] without the outer letters (naked).

Accepted (for example “the accepted explanation”) = prevalent = widely supported.
19 TRICKLE
Delight about river becoming stream (7)
TICKLE (amuse = delight) around R (abbreviation for river).

“Stream” to me suggests more and faster-flowing water than “trickle”, but I suppose they’re both small in comparison to a river.
20 TINFOIL
Wrapper from can of unopened fuel (7)
TIN (can = metal container) + [o]F without the opening letter + OIL (fuel).

Thin metal foil for wrapping food; formerly tin, now generally aluminium, but still often called tinfoil.
21 BASIS
Analysis about revolutionary hosting platform (5)
Hidden answer (. . . hosting), reversed (revolutionary), in [analy]SIS AB[out].
23 NUDGE
Reminder: head of night shift is starting late (5)
First letter (head) of N[ight], then [b]UDGE (shift, as a verb = move) without the first letter (starting late).
24 CHEW
Sweet Caroline‘s introduction cut (4)
First letter (introduction) of C[aroline], then HEW (to cut, especially to cut wood with an axe).

A piece of confectionery that doesn’t dissolve easily in the mouth and can be chewed for a long time.

13 comments on “Independent 11,982 by Eccles”

  1. Quirister’s opening comments sum this up perfectly.

    I found the top half nicely challenging but the bottom half was a real tussle and I don’t understand the definition for 22a.. It was all great fun, of course.

    Not easy to decide but I think PORK-PIE HAT was my favourite.

    Many thanks to Eccles and to Quirister.

  2. Certainly not a Goon Show, this puzzle….took me quite a lot of time and umming to finish, but I thoroughly enjoyed all of it.
    “soldiers”= GI/ANT [PANDA] (22ac) is a crafty device ( though like Ms.Q, I’m not sure I’d choose to play with one.)
    ELEGY nearly foxed me, where ON=LEG, but it’s not an obscure play.
    WHYLIST* newcomers……only two, NEUSTON & TIRASSE, but very fairly clued, so do’able.
    * “what have you learned in school, today?” , (self-parody, not a complaint).
    Definitely a puzzle up to the Eccles standard ( ticks for surfaces, novelty, variety of devices, etc.,etc. )

    Great stuff, From both The ECC , and Quirister

  3. Lots to enjoy here. NEUSTON is a classic jorum – never heard of it but the wordplay meant it couldn’t possibly be anything else!

  5. A double-jorum puzzle (NEUSTON, TIRASSE) and two of whatever the general knowledge equivalent is (facts you learn from wordplay or definition) in INSULIN being a protein and GIANT PANDAS being playful. Does SHEET for coat work better if they are verbs? Thanks both.

  6. I’m fairly new to the Independent so am not used to different setters and their styles – it doesn’t help that the online version doesn’t seem to tell me who the setter is (am I missing something?) – but I certainly enjoyed this.

    If you’re going to pick a word that is new to most people, it’s only fair to make the clue easy and I thought that picking two of the most common synonyms in “tirasse” did exactly that. “neuston” had to be that (though I was thrown because Euston *is* a north London station) once some crossers were in. All very elegantly done apart from the bemusement about the playful individual.

    Many thanks to Eccles and Quirister

  7. I always look out for ‘new’ words in an Eccles puzzle and breathe a sigh of relief when I’ve got them out of the way, but that also means that I sometimes think I’ve found one in what actually turns out to be a perfectly well-known answer – likes to keep us on our toes, does this setter!
    Giant panda cubs certainly act in a playful manner and are often the inspiration for a child’s toy – I definitely remember having one in the dim and distant past.
    Favoured clues here included PLAY A PART, PORK-PIE HAT & OTTER.

    Thanks to Eccles and also to Quirister for the review.

  9. Mev@8 ( and JackOFT @ 6 )
    Thanks, both, for the question and the answer.
    The lack of the setter’s “name” in the download version has annoyed me in the past – particularly when they use a self-reference in one of the wordplays.

  10. Thank you Mev@8 – not being familiar with setter names has thrown me on several clues where they have used their own name for “I” or “me” and I’ve not recognised the setter! That’s perfect.

  11. Having done Paul in the Guardian (difficult) and Io in the FT (impossible, more like) before this, this actually felt like a comparative cakewalk. It’s funny how that works. Anyway, I echo the comments about the insect and the organ doohickey–both never-heard-of, both with unambiguous wordplay, and both turning out, lo and behold, to be words after all.

  12. Opposite of Rabbit Dave @1, I had the bottom half filling nicely and many a gap in the top half. Looking back on it, I really can’t see why. TRAPPINGS took me too long, and even then I wouldn’t believe TROUT. Ho hum. Much enjoyed. Thanks to Eccles and Quirister

  13. Thanks Eccles for a most enjoyable crossword with the ideal amount of challenge for me. I failed with the nho NEUSTON (I’m not familiar with London stations) and SYRAH (I got stuck on red as a colour even though I drink every variety of red wine). My favourites were PORK-PIE HAT, GIANT PANDA (I liked ‘soldiers’ for ‘giant’), SIDE-WHEEL, SHALLOT, NECROPOLIS (great definition), and TINFOIL. I thought ‘leaves’ as a definition for THYME was a bit loose. Thanks Quirister for the blog.

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