Eccles provides the challenge today in his usual Wednesday slot, serving up a crossword with many well-known words as entries, but as usual, also with couple of entries that are not heard in conversation very often.
My favourite clue today was for LEGION with its double use of LEG and ON to denote the same side of a cricket pitch.
Continuing the cricketing theme, the clue for BOWLER was clever given that Muttiah Muralitharin’s bowling action has often been subjected to scrutiny.
I wasn’t too sure about ‘hiding’ as a definition for ROUT at 20 down, but Bradford’s lists it as suitable synonym.
I enjoyed what I interpreted as a slightly sarcastic surface of the clue for DIADEM.
The two entries that were new to me were CALVARY CROSS and HANDROLL, but the wordplay was clear in each case. HAN is a fairly common Chinese reference in crosswords.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 5 | Onward, keeping United just out of the medals (6)
FOURTH (medals are usually given to competitors in first, second and third positions, so FOURTH position is just out of the medals) FORTH (onward) containing (keeping) U (United) FO (U) RTH |
| 7 | Half of best silver ultimately lost around grandma’s flat (8)
STAGNANT (of water, still, standing, without current; flat) (ST [second two of the four {half} letters in beST]) + (AG [chemical symbol for silver] + T [final letter of {ultimately} losT]) containing (around) NAN (grandma) ST AG (NAN) T |
| 9 | Shape up with sore back in Pakistani city (8)
PESHAWAR (city in Pakistan) Anagram of (up) SHAPE + RAW (sore) reversed (back) PESHA* WAR< |
| 10 | Genteel date isn’t ending in intimacy (6)
DAINTY (genteel) D (date) + AIN’T (informal contraction of is not [isn’t]) + Y (last letter of [ending in] intimacY) D (AINT) Y |
| 11 | Soldiers on horseback annoyed when liberal advanced Christian symbol (7,5)
CALVARY CROSS (in heraldry, a Latin cross mounted on three steps. Calvary is said to be the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, so the CALVARY CROSS has Christian symbolism) CAVALRY (soldiers on horseback) with the letter L (Liberal) advanced in the word to form CALVARY) + CROSS (annoyed) CALVARY CROSS |
| 13 | Is going to old women to get wood (6)
WILLOW (a type of wood) WILL (is going to) + O + W (women) WILL O W |
| 15 | Host on one leg (6)
LEGION (a very great number; a host) LEG (on side in cricket) + I (Roman numeral for one) + ON (leg side in cricket) LEG I ON |
| 18 | Actor toeing the line to stop moral posturing (6,6)
MARLON BRANDO (MARLON BRANDO [1924 – 2004], American actor) (ON BRAND [conforming to the established values of an organisation; toeing the line] contained in (to stop) an anagram of (posturing) MORAL MARL (ON BRAND) O* |
| 21 | Muralitharan, for example, elbow bent, essentially mesmerising (6)
BOWLER (reference Muttiah Muraltitharan [born 1972], Sri Lankan spin bowler who currently holds the record for the most wickets taken in international cricket and sometimes seemed to mesmerise the opposition batters) Anagram of (bent) ELBOW + R (middle letter of [essentially] mesmeRising) BOWLE* R |
| 22 | Perhaps fear and loathing of computer stools? (8)
EMOTIONS (fear and loathing are each examples of EMOTIONS) E (electronic; computer) – MOTIONS (faeces; stools) E MOTIONS |
| 23 | Novel battery contains single metal oxide (8)
YTTERBIA (a metallic oxide [ytterbium oxide]) Anagram of (novel) BATTERY containing (contains) I (Roman numeral for one; single) YTTERB (I) A* |
| 24 | Crowning glory of American health insurance programme heartlessly rejected (6)
DIADEM (a crowning glory) MEDicAID (American health insurance programme providing assistance with medical expenses for people with low incomes) excluding the middle letters (heartlessly) IC and then all reversed (rejected) DIADEM< |
| Down | |
| 1 | Closest competitor losing heart about records (8)
ARCHIVAL (relating to [about] records) ARCHrIVAL (chief or closest competitor) excluding the central letter (losing heart) R ARCHIVAL |
| 2 | Exhibitionist in waterfall? (6)
SHOWER (one who shows or exhibits; exhibitionist) SHOWER (a fall of water; waterfall) double definition (both fairly cryptic) SHOWER |
| 3 | Chinese entertaining food from Japan (8)
HANDROLL (Japanese dish consisting of a large cone of dried seaweed filled with cold rice and other ingredients, eaten with the fingers rather than chopsticks – definition in Collins) HAN (a member of the native Chinese people) + DROLL (entertaining) HAN D ROLL |
| 4 | Becomes a zombie? That’s pants (6)
UNDIES ([under]pants) UN-DIES (comes back from the dead as a zombie [corpse reanimated by sorcery]) UNDIES |
| 6 | Time to be introduced to one measuring spirit of musical drama (8)
OPERATIC (descriptive of musical drama) ERA (period of time) contained in (to be introduced to) OPTIC (a brand name for a device attached to an inverted bottle for measuring alcoholic liquid dispensed) OP (ERA) TIC |
| 7 | Naked African runner tense and harsh (6)
STRICT (harsh) oSTRICh (fast running bird native to Africa) excluding the outer letters (naked) O and H) + T (tense) STRIC T |
| 8 | Meet once about revealing communication (4)
NOTE (communication) NOTE (reversed [about] hidden word in [revealing] meET ONce) NOTE< |
| 12 | Contract ends once broken (8)
CONDENSE (contract) Anagram of (broken) ENDS ONCE CONDENSE* |
| 14 | A gown to wear at hospital may be kept here (8)
WARDROBE (a piece of furniture where garments, such as a gown to wear at a hospital, may be kept) WARD (room at a hospital) + ROBE (a gown, for example) WARD ROBE |
| 16 | Importance of Italian desserts salesman finally yielding to Victor (8)
GRAVITAS (importance) GRANITAS (Italian desserts made of grainy-textured flavoured water ice) with N (last letter of [finally] salesmaN) being replaced by [yielding to] V (Victor is the international radio communication code for the letter V) GRAVITAS |
| 17 | Italian city is more up-to-date, some might say (6)
MODENA (city in Italy) MODENA (sounds like [some might say] MODERNER [more up to date]) MODENA |
| 18 | Fungal growth is not serious, we recalled (6)
MILDEW (fungal growth) MILD (not serious) + WE reversed (recalled) MILD EW< |
| 19 | Very keen to have kids, switches sides (6)
BLOODY (a word sometimes used as an intensifier [very], sometimes expressing anger, but often almost meaningless according to Chambers dictionary) BROODY (of a woman, wanting to have babies [kids]) with the R (right side) changed to L [left side] – changing sides) BLOODY |
| 20 | In hiding, run away from home (4)
ROUT (heavy defeat; thrashing; hiding – Bradfords Crossword Solver’s Dictionary gives ROUT as a synonym for hiding) R (run) + OUT (away from home) R OUT |
I found this rather more tricky than yer average Eccles, with YTTERBIA giving me the most grief. Is it an “oxide”?
Cricket dotted about, so I wondered if ” HAND ROLL”, is a bowling technique in cricket?
There’s ASH, WILLOW, and YEW (reversed) in the grid, but just happenstance I’d guess.
No quibbles, some great surfaces and devices, and an interesting selection of solutions……..very diverse.
Grand stuff, Eccles & Duncan
I found most of this very enjoyable puzzle relatively straightforward but there were some stings in the tail and several new words for me.
I couldn’t parse MARLON BRANDO as I’ve never heard of the phrase ON BRAND. It sounds suspiciously American to me, but not to Collins! I also entered BOLT as the wrong answer for 20d on the assumption that the “in hiding” part of the wordplay was something to do with “bolt hole”. ROUT in the sense of “(a good) hiding” never occurred to me.
LEGION was ingenious.
Many thanks to Eccles and to Duncan.
Like RD, I entered BOLT into 20d and I also came unstuck with BLOODY, just settled for BROODY with a question mark alongside it. Elsewhere, plenty of the usual fun from our clever setter with LEGION, DIADEM & WARDROBE taking my top spots.
Many thanks to Eccles and to Duncan for the review.
Thanks both. I arrived at ROUT whilst wondering if ‘r’ for run in the singular works as I can only recall the plural, once again in the cricket sense. LOI was EMOTIONS wherein motion for stool feels a little loose (pun intended) as I regard one as the action, the other the consequence of the action. My Italian colleague tells me the homophone for MODENA is taking the Pisa, but the clue did emphasise ‘some’ might say.
Put me down for BOLT also.. if it is ROUT, the IN is irrelevant except to misled, which feels unfair as it fits the crossers, and defies the “definition first or last rule”, but there again I slammed ARCHIVES in leading to RIPSAW rather than an actual wood.. I was feeling feverish, so will claim the fifth.. quite liked the rest
Thanks Eccles n duncansheill
Nho handroll, but fair enough with the clueing. Had to check ytterbia, but won’t have to again. Liked 18a just for the ON BRAND. Thanks to setter and blogger
Lovely puzzle, with some ingenuity in the wordplay. Am grateful to the blog for the parsing of OPERATIC and for correcting my mistake when I thought the wordplay for LEGION was in the wrong order.
MODENA, GRAVITAS, BLOODY and WARDROBE all raised smiles.
I didn’t get ROUT at all, but does it work for hiding in a sporting sense.
If a game is very one sided the losing side can get an absolute hiding
or it can be a total rout.