Eccles is occupying the mid-week slot, which is quite normal for him.
I found this to be harder than the average Eccles puzzle to blog, as the wordplay of a number of clues was rather intricate and took some teasing out. In some cases, the answer to a (longer) clue was easily guessed from the letter count and crossing letters, such as at 2 and 26, but the parsing took an awful lot of time.
My favourite clues today were 14D, for its whimsical definition part; (the lengthy) 16 and 25, both for smoothness of surface; and 28, for the clever use of “English Channel” in the wordplay.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | HUGH GRANT | Enormous donation hard for English actor
HUGH (HUGE (=enormous); “hard (=H, as in HB pencils) for English (=E)” means letter “e” is replaced by “h”)) + GRANT (=donation); the reference is to British actor Hugh Grant (1960-) |
| 06 | PILAF | Become very excited about eating a rice dish
A in PILF (FLIP=become very excited; “about” indicates reversal) |
| 09 | PETAL | Towards the end, priest turned over a new leaf?
LATE (=towards the end, as in late in life) + P (=priest); “turned over” indicates reversal) |
| 10 | CERTAINTY | Rebuild tiny crate? Sure thing
*(TINY CRATE); “rebuild” is anagram indicator |
| 11 | TASMANIA | Tesla worker assuming continent is part of Australia
T (=tesla, i.e. SI unit) + [MAN (=worker, hand) in ASIA (=continent)] |
| 12 | RACEME | Part of plant found in repellent crème caramel
Hidden (“found in”) and reversed (“repellent”) in “crEME CARamel”; according to Chambers, a raceme is an inflorescence in which stalked flowers are borne in acropetal succession on a main stalk or lateral branches – now we know! |
| 14 | BEEF | Bishop rejected Bill’s complaint
B (=bishop, in chess) + EEF (FEE=bill, charge; “rejected” indicates reversal) |
| 15 | HEIDELBERG | City girl in the mountains briefly exhausted racing across river
ELBE (=river, in Germany) in [HEID<i> (=girl in the mountains, in the novel by Johanna Spyri; “briefly” means last letter is dropped) + R<acin>G (“exhausted”, as in “emptied”, seems to imply dropping of all but first and last letters) |
| 18 | REPEATEDLY | Answer about angry husband ignored again and again
<h>EATED (=angry, of discussion; “husband (=H) ignored” means letter “h” is dropped) in REPLY (=answer) |
| 19 | BOAT | Nasty smell near vessel
B.O. (=nasty smell, i.e. body odour) + AT (=near, by) |
| 21 | TIP-OFF | Post Office blocking argument warning of crime?
PO (=Post Office) in TIFF (=argument, spat) |
| 23 | HEAT PUMP | Spooner’s solid fuel projection is possible energy saver
Spoonerism of “peat (=solid fuel) + hump (=projection, protuberance)” |
| 26 | BOSSA NOVA | In Scotland, greet revolutionary about to abandon notorious lover, and dance
BOS (SOB=in Scotland, greet, i.e. weep, cry; “revolutionary” indicates reversal) + <ca>SANOVA (=notorious lover, i.e. Giacomo Casanova (1725-98); “about (=CA, for circa) to abandon” means letters “ca” are dropped) |
| 27 | ABIDE | Tolerate Baron punching assistant
B (=Baron) in AIDE (=assistant) |
| 28 | EVADE | English Channel ebbs – get out of the way
E (=English) + DAVE (=channel, on UK TV); “ebbs”, i.e. flows back, indicates reversal |
| 29 | PATTERNED | Decorated salesman’s spiel reflected study
PATTER (=salesman’s spiel) + NED (DEN=study; “reflected” indicates reversal) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | HOP IT | Leave house quietly to get sex
HO (=house) + P (=quietly, i.e. piano, in music) + IT (sex, as in to do it) |
| 02 | GO TO SLEEP | Persuaded old lecturer to cut notice period, to begin with, providing pass out
GOT (=persuaded, as in I got him to help) + O (=old, as in OT) + {L (=lecturer) in [SEE (=notice, spot) + P<eriod> (“to begin with” means first letter only is used)]} |
| 03 | GALWAY | Flautist forever ignoring son after golf
G (=golf, in NATO alphabet) + ALWAY<s> (=forever; “ignoring son (=S)” means letter “s” is dropped); the reference is to N Irish flautist James Galway (1939-) |
| 04 | ARCHIMEDES | Great Greek agreed to be inspired by God
CHIMED (=agreed, tallied) in ARES (=God, i.e. Greek god of war); the reference is to the 3rd century B.C. Greek mathematician and physicist |
| 05 | TORY | Right-wing Republican entertained by dwarf
R (=Republican) in TOY (=dwarf, miniature) |
| 06 | PLACABLE | Mountain-climbing lead is willing to forgive
PLA (ALP=mountain; “climbing” indicates vertical reversal) + CABLE (=lead, flex, for device) |
| 07 | LANCE | Bachelor to leave remainder for Pierce
<ba>LANCE (=remainder, of bill; “bachelor (=BA, i.e. Bachelor of Arts) to leave” means letters “ba” are dropped): to lance e.g. a boil is to pierce it |
| 08 | FLYWEIGHT | Lefty Whig spreads division
*(LEFTY WHIG); “spreads” is anagram indicator; flyweight is a division in competitive boxing |
| 13 | ADULTERANT | Grown-up arranged time to seize drug contaminant
E (=drug, i.e. Ecstasy) in [ADULT (=grown-up) + RAN (=arranged, organised) + T (=time)] |
| 14 | BIRD TABLE | Dart around to stop authority making rest area for frequent flyers?
*(DART) in BIBLE (=authority, as in the crossword setter’s bible); “around” is anagram indicator |
| 16 | EVOLUTION | Development of rising affection, leading to marriage? Time for first bairn at last
EVOL (LOVE=affection; “rising” indicates vertical reversal) + UTION (UNION=marriage; “time (=T) for first bairn at last (=last letter)” means first letter “n” is replaced by “t”) |
| 17 | HALF-PACE | Landing zone’s small step (each flap moves)
*(EACH FLAP); “moves” is anagram indicator; the “landing” of the definition refers to a landing on a staircase, not the landing of a plane! |
| 20 | ETHANE | Gas, in French and Chinese and English
ET (=in French and, i.e. the French word for and) + HAN (=Chinese, i.e. native people) + E (=English) |
| 22 | PASTA | Staple food in bygone America
PAST (=bygone) + A (=America) |
| 24 | PLEAD | Sample advertisement showing petition
Hidden (“showing”) in “samPLE ADvertisement” |
| 25 | HOOP | Ring Christopher Robin’s friend up
POOH (=Christopher Robin’s friend, i.e. Winnie the Pooh); “up” indicates vertical reversal |
It’s Ecclesday in crosswordland, which is always good news! I agree with RR that this was Eccles at his trickiest but it was well worth the effort of unravelling everything with 2d being my last one to parse even though I guessed the answer fairly early on in proceedings.
It was good to be reminded of seeing James Galway at the Royal Festival Hall in the 1970s.
Many thanks to Eccles and to RR.
Thanks both. There was certainly plenty going on in HEIDELBERG, with girls, mountains, cities and rivers a-plenty to choose from. My main sentiment is relief that I knew GALWAY (other flautists no doubt are available but not in my brain) and ARCHIMEDES, as the Greeks so often get the better of me.
Thanks RatkojaRiku, I thought one or two of the clues were overwrought – eg HEIDELBERG and EVOLUTION. But they were outweighed by the many less convoluted ones. I’m fairly new to Indie puzzles, having become disenchanted with the Graun’s offerings of late, but Eccles’s name always seems to guarantee an enjoyable challenge.
A minor comment on 28a. The Dave channel was renamed U&Dave some time ago now (but possibly after Eccles wrote this).
Exceptional Eccles, as per.
But…can we leave out Scottish dialect, please.
[BOS] SANOVA 26(ac) (what? why? )
I could set a puzzle with Birkenhead slang, but it wouldn’t be fair or fun.
James GALWAY is a push, too.
( and I’m Irish/ Scottish via grandparents).
Otherwise, spot-on. Perfectly-clued; but I broke a leg, on HALF-PACE, which I took to be the stuttering half-step that gymnasts take when in the landing-zone, off the beam, vault, etc.
I’ve never had a house posh enough, for the stairs to go back on themselves, at halfway!
Not the best of Eccles, this puzzle, but still exceptional.
Thumbs-up, Ecc & Rik
Wrong-footed myself for a while on 15a, thinking of “the Maid” as she of the mountains, and nothing to suggest it wasn’t a UK city, but remembered Heidi eventually. Thanks to Eccles for the usual fun, and it was far too hot to persevere with parsing a couple of the more convoluted clues, so big thanks to Ratkojariku for sticking at it.
I was quite relieved to see that others also found this to be at the trickier end of our setter’s spectrum, it certainly took me a fair time to unravel – the parsing of 2d in particular. I’m still not very sure that ‘persuaded’ and ‘got’ are synonymous but no doubt our setter checked before using it. Top clues for me were those for HEIDELBERG, BIRD TABLE & EVOLUTION.
Many thanks to Eccles and to RR for the review.
I didn’t find this tricky to solve but, yes, there were several I couldn’t parse.
I thoroughly enjoyed this, and like so often I find myself with the minority opinion, in that I usually find Eccles tricky but today went pretty easily. I suspect because many were spotted from the def, enumeration and checkers, leaving the parsing happening subsequently.
I rather enjoy the occasional convoluted parsing, so wasn’t at all put off by the few longer ones here. My LOI was a more mundane one: the nho HEAT PUMP. I’d also not heard of HALF-STEP and, like E.N.Boll&@5, conjured up my own interpretation for it. Now I know…
Thanks both!
AP @9. I wish Heat Pump was a NHO for me. Have you heard of Ed Milliband?
RD@10 😁
Having read very briefly about heat pumps now, they sound excellent, especially if combined with directly-accessible renewables such as solar. I assume Ed’s always banging on about them?