Independent 12,126 by Eccles

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Eccles continues in his regular Wednesday slot.

I had a couple of niggles with the wordplay in 15a and 21d (noted below), and I’d never heard of the entry at 12a, but it’s clear enough what Eccles meant. I liked the sneaky definition in 9a, and some very good surfaces including 28a and 3d. Thanks Eccles as always.

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

ACROSS
1 SECURE
Smoke when discontented? Possibly smoke to become contented (6)
S[mok]E (dis-contented = contents, or inner letters, removed) + CURE (to preserve food, possibly by smoking).
4 CERTAIN
Church drops housing constraint at last, to be sure (7)
CE (abbreviation for Church of England) + RAIN (drops), containing (housing) the last letter of [constrain]T.
9 GREETINGS
Perhaps his reign gets misinterpreted (9)
Anagram (misinterpreted) of REIGN GETS.

Definition by example: we need to read “his” as the plural of “hi” = a casual greeting.
10 TEENS
Youngsters support Poles (5)
TEE (support for a golf ball), then N + S (abbreviations for North and South Poles).
11 THYME
Leaves your old mate on vacation (5)
THY (archaic form of “your”, so “your old”) + M[at]E (on vacation = after emptying).

Leaves of a plant used as a herb.
12 ROUSSETTE
Generous setter protects fruit bat (9)
Hidden answer (. . . protects = contains) in [gene]ROUS SETTE[r].

A type of fruit bat. No, I didn’t know that, but the dictionaries did. It seems the word can also mean a type of dogfish, or a type of grape used for white wine.
13 DO-OR-DIE
Entrance the German, being very determined (2-2-3)
DOOR (entrance) + DIE (a form of “the” in German).
15 EXMOOR
Convert from Islam in national park? (6)
EX-MOOR, where Moor = someone from various Muslim people groups in North Africa. I’m not sure this quite works because (as I understand it) the word mainly refers to someone’s ethnicity rather than their religion, so being an ex-Muslim wouldn’t make you an ex-Moor. But I may be wrong.

National Park in south-west England.
17 ISOMER
Chemical entity, close to another one, and one or other close to another (6)
I (one in Roman numerals) + SOME (one or other = an unspecified person or thing) + last letter (close) of [anothe]R.

Isomers = substances that have the same chemical formula but different arrangements of atoms (and therefore may have different physical or chemical properties).
19 POLENTA
Post Office loaned a staple (7)
PO (abbreviation for Post Office) + LENT (loaned) + A.

Staple = a basic foodstuff; polenta = a staple made from cornmeal and/or other grains.
22 TARPAULIN
Cover urinal apt to wobble (9)
Anagram (to wobble) of URINAL APT.

A sheet of waterproofed fabric used as a covering.
24 DOING
Behaving as wild dog, Oscar advanced (5)
DINGO (wild dog), with the O (Oscar in the radio alphabet) advanced towards the front of the word.
26 IMAGE
Setter is mature in photograph? (5)
I’M (the crossword setter is) + AGE (as a verb = mature = get older).
27 PURGATIVE
Give up art careers to provide medicine (9)
Anagram (careers, as a verb = runs out of control) of GIVE UP ART.
28 LATRINE
Reliant on working toilet (7)
Anagram (on working = after being reworked) of RELIANT.
29 SACHET
Dictator’s ostentatious walk to get packet of ketchup? (6)
Sound-alike (dictator’s = spoken out loud) of SASHAY (an ostentatious walk).

Definition by example: a portion-sized food package.
DOWN
1 SIGHTED
Saw insulted Labour leader leaving (7)
S[l]IGHTED (insulted), without the L which is the leading letter of L[abour].
2 CHEVY
Car chase (5)
Double definition. Nickname for a Chevrolet car; or chase = an old word for a hunting-ground, in this case the one in the Cheviot Hills on the English-Scottish borders that was described in the 16th-century Ballad of Chevy Chase. (There are also various places in the US named Chevy Chase after the ballad, and even a US actor who uses it as his stage name.)
3 ROTTERDAM
Scoundrel joins mother in port (9)
ROTTER (scoundrel = disreputable person) + DAM (term used to mean “mother” when describing animals and especially horses).

Port city in the Netherlands.
4 COSTUME
I’m not sure Earl is after fee for outfit (7)
UM (expression indicating hesitancy = I’m not sure) + E (abbreviation for Earl), after COST (fee).
5 RATES
Boundaries ignored by most angry judges (5)
[i]RATES[t] (most angry) without the outer letters (boundaries).

Rate, as a verb = judge = assess the merits of.
6 AGENT NOUN
American man and sister hiding love for employer? (5,4)
A (abbreviation for American) + GENT (abbreviation for gentleman = man) + NUN (sister), containing O (zero = love in tennis scoring).

Definition by example. In linguistics, an agent noun is a noun derived from some other word indicating an action, and means a person or thing who does that action. So from the verb “employ” we get the agent noun “employer” meaning a person who employs.
7 NASSER
Former President is idiot, donning new gear regularly (6)
ASS (idiot), contained in (donning = putting on) N (abbreviation for new) + alternate letters (regularly) of [n]E[a]R.

Short name for Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, President of Egypt in the mid 20th century.
8 ENTREE
Missing wife, went on English course (6)
[w]ENT without the W (abbreviation for wife), then RE (on = on the subject of) + E (abbreviation for English).

Entrée (from French) = course = one of two or more separate servings of food at a meal.
14 OBSERVANT
Watchful old bishop gets help (9)
O (abbreviation for old) + B (abbreviation for bishop) + SERVANT (help, as in “home help” = someone employed to provide assistance to another).
16 MELODRAMA
Alarm mode activated in emotive play (9)
Anagram (activated) of ALARM MODE.
18 RELAPSE
Degenerate put up trellis after one departs (7)
ESPAL[i]ER (a trellis on which plants are trained to grow up a wall), reversed (put up = upwards in a down clue), without the I (one in Roman numerals).

Degenerate = relapse = return to a previous poor state.
19 PANTRY
Sleep around, and score in rugby store (6)
NAP (a short sleep) reversed (around), then TRY (a score in rugby for grounding the ball beyond the opponent’s goal line).
20 AUGMENT
Increase mutagen supply (7)
Anagram (supply = in a supple way) of MUTAGEN.

To increase something by adding to it.
21 AT WILL
When one chooses a Scottish fabric (2,4)
Eccles is presumably thinking of A TWILL (a specific type of fabric, woven in such a way as to create a diagonal pattern on the surface), but I can’t find any evidence that twill fabrics are specifically Scottish. (Tweed fabric has more of a Scottish association, and it’s been suggested the name comes from a misreading of a Scottish spelling of twill, but the two names aren’t interchangeable. I’m not an expert on the history of fabrics, but I’ve been using them in dressmaking for most of my life.)
23 AZERI
Kamikaze ritual enthrals Asian (5)
Hidden answer (. . . enthrals = holds) in [kamik]AZE RI[tual].

A variant of “Azerbaijani” = from the NW Asian republic of Azerbaijan.
25 IRISH
Like the Taoiseach, former British PM cycles (5)
RISHI (former British PM Rishi Sunak), with the letters “cycling” round so that the I is at the start. The surface is presumably intended to make us think of another former PM Boris Johnson, a frequent cyclist.

Taoiseach = Irish title for the head of government, equivalent to Prime Minister.

16 comments on “Independent 12,126 by Eccles”

  1. Thankfully easier again, with only one letter to reveal for me (I can’t believe I didn’t trust in ROTTERDAM being the answer for 3D). The last clue 25A IRISH and 13D DO-OR-DIE are my favorites, with honorable mentions to 9A GREETINGS and 17A ISOMER for their tricks.

    Heard a few things here for the first time including the sashay. So thanks Eccles + Quirister!

  4. A relatively benign Eccles puzzle today. Thanks for explaining perhaps his, Q. ROUSSETTE was new to me, but the setter was generous 🙂 Thanks Eccles and Quirister.

  7. This was relatively straightforward for an Eccles puzzle with ROUSSETTE and AGENT NOUN my only NHOs.

    Lots of ticks as usual with SECURE, GREETINGS, TEENS, ISOMER, EXMOOR and CHEVY my top picks.

    Many thanks to Eccles and to Quirister.

  8. Thought perhaps I was getting better at cracking puzzles from Eccles but, having read the comments, it seems he was just being a little easier on us today! Nevertheless, I did have to check on the name of the fruit bat and get an explanation of what an agent noun actually is.
    Clues that I particularly enjoyed were those for GREETINGS, DO OR DIE & SACHET.

    Thanks to Eccles and to Quirister for the review.

  9. Thought perhaps I was getting better at cracking puzzles from Eccles but, having read the comments, it seems he was just being a little easier on us today! Nevertheless, I did have to check on the name of the fruit bat and get an explanation of what an agent noun actually is.
    Clues that I particularly enjoyed were those for GREETINGS, DO OR DIE & SACHET.

    Thanks to Eccles and to Quirister for the review.

  11. Re the dubious Scottishness of twill, I think it is that tartan traditionally has a twill weave. But as Q remarks, so do many other fabrics – for thousands of years and far from Scotland to boot. 🙂 Thanks nevertheless to Eccles for an enjoyable puzzle and Q for elucidating the GREETINGS answer, which stumped me.

  13. So much good stuff – the usual (but much appreciated!) Eccles Wednesday. Can’t think how long it would have taken me to think of his as the plural of high ( but more than a few moments; respect to Gnomad #6) so thanks to Quirister too

  14. It’s Wednesday: I must be writing ‘Super job’ about an Eccles puzzle. And here I am. Lots to enjoy – I did not spot the plural of ‘hi’ but then I am an unobservant solver. POLENTA and TARPAULIN my faves.

    Thanks both

  16. Liked this puzzle as I found it easier than the ones by Eccles of late. ‘His’ in greetings gave me a smile!

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