What do we expect on a Wednesday? An Eccles puzzle. No complaints here then.
As expected there were a couple of solutions that we needed to check. Our favourite was AT ALL COSTS – a nod to Liz Truss v a lettuce.
We are out and about today so if there are any errors or omissions, it will probably be late in the day before we can sort things out.
BASILica (church) with I (one) CA (about) missing or ‘dismissed’
An anagram (‘flustered’) of LOST MAIL’S
ON inside or ‘boring’ CARB (pasta for example) and AdRiAn (alternate letters only or ‘regularly ignored’)
‘Hidden’ in collEGE STudent
SUS (suspicious) SEX (male?) – a reference to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex
ELLIPSeS (figures) with I (independence) replacing E (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of Yorkshire)
INQUEST (judicial investigation) ON (working) around or ‘protecting’ I (one)
CO (company) IF (provided)
GO (try) ALl (everything) missing last letter or ‘nearly’
SO (very) OTHER (alternative) around or ‘clothing’ SAY (for one)
A reversal (‘around’) of SPUNK (courage) around SEE (date)
WIGWAm (semi-permanent accommodation) with M (millions missing or ‘leaving’) and G (last letter or ‘close’ to Barking). We had never heard of this method of communicating with flags – we only knew about semaphore.
ANG LEe (film director) missing last letter or ‘cut’
A whimsical way of saying that if you were focused on the European Community (‘old European Union’) you would be EC CENTRIC
G (government) + an anagram (‘disrupted’) of STRANGE + S (first letter or ‘introduction’ to Standards)
An anagram (‘dancing’) of NUDE followed by P (first letter or ‘entrance’ to Parlour)
BACKS (seconds) before WIN (victory) G (first letter or ‘beginning’ to golfer)
Alternate letters or ‘periodically’ in ScOuR hOuSe – a reference to George Soros
LOOS (toilets) and a reversal (‘upset’) of RENE (Frenchman)
S (first letter or ‘start’ to Sell ) TAB (form of LSD?)
TrusS (missing the middle letters or ‘eviscerated’) after or ‘associated with’ A TALL COS (a big lettuce) – did it last longer than Truss, we wonder?
Hidden or ‘found in’ drillhOLE FINally
I (current) LEO’S (Pope’s) TOM (cat) Y (unknown) – we needed all the crossing letters for this one.
TITS (idiots) around or ‘guarding’ U (university)
AT MOSt (maximum) missing last letter or ‘not quite’ + P (power) HERE (at this place)
QUAKE (tremor) + G (‘last’ letter of stopping) inside or ‘during’ RUN (sprint)
FOR (in favour of) AGE CAP (banning over-30s, say)
A (Austria) and an anagram (‘reformed’) of GENESIS
ASSEtS (belongings) with S (first letter or ‘bit’ of sentimentality) replacing ‘t’ (Troy)
K d LANG (Canadian songwriter) missing ‘d’ – we had to do a search for Canadian songwriters – we had heard of K D Lang but hadn’t remembered that she is Canadian
WORD (promise) around or ‘penning’ L (first letter or ‘introduction’ to lonely)
rACES (contests) ignoring ‘r’ (first letter of red)
A nice set of early blogs today and a nice Eccles puzzle as per. I completely agree with our bloggers ref the star clue. The lettuce has been long composted – one might wish the same of the erstwhile Prime Minister – but the memory go on for some considerable time, I warrant. Nice to encounter a different Canadian chanteuse – one I’ve heard of but not heard; I was pleased to discover the QUAKER GUN is a thing though that feels vaguely oxymoronic; likewise WIGWAG. I did not – unfortunately – parse my way to ILEOSTOMY my overlooking the importance of the ‘S and I am kicking myself for not spotting the very neatly hidden OLEFIN; a word I recognise but was never ever going to think of unprompted. Other faves inc the surfaces for LOOSENER and WORLD
Thanks Eccles and B&J
Liked BASIL, SOOTHSAYER, BACKSWING, AT ALL COSTS, FORAGE CAP and WORLD.
Thanks Eccles and B&J
Typical Eccles: great clueing, excellent fun, and a handful of unknowns – for me today these were WIGWAG, QUAKER GUN and KLANG.
My top picks of many ticked clues were BASIL, BACKSWING and AT ALL COSTS.
Many thanks to Eccles and to B&J.
Think the young ginf first saw wigwag in one of his childs’ books, at nursery age. Icn still vaguely see the picture — must’ve made an impression. But for the rest, my worst shot for ages, needed to reveal quite a few squares at various grid spots. (I’m no longer bothered to pause, return, ponder — too old and grumpy). Egest, ileostomy, Quaker gun and klang were among the problem spots. Hey ho, all part of life, thx Eccles and BandJ.
Nice puzzle but like ginf@4 got stuck on EGEST (didn’t look for the hidden word hard enough), ILEOSTOMY, QUAKER GUN (nho) and KLANG. And had WEIGHS (it sort of works) instead of ASSESS at 21d for a bit which didn’t help. Thanks to Eccles for an approachable puzzle and B&J for the elucidation.
Thanks both. A few unknowns, however the precision of the clues took me to all bar ILEOSTOMY; having already cheated to get the Pope’s name, I went for ileoscopy, which appears to exist – evidently religion and certainly biology are not my specialities; for the latter, I’d admit I don’t always know my Arsenal (pop band/bone) from my elbow (football club).
Another excellently displayed puzzle from Eccles with, as expected, several unknowns that required investigation, namely ileostomy, olefin, wigwag & quaker gun. I also needed the wisdom of my friend in Canada to pinpoint klang.
Top clues for me were AT ALL COSTS, KNEES UP & FORAGE CAP.
Many thanks to Eccles and to B&J for the review.
Thanks Eccles, and Bertandjoyce for the ever-informative blog. Though a gifted songwriter, k. d. lang stands out for me even more as a magnificent singer. For those like PostMark who may not have heard her, here she is with the great Roy Orbison in a song that he penned.