Eccles is back in his usual Wednesday slot, so he’ll have to put up with me two weeks in a row.
I thought this was a little trickier than usual for Eccles, but maybe that’s just me. I’m not convinced about my parsing at 5a, so tell me if I’ve missed something obvious. Good surfaces at 18a, 25a and 16d, and an amusing version of the standard “primarily” construction at 21d. Thanks Eccles as always.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MANTRA |
Ray must keep right, Ray must keep right, Ray must keep right …? (6)
|
| MANTA (name for a few species of ray fish) containing (keeping) R (abbreviation for right).
It’s hard to decide what to indicate as the definition here, but the general idea is that mantra = a repeated phrase used in meditation. |
||
| 5 | DEED POLL |
Model deep in trouble checks how to change name (4,4)
|
| I’m struggling with the wordplay here. Possibly an anagram (in trouble) of DEEP, inserted into DOLL (a model of a person), but the word order is a bit confusing; “checks” can mean “restrains” but I’m not sure it makes sense as an insertion indicator. Any better ideas? | ||
| 9 | CROTCHET |
Note linked loops? About time! (8)
|
| CROCHET (loops of yarn linked using a hook) around T (abbreviation for time).
A musical note-value. |
||
| 10 | DATIVE |
Director rejected musical, in case (6)
|
| D (abbreviation for director), then EVITA (musical by Lloyd Webber and Rice) reversed (rejected).
Grammatical case (especially in Greek and Latin), often indicating the recipient or beneficiary of an action. Nominative = I; accusative = me; dative = to me or for me. |
||
| 11 | LEATHERINESS |
Hardened nature of Great Russian leader initially leaving wearing not so much (12)
|
| [c]ATHERINE (Russian empress known as Catherine the Great), without the first letter (initially leaving), contained in (wearing) LESS (not so much). | ||
| 13 | GALA |
A prisoner returned for festivity (4)
|
| A (from clue text) + LAG (slang for a prison inmate), all reversed (returned). | ||
| 14 | LANDMARK |
Prominent feature of songbird going round with male (8)
|
| LARK (songbird), containing (going round) AND (with) + M (abbreviation for male). | ||
| 17 | OBJECTED |
Editor backing item demurred (8)
|
| ED (abbreviation for editor, especially in newspapers) after (backing) OBJECT (item). | ||
| 18 | SICK |
Fed up of criticism having no point, ultimately (4)
|
| S[t]ICK (slang for criticism, as in “they gave me a lot of stick for that”), without the T which is the last letter (ultimately) of [poin]T. | ||
| 20 | PEEBLESSHIRE |
Go and wish happiness to recruit in part of Scotland (12)
|
| PEE (go = slang for urinate) + BLESS (wish happiness to) + HIRE (as in “new hire” = someone hired to do a job = recruit).
Historic county in southern Scotland. |
||
| 23 | BOGART |
Spooner’s encouragement for Homer’s son, an actor (6)
|
| Spoonerism of GO BART! (what someone might say to encourage Bart Simpson, son of Homer Simpson in the cartoon series).
The actor Humphrey Bogart. |
||
| 24 | ABKHAZIA |
American bishop can start to address disputed region in Georgia (8)
|
| A (abbreviation for American) + B (abbreviation for bishop) + KHAZI (can = slang for toilet) + starting letter of A[ddress].
Not the US state of Georgia, but the former Soviet republic. Abkhazia was an autonomous region before the break-up of the Soviet Union, and is or isn’t now part of Georgia depending on who you ask. |
||
| 25 | ALLIANCE |
Everybody in church welcomes a marriage (8)
|
| ALL (everybody) + IN + CE (abbreviation for Church of England), containing (welcoming) A (from clue text). | ||
| 26 | EVEN SO |
Still love following proceedings when temperature’s dropped (4,2)
|
| O (zero = love in tennis scoring), following EVEN[t]S (proceedings) without the T (abbreviation for temperature).
Still = even so = despite everything: “Still, it could be worse . . .”. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | AGRA |
Indian city‘s river in range (4)
|
| R (abbreviation for river) in AGA (brand name for ranges = large kitchen cookers). | ||
| 3 | TITILLATE |
Sick and worried after idiot shows interest (9)
|
| ILL (sick) + ATE (worried, as a verb: a standard Crosswordland usage) after TIT (slang for idiot).
Interest, as a verb = to make someone excited or curious. |
||
| 4 | ASHRAM |
I see stuff about Sabbath in hermitage perhaps (6)
|
| AH (ah! = I see! = now I understand) + RAM (stuff, as a verb = force into a container), around S (abbreviation for Sabbath).
In Hinduism, a spiritual hermitage or instruction centre. |
||
| 5 | DUTCH ELM DISEASE |
Engineer scheduled items about a scourge of the countryside (5,3,7)
|
| Anagram (engineer, as a verb = construct) of SCHEDULED ITEMS around A (from clue text).
A fungal disease spread by elm bark beetles, which killed most of the elm trees in Europe and elsewhere in the 20th century. (Probably from Asia originally, but identified by Dutch scientists, hence the name.) |
||
| 6 | ENDURING |
Space in the middle of stable (8)
|
| EN (in printing, a medium-width space between characters) + DURING (in the middle of).
Stable = enduring = continuing unchanged. |
||
| 7 | PATEN |
Almost clear communion plate (5)
|
| PATEN[t] (clear = obvious) without the last letter (almost).
A plate, usually of precious metal, used to hold the bread in a communion service. |
||
| 8 | LOVESTRUCK |
Infatuated voter lucks out (10)
|
| Anagram (out = disordered) of VOTER LUCKS. | ||
| 12 | BARBIE DOLL |
Glamorous woman in pub to attempt to tour earth on endless jolly (6,4)
|
| BAR (pub = drinking establishment), then BID (to attempt) around E (abbreviation for earth, in electrical wiring), then [j]OLL[y] without the end letters.
Rather offensive slang term, suggesting that a young woman is attractively dressed but uninteresting or unintelligent. |
||
| 15 | MISBEHAVE |
Regularly bump heavies off, and cause trouble (9)
|
| Anagram (off) of alternate letters (regularly) from B[u]M[p] + HEAVIES. | ||
| 16 | ATHERTON |
Former England cricket captain‘s heart fluttering before century (8)
|
| Anagram (fluttering) of HEART, then TON (century = cricket slang for scoring 100 runs).
Michael Atherton, England cricket captain in the 1990s. |
||
| 19 | PICKLE |
Relish cream with lardy-cake on vacation (6)
|
| PICK (cream = the best of something, as in “the pick of the crop” or “the cream of the crop”) + L[ardy-cak]E.
Pickle = a type of relish = strongly-flavoured food accompaniment made from vegetables and/or fruit. |
||
| 21 | BHAJI |
Primarily, Brits hate any jalapenos in fried vegetables (5)
|
| First letters (primarily) of B[rits] H[ate] A[ny] J[alapenos] I[n].
An Indian vegetable fritter. |
||
| 22 | AIDS |
Helpers claimed to be cycling (4)
|
| SAID (claimed), with the letters “cycling” so that the initial S goes to the end.
Helpers as in “things that help” (rather than people). |
DEED POLL
DEEP* checks/stops DOLL
I agree with the blogger that the word order is a bit confusing.
DNF for me as I knew neither PATEN nor the Georgian region and my mind did not settle on either ‘patent’ or ‘khazi’. Neither did I parse DEED POLL and, tbh, a second use of DOLL was not what I expected to be looking for. The use of (c)ATHERINE in LEATHERINESS is very clever and MANTRA is certainly fun.
Thanks Eccles and Quirister
As usual, a superb puzzle from this setter with some inventive ideas on show. For once, I didn’t need to look anything up.
MANTRA was my favourite with special mentions too for LEATHERINESS, ATHERTON and BHAJI.
Many thanks to Eccles and to Quirister.
The usual excellence from our setter although, despite the explanation, I’m not persuaded by the clue for DEED POLL. Unlike RD, I did need to look-up the region in Georgia, no chance that I’d have spelled it correctly anyway!
Absolute favourite was MANTRA with LEATHERINESS, my last one in, sliding in behind it.
Many thanks to Eccles and to Quirister for the review.
Struggled in NW corner, all clear once parsed (after the fact). 5a didn’t make sense to me, but was, at least, fairly obvious after the partial solve of “deep in trouble..” liked the anagram for the sad elm disease…
Thanks Eccles for the fun n Quirister for the fair blog…