Eccles appears in his regular Wednesday slot today.
Another great puzzle from our Wednesday setter – smooth surfaces and a good range of clue types with a few unusual words (one not even in Chambers!) and some write-ins to get us going.
FILTER is an anagram (‘OUT’) of trifle, so a clue for ‘trifle’ might be ‘Filter out’
hAIRDRIEr (‘appliance for removing water from locks’) missing the first and last letters or ‘exposed’
I (one) in (‘entering’) an anagram (‘dilapidated’) of VACANT
E (Spain) + a reversal (‘over’) of RESIGN (quit) round or ‘stealing’ ER (middle or ‘essential’ letters of stereo)
An anagram (‘around’) of E (earl) and LIMPS
NANDO’S (‘chicken specialist’) round (‘collecting’) O (old)
cANASTA (card game) omitting (‘doesn’t use’) ‘c’ (clubs) + a reversal (back) of IS + A (last letter or ‘back’ of Russia)
LOLLING (hanging) around OP (work)
E (last letter or ‘close’ of some) + PIG and RAM (farm animals)
Hidden (‘housed’) in pipinG OVER New
TAKES (attempts to shoot – as in filming) IDES (fish)
A OS (outsize – ‘very big’) round or ‘bored by’ PROP (rugby player)
Hidden in garRET I REServed
oTHER (remaining) missing the first letter or ‘scratching head’ + MOSES (prophet)
VESTA (match) in (‘enveloped by’) FIRe (passion) missing the last letter (‘lots of’)
Alternate letters (‘from time to time’) of LoOk To
An anagram (‘unusual’) of CASE + LATE (‘passed on’)
cORNEr (‘go round the bend’) missing the first and last letters (‘endlessly’)
TABlE (desk) missing the ‘l’ (‘left out’) + NACL (chemical symbol for sodium chloride – ‘salt’) in (‘during’) RE (Religious Education or ‘teaching’)
ON (running) round (‘about’) RE (‘on’) GO (‘leave’)
Double definition
An anagram (‘muddle’) of POLISH RUSE
A L (first and last letters or ‘case’ of archetypal) TICK (sucker) in (‘stopping’) MEET (‘pay for’)
An anagram 9’somehow’) of STOP DISMAL – a new word for us
sHoOt (alternate or ‘regular’ letters) LOG (record) RAM (stuff)
A reversal (‘upset’) of SENEGAl (country) missing the last letter (‘most of’) + I’S (one’s) – another new word for us – it’s not in Chambers!
EIRE (Ireland) round (‘absorbing’) NT (New Testament – ‘part of the Bible’)
Double definition – we had to check the second
S (South) A (American) FE (chemical symbol for iron)
PUSs (cat) missing the last letter – a Manx cat has no tail
The usual excellence from this setter. Challenging but good fun with a scattering of new words to “investigoogle”.
Many thanks to Eccles and B&J.
I liked EPIGRAM and FIVE-STAR (do they still make Swan Vestas?). It took a while to get the right African country and the right chicken outlet. (Sanders seemed plausible but was one letter too many).
Defeated at the end by the unknown NANDOOS, which is a shame since I quite like Nando’s (who reached these shores only a few years ago). I just didn’t think “chicken specialist” could possibly be a phrase, I guess. I generally seem to find Eccles harder than most other commenters do, and I’m not at all sure why. (It’s not even that his puzzles are particularly more British than other setters’–they’re not.)
I lucked on Senegal for AGENESIS pretty quickly–it was the second country starting in S that I thought of, after Spain.
I love Eccles, but might I place my appeal, for not so many “investigoogles”, as Rabbit Dave has called them?
Which must be in the running, for “best new word of 2026” !
To be sure, the perfect wordplays took me by the hand, into AGENESIS, PSALMODIST, ORNE, and NANDOOS, but, Eccles….just one or two per puzzle, please ?
Super stuff, Ecc + BJ. Loved it.
Thanks a lot Eccles and B&J. Excellent and enjoyable. I don’t always get around to saying thanks but I am always pleased to see it’s a puzzle by Eccles.
Super puzzle, and great fun to tussle with. I didn’t mind the unusual words; they were less esoteric, and more helpfully clued, than Pasquale, for instance, in my opinion.
The grid and crossing letters gave us help where and when needed to. Bravo.