What we have come to expect from Eccles and just right for a Wednesday: good, accessible, sound. Plenty of nice clues.
My apologies for the lateness, which is even worse than usual (The Guardian and the FT are always before me. Bet they are today [actually the FT wasn’t]). When I switched off yesterday there were various updates, and these had to be fiddled with by the computer before it booted up. And then it didn’t seem to want to start Windows. But eventually it did thank goodness.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SPECTATOR | Disgraced producer’s shown outside at Observer (9) |
| Spect(at)or — ref Phil Spector | ||
| 8 | OUTRAGE | Fury as power cut overwhelms Reading, for one (7) |
| out(R)age — reading is one of the three Rs — an outage, which will be familiar to all watchers of Countdown, is an American word, which seems to be becoming more widespread over here, for an interruption in power | ||
| 10 | BILLING | It highlights the relative importance of presenting an account (7) |
| 2 defs, one of them referring to the position on a theatre etc poster | ||
| 11 | OVERNIGHT | Her voting is erratic during the hours of darkness (9) |
| (Her voting)* | ||
| 12 | TEDIUM | Clairvoyant with time for married routine (6) |
| medium with t replacing the first m — ideally we should be told to replace the first m not the second | ||
| 15 | INDWELL | Exist as Independent? We will (7) |
| ind. we’ll | ||
| 16 | GRADATION | Uniform unnecessary in awarding ceremony for degree (9) |
| grad{u}ation — graduation is indeed an awarding ceremony for a degree, but here it’s simply an awarding ceremony | ||
| 19 | SLEEP WITH | Have pee whilst swimming (5,4) |
| (pee whilst)* | ||
| 20 | AVERAGE | Mean to show anger following welcome (7) |
| ave rage | ||
| 22 | URGE ON | Encourage holy man to leave fish (4,2) |
| {st}urgeon | ||
| 23 | MATURATES | Contaminated with rodent, dodgy US meat festers (9) |
| rat in (US meat)* | ||
| 25 | CATHODE | Terminal at Heathrow, at first, is bound by convention (7) |
| c(at H{eathrow})ode | ||
| 27 | DRESSER | One who puts clothes on chest of drawers in America (7) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 28 | SCRUFFILY | Son caught Trump meeting single lady on vacation, in a shabby fashion (9) |
| s c ruff 1 l{ad}y — I had to check with a bridge-playing friend that ruff = trump — all OK so far as I can see | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SABOTAGE | Undermine boast about getting bronze? (8) |
| (boast) age — |
||
| 2 | EEL | It is regularly jellied when chopped up (3) |
| ({j}e{l}l{i}e{d})*, &lit. | ||
| 3 | TRIBUNAL | Test involving roll bar (8) |
| tri(bun)al — I’m not absolutely comfortable with bar = tribunal, but no doubt it’s OK: Collins says that it refers to the profession of a barrister so there will be some legal meaning | ||
| 4 | TOGO | A duvet such as this is useless in African country (4) |
| tog 0 — if a duvet has tog 0 then it has no ability to keep one warm | ||
| 5 | ROSE-TINTED | Overly optimistic girl gets infected, but antibiotics initially not needed (4-6) |
| Rose t{a}inted, the a being a{ntibiotics} | ||
| 6 | STONED | Punished from on high? (6) |
| I’m not quite sure about this: I think, but am not sure, that it uses the equivalence of being stoned with being high, but it may have some connection with stones being thrown down from a high window in a castle or something like that | ||
| 7 | DENTAL | Student allocated boxes of teeth (6) |
| Hidden (boxes) in StuDENT ALlocated — good hidden in that I was slow to see it | ||
| 9 | AGGRESSIVE | Comic revises gag to be belligerent (10) |
| (revises gag)*. the anagram indicated by ‘comic’ | ||
| 13 | DEAD CENTRE | Right in the middle of graveyard? (4,6) |
| dead [= right] centre [= in the middle] — and a graveyard is, facetiously, a centre for the dead | ||
| 14 | DISSENTERS | Norfolk town joins naysayers (10) |
| Diss enters | ||
| 17 | APERITIF | Part of benefit I repaid is returned in drink (8) |
| Hidden reversed in beneFIT I REPAid | ||
| 18 | CHANCERY | Court fate by marrying, essentially (8) |
| chance {mar}ry{ing} | ||
| 20 | ARMADA | It was involved in a drama at sea (6) |
| (a drama)*, with &littish qualities | ||
| 21 | ACROSS | Something to bear throughout (6) |
| a cross | ||
| 24 | SCAR | Run away without a mark (4) |
| scar{per} — a = per | ||
| 26 | OBI | Old boy’s current fetish (3) |
| OB I | ||
*anagram
I do like Eccles crosswords and this was no different. I took ‘bronze’ in 1d as a reference to the Bronze Age. I agree with your initial parsing of 6d. Thanks to Eccles and John.
Yes of course you’re right about bronze? = Bronze Age in 1dn. Actually I had seen this but forgot when I came to do the blog. Honestly!
I’ll amend the blog now.
Thanks for blogging, John.
This took a bit of teasing out, but it was one of those that you thought at the end: why did it take me so long? Maybe that’s the mark of a good puzzle. I liked especially today SLEEP WITH and URGE ON. Not so keen on INDWELL. It’s not a word that’s in my active vocabulary, possibly even not in my passive vocabulary.
I think STONED is just the punishment from biblical times. Life of Brian, for those who are familiar with it.
Well done, Eccles. Another fine puzzle.
My first step is always to look at the grid, and this one is unusual, to put it mildly. It screams Nina, or at least some complex theme and I can’t see either. TOGO ACROSS and DEAD CENTRE all set off alarms but no fire as yet.
Strange.
Thanks to Eccles and John
Struggled with this a bit, particularly the NW corner. Last in was 10ac for which all I could think of was BOLDING – putting something in bold for emphasis (relative importance) but I couldn’t fit the account bit to it. A facepalm moment when I saw the correct answer.
Lots to like, though. CATHODE and CHANCERY were my favourites.
Thanks, Eccles and John.
@allan_C
I put in BOLDING as a first stab as well, for precisely the same reason
I can see a potential reference to United Airlines, if it’s intended it’s a very quick response to the outrage..!
Eccles is one of my favourite easy-end setters and I enjoyed this offering. Normally I stroll through his puzzles and then get stuck for a while on a couple at the end; this time it took me a while to get going, but once I did I strolled again and finished in roughly the same time as normal (I think I prefer the latter type of solve as it makes me feel clevererer). No particular fave clues today, just lots of smooth and nice stuff so thanks to The Cake for a nice crossie and to the PC-battling John for the blog.
P.s – Hope everyone has fun at the London do tonight – have a drink or three for me. 🙂
London do? What London do!
@crimper
Have a look at Kitty’s comment below Silvanus’ Indy puzzle on Monday
@Hallow Brink
snap!
Thanks Eccles and John
Thanks to some advice from Gaufrid on the FT blog I’ve got in to try an Indie for the first time for ages. Could habituees give me some advice please? I had a slightly parsed SUBSTAGE instead of SABOTAGE, but the clue still showed a tick, just like all the rest. This isn’t a “Check” then, presumably – what does give a “Check” facility?
@muffin
I solve the Indy online, using the free version (as opposed to the paid-for app). In the menu settings (top right, above the puzzle grid), I do not have the “show errors” function activated which means that when I finish the puzzle, if all my entries are correct, I get the congratulations message plus the time taken. If I have entered an error (as I did today with BOLDING instead of BILLING) then nothing happens; no congrats, no time. This tells me I have made an error which either I can correct and still get 100% completion or activate the “show errors” feature which will highlight the mistakes. I can then finish the puzzle, but not get a 100% score.
Hope this make!s sense
Thanks baerchen
As John suggests, I assumed the “on high” in 6d was a reference to being under the influence of dubious substances.
Thanks to John and all the commenters. No Nina, aero outrage was just a coincidence, and the grid was just one I found when trying to get different and better grids than the ones in Crossword Compiler. Only semi-successfully, obviously. Just back from a beer at the George – comfortably into double figures in terms of attendance, so a success, I would say.
Enjoyed. Nearly failed on BILLING but stuck it out until the penny did its dropping thing. Had to ponder ACROSS awhile too, and was a bit slow to get STONED.
Biggest smile at SLEEP WITH. And now to just sleep.
Many thanks Eccles and John.
P.S. Harry @8 – yes, fun was had, and I did indeed have a drink or three for you. You may provide me with the remuneration for said slurps at Nottingham … 😉
Thanks Eccles, only just got round to this. Bit of a struggle to get going. The aero outrage would have Knut’s fingerprints all over it. Wonder how quickly he and Eimi can rearrange things. Cheers John for the fine blog.