Eccles appears to be standing in for Dac in the Wednesday slot this week. And speaking of standing in for people, many thanks to Gaufrid for replacing me at short notice last Thursday, when it looked as though I might otherwise not get the blog posted until the evening.
I think that this may be the very first time that I have blogged a puzzle by Eccles, although I have been familiar with his work for some time in another publication as well as in the Indy.
I found this to be towards the easy end of the Indy spectrum in terms of difficulty, with some straightforward anagrams to get one started, but that it no way detracted from the fun of solving it. Indeed, having solved about three quarters of the puzzle fairly swiftly, I was held up in the NW quadrant for quite some time. 11 kept me guessing for a long time, despite the answer staring me in the face all along!
The lavatorial references at 10, 24 and 25 appealed to my childish sense of humour, but my favourite clues of all today were 16 and 17, both for surface; and above all 2, for its riddle-like quality.
I am already looking forward to my next solving/blogging encounter with Eccles.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
Across | ||
01 | BALTIC | Indian food’s cold, very cold
BALTI (=Indian food) + C (=cold, e.g. on tap) |
05 | MUSKETRY | Think about kicking, at first, then evaluate technique using arms
[K<icking> (“at first” means first letter only) in MUSE (=think about)] + TRY (=evaluate, test out) |
09 | FORESTED | Surrounded by enemy, stay close to ground, under cover of trees
[REST (=stay, remain) in FOE (=enemy)] + <groun>D (“close to” means last letter only) |
10 | ISOLDE | She had a drink, fell in love and soiled pants
*(SOILED); “pants (=rubbish)” is anagram indicator; the reference is to the legend of Tristan and Isolde, in which they both imbibe a love potion |
11 | INGREDIENT | Seeing red, I entered housing unit
Hidden (“housing”) in “seeING RED I ENTered” |
12 | AREA | Region of 100m² plus another 100m²
ARE (=100m²) + A (=100m², i.e. abbreviation of “are”) |
13 | APOSTLES | Champions succeeded after drink outside station
[POST (=station, fixed place) in ALE (=drink)] + S (=succeeded) |
16 | CRISPY | How duck can be spicy when cooked with a bit of rice
*(SPICY + R<ice> (“bit of” means first letter only); “cooked” is anagram indicator |
17 | FERULE | Switch iron and lead
FE (=iron, i.e. chemical formula) + RULE (=lead, govern); a ferule is a cane, rod used for punishment, hence a “switch” |
19 | PEDICURE | Regularly spread doctor’s claim for treatment of feet
<s>P<r>E<a>D (“regularly” means alternate letters only are used) + I CURE (=doctor’s claim!) |
21 | COOP | Noise made by bird quietly in its home
COO (=noise made by bird) + P (=quietly, i.e. piano in music) |
22 | IN ABSENTIA | Criminal, a bit insane, not being present at trial
*(A BIT INSANE); “criminal” is anagram indicator |
25 | MANURE | Manchester United are crap
MAN U (=Manchester United, i.e. football team) + ‘RE (=are, i.e. contraction) |
26 | BY THE BYE | Incidentally, see you around Thursday
TH (=Thursday, on calendar) in BYE BYE (=see you, goodbye) |
27 | PRIESTLY | Pays unwanted attention to local youngsters, primarily, like a clergyman
PRIES (=pays unwanted attention) + T<o> L<ocal> Y<oungsters> (“primarily” means first letters only) |
28 | PAELLA | Regional dish made in field overshadowed by mountain to the west
LEA (=field, meadow) in ALP (=mountain); “to the west” indicates (here full) reversal |
Down | ||
02 | ACORN | Wood used to provide these antiques, // and one will provide wood in time
A kind of double cryptic definition: the soap “Acorn Antiques” was a regular feature in the BBC comedy series Victoria Wood As Seen On TV AND an acorn will “provide wood” when it grows into an oak tree! |
03 | THEIR | His or her successor supports bequest, in the end
<beques>T (“in the end” means last letter only) + HEIR (=successor); “his or her” can be replaced by “their” to render sentences less clunky |
04 | CITADEL | Keep contracting delicate problem
*(DELICAT<e>); “contracting” means last letter dropped from anagram, indicated by “problem”; a keep is a citadel, stronghold |
05 | MADNESS | Group // insanity
Double definition; the reference is to the English ska band Madness, formed in 1976 |
06 | SCIATIC | Science at Imperial College initially concerning a form of neuralgia
SCI (=science) + AT + I<mperial> C<ollege> (“initially” means first letters only are used) |
07 | EGOMANIAC | Perhaps Donald Trump is liberal? Come again?
*(COME AGAIN); “liberal” is anagram indicator |
08 | RED PEPPER | Go and exercise, having run, after friend oddly neglected to provide fruit
<f>R<i>E<n>D (“oddly neglected” means all odd letters are dropped) + PEP (=go, vim) + P.E. (=exercise, i.e. Physical Education) + R (=run, in cricket) |
14 | PTEROSAUR | Damage or tear up small flier from the olden days
*(OR TEAR UP + S (=small, of clothing size)); “damage” is anagram indicator; a pterosaur is an extinct flying reptile |
15 | SCULPTURE | Figure cup result is unusual
*(CUP RESULT); “is unusual” is anagram indicator |
18 | EVIDENT | I have returned to impress, it’s plain to see
EVI (I’ve=I have; “returned” indicates reversal) + DENT (=impress) |
19 | PLAYBOY | Parking next to designated parking area entertains old roué
O (=old) in [P (=parking, on sign) + LAY-BY (=designated parking area)] |
20 | DESKTOP | Computer drive stuck after removing the insides and cover
D<riv>E S<tuc>K (“after removing the insides” means all but first and last letters are dropped) + TOP (=cover) |
23 | NIECE | Pleasant to welcome English relative
E (=English) in NICE (=pleasant) |
24 | IDYLL | Sample found in smelly diaper, in retrospect, is a little piece of heaven
Reversed (“in retrospect”) and hidden (“sample found in”) in “smeLLY DIaper” |
Really enjoyed this one. What a fantastic inclusion at 11a! Loved 2d when the penny dropped that the first WOOD referred to Victoria. Nicely humorous surface for IDYLL. Thanks to Eccles and RR.
Very entertaining as usual from the cake man. 25a generated a big laugh, and I also loved 2d for the penny drop, 5d for its simple neatness and 16a for its tastiness.
Like our reviewer I found it gentle enough until the NW corner, at which point I had to leave and come back a few times. Last in was 17a because I didn’t know it, nor did I know where to put the F of FE (if anywhere). Lovely clue though. And I too took a long time to spot the pesky very well hidden answer lurking in 11a.
Many thanks to Eccles and RatkojaRiku.
a very enjoyable puzzle thanks to Eccles and RR. I solved this RHS first and notice YEA YEA going down col 15 but it seems to be a coincidence
YEH YEH – I noticed that too but am sure it’s a coincidence.
(Grr – meant YEA YEA of course.)
Not sufficiently au fait with Indy puzzles to know where this one registered on the difficulty scale but I found it rather more of a challenge than those that cake man (like that one, Kitty!) sets elsewhere under a different pseudonym.
I had to look up 17a and got rather bogged down trying to justify 12a – acres are so much easier to deal with (age thing, I know!) and I can’t say that I’ve ever come across the singular of hectare before today.
NW corner was my undoing – having completely missed the reference to Victoria, I had ‘ASHES’ for 2d which seemed OK at the time but left me with all manner of problems. Getting 11a dug me out of that hole but 4d, despite being what it had to be, took a full 24hrs before the penny dropped.
Thought 11a was very cleverly constructed and loved 2d once I’d got it right!
Thanks to Eccles and to RR for the review. Word to the wise, Andy – steer clear of Manchester for a while!
Very enjoyable, and thanks to both.
In what way is BALTIC synonymous with “very cold” please ? I know it’s (sometimes) a cold region but that’s true of many places. I’ve never heard anyone describing the weather as “really Baltic today”. Am I missing something ?
Without wishing to tar everybody with the same brush, I suggest that 27A could be an &lit.
Thanks to Eccles for the fun; and RatkojaRiku.
Fun stuff as always from Eccles. For me, it was his hardest yet and like others I got stymied in the NW and was finally beat by 13a, 17a & 3d. Honours today go to all the humour of which there was much so thanks to Jennifer the goonish cake man for the smiles and RR for the blog.
Jane @6 – I’d say this puzzle was around the ‘more hard than easy, but not as hard as medium level’ for an Indy. Usually, though not always, the Indy runs easy on a Sunday, easyish (or a debut puzzle) on a Monday, themed and of varying difficulty levels on a Tuesday, easy to easyish on Wednesday, hard on a Thursday, Phi (of differing difficulty levels and often with a theme) on a Friday, and medium to hard (sometimes with a theme) on a Saturday. Oh, and sometimes any day can have a theme if said theme is date specific and that might change the ‘usual’ difficulty level for the day.
Geebs @7 – I think ‘baltic’ for very cold is just a dictionary sanctioned variation on saying something like ‘Maude, make sure you put on yer thermals for it’s arctic out there’ and just a British informal slang term for ‘very cold’.
Correction: 4d, rather than 3d, was a clue that eluded me.
Hoskins @9 – thanks. “Arctic” I could understand; it’s common usage. “Weather’s a bit Arctic today …”…. But Baltic ? I’ve certainly never heard it used in that way and it’s not even an obvious candidate for such a comparison. Nice summers and reasonable winters.
Geebs @11 – I wonder then if it could be related to the Baltic Sea, rather than the land region? There’s a section on Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Sea#The_ice that seems to suggest it has been known to freeze over entirely and is usually about half-covered with ice in winter – perhaps cold enough to make British merchant seamen coin the term when sailing there in the cold season and bring it back to Blighty?
Laughed out loud at Isolde, liked the definitive football clue at 25a, which I shall use in the pub, and 1d was a ‘good grief’ moment. Failed though on Ferule, which I only knew with 2 ‘R’s.
One of the best this year. Thanks to cake-person and RR.
Hoskins @12.
Agree it gets a bit nippy there. I’ve been in Helsinki in Jan at -26c. But that’s not the point, cos there are plenty of cold places. The question is: is BALTIC ever used as a direct synonym for ‘very cold’ in the way the wp demands. I’ve certainly never come across it so I thought it was a (small) blot in an otherwise excellent puzzle.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/baltic
As with several others we struggled with the NW corner and 1ac was our LOI. We weren’t too sure about the definition as ‘very cold’ but we’re not going to quibble about that, as the entire puzzle was such good fun! As complete non-football fans we loved 25ac!
Many thanks to Eccles and to RR for the blog.
Nice one, solved unaided perforce being out of range of assistance, electronic or otherwise. Just a touch of earthiness here and there to raise a smile – great.
My only quibble is with the assumption behind 3dn – “his or her” can be replaced by “their” to render sentences less clunky. Call me a pedant, but “their” is plural and to use it in place of the singular still grates with me. Is it really acceptable to make a deliberate grammatical error simply to make smoother reading? OK, I know the trouble is that English doesn’t have a set of gender-neutral (as opposed to neuter) singular pronouns but I still find it irritating. End of rant: I’ll crawl back under my stone now…
… but not before thanking Eccles and RajkojaRiku for their efforts.
No stone-crawling required, Mr C @17 – it’s an interesting question.
I dimly recall being told by someone in the grammatical know that the evolution of grammar is often based on what sounds right [reads more smoothly] rather than what is grammatically correct and the former, in time, trumps the latter to become the norm and grammatically correct. In that case, similar to the changing meanings of words over time, I think we have to lump it but not necessarily like it. However, if you are saying that ‘his or her’ is not currently a recognised standard thing for ‘their’ (or not used in an idiomatic or deliberately knowing way) that might be a different matter altogether.
Either or anyways, I reckons this sort of stuff will be interesting to more than just meself so I hope to hear you ranting away in the future. 🙂
Thanks to RR for the fine blog, and to everyone else for all the comments.
I admit, having been to Baltia and found it lovely and warm, that ‘It’s absolutely Baltic’ is an odd choice of phrase, but I do hear it said quite a lot (and it is in the dictionaries).
Collins does admit that some people think ‘their’ for ‘his or her’ is incorrect, but I don’t know how it came to mean that. We don’t object to ‘You are…’ rather than ‘You is…’, though.
Jane, surely you mean ‘Surrey’?
I like the Baltic Sea suggestion, Harry. It seems very plausible.
Yup – I was pretty pleased with that idea meself, Eccles @20. I also thought about my old man constantly complaining about feeling a ‘cold wind off The Urals’ when he and my silver-haired mother moved to my exposed East Anglian neck of the woods, but, geographically, I fancy that might have had more to do with his baltics than the Baltic so I didn’t mention it as a possible etymology.