The last time Eccles (yes me again, I’m afraid) appeared I wrote “It seems that Eccles is becoming an increasingly regular setter on Fifteensquared, filling in many of the Wednesday slots that used to be occupied by Dac. Which is appropriate, for he is a good setter, not the hardest, but always challenging enough and pleasant to solve.” I couldn’t say much more after this pleasant offering from someone who is, I’m pleased to see, becoming a fixture on Fifteensquared.
Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MACHETE | Large knife and tear gas confines the unruly (7) |
| (the)* in mace | ||
| 5 | STRIPE | Thoroughfare ready for bar (6) |
| st. ripe — not immediately obvious since there are so many meanings of ‘bar’ | ||
| 8 | DRAFT | Produce wind audibly (5) |
| “draught” — draft = produce seems a bit odd, but I suppose that if you draft a screenplay, say, you produce the first version of it | ||
| 9 | REORDERS | Judicial officers not beginning to cook books again (8) |
| re{c}orders, the c being c{ook} | ||
| 11 | LIKE A SHOT | Fancy a drink? Unhesitatingly (4,1,4) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 12 | RANGE | Extent of ire when cycling (5) |
| anger with the last letter cycled to the front | ||
| 13 | WHEN | Wife and wife-to-be meet at what time? (4) |
| w hen — it seems that there are various shades of meaning of hen when applied to a woman, but presumably here Eccles means a young girl, someone a young man is about to marry | ||
| 14 | BUS STOPS | Commuter halts breast enlargements, perhaps, in which piece of silicone is implanted (3,5) |
| bus(s)t ops, the s being s{ilicone} — good clue with a nicely concealed definition | ||
| 18 | INTERIOR | Bury gold around island’s centre (8) |
| inter (i) or | ||
| 19 | TSAR | Royalists are imprisoning emperor (4) |
| Hidden in RoyalisTS ARe | ||
| 22 | HACKS | Tolerates journalists (5) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 24 | SNARE DRUM | The recipient of regular beating is to crack, shortly, returning to kill (5,4) |
| sna{p} (murder)rev. | ||
| 25 | LIAISONS | Australia is on standby, protecting intermediaries (8) |
| Hidden in AustraLIA IS ON Standby | ||
| 26 | PAGAN | Heathen to search for gold (silver is boring) (5) |
| p(Ag)an | ||
| 27 | ASPECT | Paces about, tense in appearance (6) |
| (Paces)* t | ||
| 28 | TETANUS | Occasionally, treat an American for disease (7) |
| t{r}e{a}t an US | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MIDDLEWEIGHT | Division brought about by Spooner’s wee pal (12) |
| Spooner would say “widdle mate” — a division of weights in boxing — why do some people dislike Spoonerism clues? I rather enjoy them, and this is a good one. | ||
| 2 | CHALKIEST | Fantastic ski chalet as white and dusty as can be (9) |
| *(ski chalet) | ||
| 3 | ENTRAP | Husband, perhaps, scratching bottom then looking up to seduce (6) |
| (partne{r})rev. | ||
| 4 | EARTHS | Goes to ground in suit, head lowered (6) |
| hearts with its first letter moved lower down | ||
| 5 | SHOOT-OUT | Get rid of solicitor for fight to the death? (5-3) |
| shoo tout | ||
| 6 | RED CROSS | Charity is embarrassed and angry (3,5) |
| red [= embarrassed] cross | ||
| 7 | PERON | A working president, once (5) |
| per [= a, as in one drop per day/one drop a day] on — Evita’s husband | ||
| 10 | MEASUREMENTS | Evaluations of certain fellows protected by dodgy mates (12) |
| (sure men) in *(mates) | ||
| 15 | OESTROGEN | What makes a female regularly covet Seth, the actor and comedian (9) |
| {c}o{v}e{t} S{e}t{h} Rogen, this actor and comedian — the fact that the actor and comedian who we have to find is called Seth is just a coincidence for the wordplay: it might make one think that ‘Seth’ is doing double duty in being part of the wordplay and also directing us to Rogen. I think. But I bet Eccles was at first trying to incorporate ‘Seth Rogen’ into the wordplay. | ||
| 16 | PRESTIGE | Standing of President Trump is getting eroded, principally (8) |
| Pres then first letters | ||
| 17 | BOY SCOUT | Coy son injured in fight with young badger? (3,5) |
| bout round (Coy s)* — I Googled this to try to see the connection with boy scouts and badgers but didn’t get any very clear answer — if you are experienced with this sort of thing then you may be able to help here — but it seems that badgers are not entirely absent from a boy scout’s experience: there are such things as badger patrols, so far as I can see, and Eccles has used a question mark [the weight of opinion below is that this is nothing to do with the badgers that one thinks of, but about the fact that boy scouts are badge-ers, ie seek badges] | ||
| 20 | BASSET | Dog breed’s first desirable characteristic (6 |
| b{reed} asset — not one I immediately got, thinking at first that borzoi (no) and beagle (possibly, if an eagle is an desirable characteristic …) might be the answers | ||
| 21 | DESPOT | Autocrat is very downcast when northern den is obliterated (6) |
| despo{N den}t | ||
| 23 | COINS | One involved in fraudulent schemes fabricates money (5) |
| co(1)ns —to fabricate money is to coin [thanks Muffin]; I was looking for words meaning ‘forges’ | ||
*anagram
In 13a I took HEN as being as in hen nights.
A young badger is a cub, which is also a young version of a (boy) scout. (I don’t think they call them boy scouts any more – in fact they admit girls now.)
Another enjoyable crossword from Eccles – I particularly liked the ‘young badger’ definition in 17d – John I think ‘badgers’ just describes the young people in search of as many badges showing successful completion of various activities as they can get
Thank you to him and John
This was great fun, with excellent surfaces, accurate wordplay and a lot of humour.
I was going to question 25a as I didn’t realise the answer could describe people but Chambers put me right on this, and I was completely foxed by the second part of the answer to 15d (thanks John for the decryption).
I loved 1d, which is very fine Spoonerism indeed, and the definition for 17d is brilliant – it’s a youngster who wears a badge, John
Many thanks to Andy and to John.
I also liked the description of Boy Scout as young badger and agree with bloggers @2,3.
Great surfaces and good fun to solve.
(Minor typo in 26a.) Many thanks to Eccles and John.
Thanks everyone for the badger explanation, also Hovis for pointing out the typo. Will amend the blog now.
Good fun. I particularly enjoyed the spoonerism at 1d. Didn’t know the actor at 15d but the wordplay and crossers were helpful. As John says, not the most difficult of puzzles but a good workout. Thanks Eccles and John.
Enjoyed this one – even the Spoonerism, despite its slightly odd surface read, but have to admit that I didn’t know the 15d actor/comedian and just made an assumption based on the obvious definition and first four letters. I did wonder whether 12a was straying into indirect anagram territory.
Liked the young badger (any Mum who’s spent hours sewing them on would have known that one!) but saved the favourite slot for 11a.
Anyone else start off by putting in the obvious answer to 8a?
Thanks for the puzzle, Eccles, and thanks also to John for the blog.
Just couldn’t see the Spoonerism and had to do a word search to finish this.
As it happens, a couple of TV programmes I’m watching at the moment have Seth Rogen as executive producer, so as soon as I saw Seth in the clue, I thought Rogen.
I thought of hen as in hen party for 13ac, too.
Thanks Eccles and John
I did this earlier and found it enjoyable – can’t remember favourites, though.
“Coins” as a verb is “fabricates money”, John – the people who used to do it were called “coiners”. (My Aunt and Uncle live in Llantrisant, where the Royal Mint is now situated; sometimes known – unfairly – as “the hole with the mint in it”!)
We had to solve this over two sessions, and it’s surprising when you come back after a break to see some answers immediately that yoi simply couldn’t fathom the first time.
We saw the badger as one who gains various badges, but one other possibility is that as scout troops are divided into patrols named after animals or birds the scout might belong to the badger patrol.
As for the wife-to-be in 13ac we took the ‘hen’ to refer to her having a ‘hen night’ shortly before getting hitched.
We got 15 down from the alternate letters bit giving us ‘oest’ and guessed the rest, never having heard of the actor/comedian.
All good stuff but we particularly liked WHEN and BUS STOPS.
Thanks, Eccles and John
Many thanks to John and all commenters.
I did once ask a blogger on Big Dave’s site what was their issue with Spoonerisms as I had never seen anyone actually give a reason, and they said it was the indirectness – take synonyms and then do something vague to them. so it was like an indirect anagram. I disagree, as the instruction as to what to do next (swap the sounds) is specific enough not to make it to indirect (in my opinion), but it was a reasonable point.