Independent 10,022 by Eccles

by

An absorbing puzzle with lots of nice clues.

My favourite has to be 12 across for its arch meaning. 26 across was the only one I wasn’t confident about.

Across
6 ABASH Embarrass core of May’s party (5)
  [M]a[y] plus bash
7 TURNED OUT Happened to be dressed (6,3)
  DD
9 ESPOUSE Support internet bride? (7)
  E (general prefix for things done online) + spouse
10 PUT DOWN Slight crush (3-4)
  DD
11 SYNTHETIC Fake chest, tiny bum (9)
  (Chest tiny)*
12 BIBLE Bishop’s semi-credible reading material? (5)
  B(ishop) + [cred]ible.  Quite a nice clue for non-believers such as myself.
13 NOSTALGIA Signal to a criminal looking back (9)
  (Signal to a)*
19 CARAT Measure area covered by bear (5)
  A(rea) in cart
20 INELEGANT Clumsy fine leg antagonised Holding (9)
  Hidden in fINE LEG ANTagonised.   Quite nice cricketing clue, as Michael Holding was a West Indian bowler, famously mentioned in the commentary line “The batsman’s Holding, the bowler’s Willey”.
22 RANSACK American Intelligence organisation involved in torture and pillage (7)
  NSA (which stands for National Security Agency) in rack (which was a medieval torture device but has come to be used as a general term for torture, as in “his body was racked with pain”).
24 HARBOUR Hide port (7)
  DD
25 RED GIANTS Stars composed of unusual inert gas died (3,6)
  (Inert gas d(ied))*
26 OUTDO Pride, perhaps, is best? (5)
  Not sure on this.  The only thing I can think it’s referring to is a Pride LGBT event, which I suppose might be described as an “out do”, as in “being out”.  But it seems a bit unconvincing and doesn’t explain why you need a question mark on the best.
Down
1 RAMPANT A politician engaged in diatribe, unrestrained (7)
  A MP in rant
2 THOUGHT OUT Nevertheless, solicitor is carefully considered (7-3)
  Though + tout
3 TROPICAL Very hot Romeo’s in local (8)
  Romeo (R in the phonetic alphabet) in topical.  Topical wouldn’t jump to my mind as meaning local, but the def has “of current or local interest”.
4 LEFT Abandoned female allowed outside (4)
  F(emale) in let
5 COLOMBO Charge unit with espionage, essentially, but unit escapes in port (7)
  Coulomb + [espi]o[nage], with u(nit) removed
6 AVERSE Alleges Spain is hostile (6)
  Avers + E(abbreviation for Spain based on the Spanish name Espana)
7 TWEET Online statement is excessively sentimental tosh, primarily (5)
  Twee + t[osh]
8 TANDEM Settled up and collected bike (6)
  Met< collecting and
12 BRIDEGROOM Partner‘s change of heart in area for playing cards? (10)
  Bridge room with middle two letters switched round
14 THINKING Philosophy of weak leader (8)
  Thin + king
15 SCORER Summer of cricket‘s more painful without century (6)
  Sorer around C
16 GRENADE Danger! High energy explosive (7)
  Danger* (high is the anagram indicator) + e(nergy)
17 CAHOOTS About to make disapproving noise at Sessions’ initial collusion (7)
  Ca + hoot + S[essions].  It doesn’t matter who the Sessions is but, if you wanted a candidate, it would most likely be Jeff Sessions, the former US Attorney General sacked by Donald Trump.
18 STEREO Austere oligarch hides from two speakers (6)
  Hidden in auSTERE Oligarch
21 ETHOS Aforementioned people’s back-to-front beliefs (5)
  Those with the back (e) moved to the front
23 A BIT Nuns’ clothing is non-starter for some (1,3)
  [H]abit

*anagram

12 comments on “Independent 10,022 by Eccles”

  1. The trickiest of the crosswords I’ve tackled so far this morning (no 3 of 3) but an enjoyable time was had.

    I too wasn’t sure about 26a

    Thanks to Eccles and NealH

  2. Great fun and a very nice antidote for a cold, dull Monday morning.

    I didn’t understand “pride” in 26a and unfortunately for me, it seems our reviewer is in the same boat.   I’m not convinced that “core of May’s” in 1a leads to “a” as it would if it read “core of May” (which would, of course, kill the surface).

    Pleasantly brief cluing as we have come to expect from this setter (although I’m not quite sure what the surface of 5d is all about) and nice touches of humour.  I had lots of ticks on my page and I gave double ticks to 9a, 12a, 12d, 14d & 15d (great definition!).

    Many thanks to Eccles and Neal.

  3. Rabbit Dave @2. I read the ‘s as “has”, so ‘core of May has party’.

    Liked the anagram at 11a.

    Also unsure about 26a. Didn’t think of gay pride which does kind of work but not convinced. I see that pride can be a verb so it may be a double definition?

    Thanks to Eccles and Neal.

  4. After making Mondaytypical progress, I came to a complete halt with a few to go in the SW and even reached for the old electronics to get out unstuck.  Oh dear!  OUTDO, perhaps, coming before a fall?  Yes, needed that one explained, but I do like the idea of Pride being an “out do” – very nice.

    My favourite was BIBLE too.  Related to this is another pick: ETHOS.  Also enjoyed SYNTHETIC, GRENADE and more.

    Thanks Eccles and Neil.

  6. I didn’t know the charge unit which meant 5d was a last minute guess based on the checkers and the ‘port’ reference and, like others, I struggled to sort out the significance of ‘pride’ in 26a but there was still plenty to enjoy here.

    I rather liked the simple TURNED OUT but would agree that BIBLE was top of the leader board.

    Thanks to Eccles and to Neal – particularly for the plausible reasoning behind OUTDO.

  7. Not too difficult but plenty of challenges along the way.  We were held up on 7dn thinking ‘primarily’ referred to more than just ‘tosh’, and in 5dn ‘Coulomb’ didn’t immediately come to mind (a case of ‘Doh!’ when it did).  Our favourite was SYNTHETIC for its conciseness, ambiguity (was the anagrind ‘fake’ or ‘bum’?) and surface.

    Thanks, Eccles and NealH

  8. 26a is clearly today’s talking point – whilst I can now see and accept the LGBT angle, am I alone in thinking ‘best’ is unsatisfactory as outdo is a verb?

  9. TFO @8

    ‘Best’ can be a verb as well. From Chambers:

    transitive verb (informal)
    To win against, outdo or outwit

  10. What everyone else has said.  I too needed to use electronics to winkle out the last few.  I just couldn’t see the anagram at 13ac, and 12dn is one of those clues that looks easy, once you’ve got the answer.  26ac was my LOI.

  12. 5D was my last one, which I really should have got a bit sooner given that I was solving the puzzle whilst watching the cricket from that very place.

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