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Eccles has provided this week’s Wednesday teaser.
I found this to be a puzzle of two halves in that I sped through the top half of the grid before needing to work harder to complete the bottom half, especially the SW quadrant. I took me a good long while to get 20 and above all 16A and 16D. Incidentally, I didn’t know the wrestling term at 2.
My favourite clues today were 8, 25 and 26, all for smoothness of service, with 8 in particular raising a smile.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | ROWING | Arguing and in debt by the end of December
<decembe>R (“end of” means last letter only) + OWING |
| 04 | LIB-DEM | Drunk Dimbleby ejected by party member
*(DIMBLE<by>); “ejected by” means letters “by” are dropped from anagram, indicated by “drunk” |
| 09 | MACE | Master caught with Ecstasy and Spice
MA (=Master, of Arts) + C (=caught, on cricket scorecard) + E (=Ecstasy, i.e. the drug) |
| 10 | MANIFESTOS | They are presented in cOnferences by pOliticians
The upper-case o’s in “cOnferences” and “pOliticians” could be described as ‘”manifest Os” in that they stand out; & lit. |
| 11 | STYLUS | Fashion uniform for Earl with small needle
STYL<u for e> (“uniform (=U, in radio telecommunications) for Earl (=E)” means letter “e” is replaced by “u”) + S (=small, in sizes) |
| 12 | TURMERIC | Recruit Mike’s weird ginger relative
*(RECRUIT + M (=Mike, in radio telecommunications); “weird” is anagram indicator; turmeric is a spice related to ginger |
| 13 | GRAVESIDE | Grieved, as moving eulogy is often read here
*(GRIEVED AS); “moving” is anagram indicator |
| 15 | SPRY | Active agent arrests Republican
R (=Republican) in SPY (=(secret) agent) |
| 16 | SAND | Kinky sex male is wanting in desert
S AND <m> (=kinky sex, i.e. sadomasochism; “male (=M) is wanting” means letter “m” is dropped) |
| 17 | HAIRGRIPS | Short of energy, voice complaints following hard clips on head
H (=hard, as in an HB pencil) + [AIR GRIP<e>S (=voice complaints; “short of energy (=E)” means letter “e” is dropped)] |
| 21 | MAHARANI | Indian princess‘s mother had nearly led India
MA (=mother) + HA<d> (“nearly” means last letter dropped) + RAN (=led) + I (=India, in radio telecommunications) |
| 22 | OUTLET | Umpire calls for release
OUT + LET (=umpire calls, i.e. 2 calls given by a tennis umpire); an outlet can be a release, a vent for e.g. pent-up emotion |
| 24 | AUDITIONED | Took part in trial in India due to corruption
*(INDIA DUE TO); “corruption” is anagram indicator |
| 25 | SKIN | Hide from king overwhelmed by lust?
K (=king, in cards or chess) in SIN (=lust?, i.e. one of the seven deadly sins) |
| 26 | ADMIRE | Appreciate Germany is in a tricky situation
D (=Germany, in IVR) in [A + MIRE (=tricky situation)] |
| 27 | ARDENT | Enthusiastic Jedward entertaining hosts
Hidden (“hosts”) in “JedwARD ENTertaining” |
| Down | ||
| 01 | REACTOR | Cleric smuggles advanced nuclear vessel
A (=advanced, as in A-level) in RECTOR (=cleric) |
| 02 | WHEEL | Welsh bad guy in wrestling ring
W (=Welsh) + HEEL (=bad guy in wrestling, the opposite of “face”) |
| 03 | NEMESIS | Downfall of chaps lifting cesspits regularly
NEM (MEN=chaps; “lifting” indicates vertical reversal) + <c>E<s>S<p>I<t>S (“regularly” means alternate letters only) |
| 05 | IN FORM | Playing well? Let people know
INFORM (=let people know) |
| 06 | DISTEMPER | Sickness and diarrhoea at first is moderate
D<iarrhoea> (“at first” means first letter only) + IS + TEMPER (=moderate, soften) |
| 07 | MOODILY | Sullenly do cow impression every 24 hours, with no answer
MOO (=do cow impression) + D<a>ILY (=every 24 hours; “with no answer (=A)” means letter “a” is dropped) |
| 08 | UNITED NATIONS | Etonian nudist’s revolting body
*(ETONIAN NUDIST); “is revolting” is anagram indicator |
| 14 | VANDALISM | Defacement of vehicle by artist’s muse, lacking purpose
VAN (=vehicle) + DALI’S (=artist’s, i.e. Salvador Dali) + M<use> (“lacking purpose (=use)” means letters “use” are dropped) |
| 16 | SPATULA | Fight with bully occasionally over a kitchen utensil
SPAT (=fight) + <b>U<l>L<y> (“occasionally” means alternate letters only) + A |
| 18 | REORDER | Again request instrument Charlie’s thrown out
RE<c>ORDER (=instrument); “Charlie (=C, in radio telecommunications)’s thrown out” means letter “c” is dropped |
| 19 | PIETIST | Tart gets tits out for puritanical Christian
PIE (=tart) + *(TITS); “out” is anagram indicator |
| 20 | CAVIAR | Coach charged with using produce of Russia?
VIA (=using, by means of) in CAR (=coach, of train) |
| 23 | TASTE | Nation’s leader heads south to get experience
STATE (=nation); “leader (=first letter) heads south” means that letter “s” comes later in the word |
Very enjjoyable – I found the SW corner the trickiest of the lot – I particularly liked 10a
Thanks to Eccles and RR
Although I didn’t think the surface readings were up to Eccles’ usual standard, there was a lot to enjoy here.
Lovely constructed anagram for GRAVESIDE and UNITED NATIONS. MANIFESTOS & STYLUS were also favourites.
In 22a, I took the “out” part as a cricket umpire call. A tennis umpire works as well but this is normally the duty of line judges.
I await the complaints on 19d 🙂
Thanks to Eccles and RatkojaRiku.
Couldn’t decide whether I liked or loathed 10a – maybe too contrived?
As for 19d – yes, Hovis, I’m not going to disappoint you! So completely unnecessary and not remotely funny.
Plenty that I did enjoy with 26a taking the honours.
Thanks to Eccles and to RR for the blog.
Thanks to Eccles & RR. I thoroughly enjoyed this and, quite unusually, I don’t share Hovis’s view wrt surface quality. I’m also grateful to Eccles for taking one for the team with 19d and lowering the bar for the rest of us. Although I found this puzzle quite a bit easier than Picaroon’s crossword in today’s Guardian, I found them similarly well-written and enjoyable and I really can’t dish out much more praise than that
Enjoyable solve; a tennis umpire does call out quite frequently when it’s a close one.
The INFORM/ IN FORM seems to be the wrong way round in the blog as the answer is 6 i.e. INFORM.
Lots of good clues; I particularly liked MANIFESTOS, HAIR GRIPS and MOODILY.
Thanks Eccles and RR.
@2Hovis, yes I also took “out” to be a cricket umpire’s call, but if so in the sense of “it’s your call”. When starting umpiring, we are told specifically not to say “out”; we raise the finger, but say nothing. If we think it’s not out, we are told to say “no”. This is presumably because the one word “out” could be thought to have followed a hard to hear or assumed “not”; and the “not” could have been missed when saying “not out”, so causing great jubilation for the fielding side, followed by angry disappointment. There’s often a lot of noise going on after an appeal.
Thanks to Eccles for a generally smooth solve and RatkojaRiku for the blog.
baerchen@4 My apologies. I didn’t mean to suggest the surfaces were in any way poor. In fact, I think they are well above average. It’s just that Eccles sets such a high standard. Reading through them again, I’m not sure I even agree with myself anymore. The clue for NEMESIS is perhaps under par and the idea of a cleric smuggling a nuclear vessel didn’t float my boat.
We made steady progress with most of this but then took a while to get our last two – HAIRGRIPS and CAVIAR. Some nice surfaces, particularly GRAVESIDE and STYLUS. We didn’t know the wrestling reference in WHEEL but we knew of ‘heel’ simply as ‘a despicable person’ so we got the answer easily enough.
Thanks, Eccles and RatkojaRiku.
Several good clues but I am with Jane re 19d. I am left wondering whether Baerchen’s natural habitat is still behind his primary school’s bike sheds. Unless I misunderstood your comment Baerchen please explain why lowering the bar is to be desired. Crudity may be witty but it is still crudity. Does the God Chambers allow for pie and tart to be used interchangeably ? In my kitchen pies always have top crusts and tarts only have a bottom crust.
Thanks to RR and Eccles
hi @Kryptickate
I’m very sorry that you took my comment badly; it was intended to be jocular. In the interest of full disclosure, I also set crosswords for The Independent (as Knut) and my forthcoming puzzle on April 1st might contain a couple of references which you probably won’t like. I never set out to write bawdy clues but if the word-play is sufficiently attractive as an idea I dont shy away from it, either. (I’m also in tomorrow’s Telegraph Toughie which I can promise you is squeaky clean).
@Hovis…no issue at all, completely understood
@Eccles…somewhere, I can hear Hoskins doing his Muttley laugh
Thanks for the response Baerchen. Interesting that you choose “ bawdy “ as your figleaf. Bawdy is straight out of Shakespeare conveying the stake a particular character has in a particular scene. I have no problem with that. Bearing in mind that semantic and pedantic rhyme I shall only add that Hoskins often makes me laugh possibly because he mostly does risqué in style.
My approach to bawdy clues is exactly the same as baerchen’s in 10. I don’t think I write very many of them, but I have certainly been here before. It is certainly not my aim to cause offence.
KK, I wouldn’t really equate a pie to a tart, but the authorities seem to. It seems in certain cases they can be used interchangeably (fetches coat).
Cheers for the all the comments, too. I like the criticisms too – they validate the compliments. Nemesis I struggled for ages with, and I was a bit anagram heavy elsewhere so reluctant to go down that route.
Apologies, I meant to thank RR for a fine blog, too.
I think we’re assailed on a daily basis by far more offensive things than 19d – Viz is more popular than ever, and I, for one, welcome the occasional bit of smut. And on that basis, many thanks to Eccles for an entertaining crossword, and to RatkojaRiku.
Thanks to RatkojaRiku and Eccles
Eccles @12
I hear what you are saying about “anagram heavy”
The answer is to come up with a balance