Eccles fills the Wednesday slot this week.
This is a good solid crossword with a few words that are probably not in everyday use by most solvers, but they are all words and phrases that pop up from time to time.
I liked the wordplay for ALIQUOT at 11 across with the lack of a letter in the quote and the entry being the key. Having said that, I’m not sure what the actual definition is in the clue.
It’s often the four letter entries that give me the most trouble and SPEW was the example today. For a long time I thought SEED was the answer but I couldn’t find a construction that fitted the wordplay I had in mind.
Other clues I enjoyed were those for LEMONGRASS with the well hidden definition of stalks, TENOR CLEF with the use of ‘agitato’ as the anagram indicator and the rector’s pile (MANSE)
I can’t see a theme or message.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 1 | Stalks latecomer regularly often smoking weed? (10) |
LEM (letters 1, 4 and 7 [regularly] of LATECOMER) + ON GRASS (often smoking weed) LEM ON GRASS |
LEMONGRASS (A perennial grass, Cymbopogon citratus, with a large flower spike: used in cooking and grown in tropical regions as the source of an aromatic oil; stalks) |
| 6 | Old-fashioned haircut for a male (4) |
PER (a) + M (male) PER M |
PERM (PERManent wave [long-lasting artificial wave or curl in hair induced by chemical treatment]; old fashioned haircut) |
| 10 | Brief caught working with Russia and its allies before start of election (7) |
C (caught) + ON (working) + CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States was formed when the former Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. At its conception it consisted of ten former Soviet Republics: C ON CIS E |
CONCISE (brief) |
| 11 | Sample of "Float like a butterfly, sting like a be"? (7) |
The words in inverted commas are attributed to the boxer Muhammad Ali. It is part of a much longer quote, so is unfinished , by even more than the missing E in BEE. It can be described as an ALI QUOTE. By dropping the E off QUOTE we can match ALI QOUT to … sting like a BE" ALI QUOT |
ALIQUOT – I am not sure what the definition is in the clue. Collins defines ALIQUOT in two ways, one is mathematical and doesn’t apply. The other is "Consisting of equal quantities" Both the clue and the answer are similar [equal] in that they lack a final letter |
| 12 | Seethes at debauched lovers of Grace? (9) |
Anagram of (debauched) SEETHES AT AESTHETES* |
AESTHETES (professed disciples of AESTHETicism [the cult of the beautiful]; a person who affects an extravagant love of art; lovers of grace) |
| 13 | Manage to capture Serbian leader in thicket (5) |
COPE (manage) containing (to capture) S (first letter of [leader] SERBIAN) COP (S) E |
COPSE (dense thicket of trees and bushes)
|
| 14 | Character eating into company’s capital (5) |
AIR (aura; bearing; character) contained in (eating into) CO (company) C (AIR) O |
CAIRO (capital city of Egypt) |
| 15 | Play the part of salesman with grudge (9) |
REP (commercial REP representative; salesman) + RESENT (grudge) REP RESENT |
REPRESENT (play the part of)
|
| 17 | Reflect on ‘agitato’ being instruction for a musician (5,4) |
Anagram of (agitato) REFLECT ON TENOR CLEF* |
TENOR CLEF (the C CLEF placed on the fourth line. a CLEF is character placed on the stave by which the absolute pitch of the following notes is fixed)
|
| 20 | Don’t declare staff (5) |
BAT ON (if a cricket captain doesn’t yet want to declare the team’s innings closed, the team will BAT ON) BAT ON |
BATON (staff of office) |
| 21 | Perhaps arm officers, to begin with, in prison (5) |
LIMB (an arm is an example of a limb) + O (first letter of [to begin with] OFFICERS) LIMB O |
LIMBO (prison) |
| 23 | Force prisoners to study (9) |
CONS (prisoners) + TRAIN learn; study) CONS TRAIN |
CONSTRAIN (force) |
| 25 | Function to end with no date for a restart (4,3( |
SINE (trigonometrical function) + DIE (end) SINE DIE |
SINE DIE (without a day [appointed]; with no date for a restart, the phrase usually follows the word ‘adjourned’)) |
| 26 | Acknowledged to be unhappy without musical instrument (7) |
SAD (unhappy) containing (without; outside) LUTE (musical instrument) SA (LUTE) D |
SALUTED (acknowledged) |
| 27 | Disheartened, cries about issue (4) |
WEEPS excluding the central letter (disheartened) E and then reversed (about) SEED< |
SPEW (issue) |
| 28 | Nudes ride in a cavalier fashion across Sweden, revealing bottoms (10) |
Anagram of (in a cavalier fashion) NUDES RIDE containing (across) S (International Vehicle Registration for Sweden) UNDER (S) IDES* |
UNDERSIDES (bottoms) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Spandex: extremely crass clothing (5) |
LYCRA (hidden word in [clothing] EXTREMELY CRASS) LYCRA |
LYCRA (synthetic fibre like Spandex) |
| 2 | Is musing cryptically around noon an indication of negativity? (5,4) |
Anagram of (cryptically) IS MUSING containing (around) N (noon) MI (N) US SIGN* |
MINUS SIGN (indication of a negative value or a negative operation) |
| 3 | Local communities bug heroin suspect with violent criminals (14) |
Anagram of (suspect) BUG HEROIN + HOODS (violent criminals) NEIGHBOUR* HOODS |
NEIGHBOURHOODS (local communities) |
| 4 | One who regrets quietly quitting is to compete again (2-5) |
REPENTER (one who regrets) excluding (quitting) P (piano; quietly) RE-ENTER |
RE-ENTER (compete again) |
| 5 | Guy’s lump occasionally doesn’t settle in the evening (5,2) |
STAYS (guys) + UP (letters 2 and 4 [occasionally] of LUMP) STAYS UP |
STAYS-UP (remains out of bed and awake after the normal time of going to sleep; doesn’t settle in the evening) |
| 7 | Provide online joke? (5) |
E (electronic, often used as a suffix to denote an online activity or service) + QUIP (joke) E QUIP |
EQUIP (supply; provide) |
| 8 | Shabby way of working by playhouse; November run cancelled (4-5) |
MO (modus operandi; way of working) + (THEATRE [playhouse] + N [November is the international radio communication codeword for the letter N] excluding [cancelled] R [run]) MO TH EATE N |
MOTH-EATEN (decrepit; shabby) |
| 9 | Penny longed to meet British ex-Prime Minister, almost succeeded, which resulted in disturbances (7,7) |
P (penny) + ITCHED (longed) + B (British) + ATTLEE (reference Clement ATTLEE [1883 – 1967], Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951) excluding the final letter (almost) E + S (succeeded) P ITCHED B ATTLE S |
PITCHED BATTLES (violent confrontations, perhaps a bit more than disturbances) |
| 14 | Reduction of the reaction times of a city lass in transit (9) |
Anagram of (in transit) A CITY LASS CATALYSIS |
CATALYSIS (the chemical influence of a substance which is not itself permanently change. The influence usually increases the speed of the required reaction) |
| 16 | Obtained sacred text rewritten to remove sacrilegious introduction (9) |
Anagram of (rewritten) SACRED TEXT excluding (to remove) S (first letter of [introduction] SACRILEGIOUS) EXTRACTED* |
EXTRACTED (obtained) |
| 18 | Film serial killer next to new desk (7) |
LECTER (reference the fictional film serial killer character Hannibal LECTER) + N (new) LECTER N |
LECTERN (reading-desk) |
| 19 | Card play is excellent, supported by system’s odds (7) |
FINE (excellent) + SSE (letters 1, 3 and 5 [odds] of SYSTEM) FINE SSE |
FINESSE (an attempt by a player in the card game bridge,,holding a higher car, to take the trick with a lower card, risking loss) |
| 22 | Pile of rector‘s neck hair covering open in sink (5) |
MANE (long hair on the back of the neck and neighbouring parts of a horse, lion, etc) containing (covering) S (first letter of [opening of] SINK) MAN (S) E |
MANSE (rector’s or minister’s house [pile is an informal term for a [big] house) |
| 24 | Asian river, with rising level of nitrogen, is focus of infection (5) |
INDUS (one of the longest rivers in Asia, rising in Tibet and reaching the sea near Karachi in Pakistan) with the N (chemical symbol for Nitrogen) moved up (rising; down clue) the word to form NIDUS NIDUS |
NIDUS (focus of infection) |
My feelings on this exactly match your introduction, including spending some time trying to get SEED to work for 27a. Don’t have a problem with “sample” being the definition in 11a. The nounal definition of ALIQUOT is an “aliquot part”.
Many thanks to Eccles and Duncan.
A lovely puzzle from Eccles, which Duncan has summed up nicely in his introduction. My only minor query relates to the answer to 6a which is surely a hairstyle rather than a haircut?
NIDUS is a new word for me.
My top three were ALIQUOT, BATON and MANSE.
Many thanks to Eccles for the fun and to Duncan for the review.
I should add that, like Rabbit Dave, NIDUS was a new word for me. I also thought it was nice to see “regularly” mean every third letter for a change. Been quite a while since I last saw that.
If you google ‘aliquot meaning’ you get:
‘a portion of a larger whole, especially a sample taken for chemical analysis or other treatment.’
On the other hand, doesn’t ‘aliquot part’, as given in Chambers, mean a part that will divide the whole without a remainder? So rather more precise than just ‘sample’.
Super clue, anyway. Also the rector’s neck hair very funny.
Thanks Eccles, Duncan
I didn’t know ALIQUAT, NIDUS or CATALYSIS so had to do some investigoogling to finish this one.
I also tried to make SEED work for 27a and didn’t know what to enter for 6a – as mentioned by RD, a PERM is not a cut.
My favourite was probably the salesman with grudge.
Thanks to Eccles and to Duncan for the blog.
I lazily bunged in a few from the def., eg LEMONGRASS and MOTH-EATEN, both of which I doubt I would have parsed even if I had taken the trouble to try. I didn’t know FINESSE in the ‘Card play’ sense and I can’t remember (though have probably forgotten) having come across LIMBO for ‘prison’ before.
Maybe not a ‘proper’ &lit but the wordplay for LYCRA was clever. My feelings exactly!
Thank you to Eccles and Duncan
Lots of fun as ever with Eccles.
My ticked ones were the same as Duncan’s with the addition of BATON. ALIQUOT is regularly used in scientific labs for sample, as James @4 has indicated.
Thanks Eccles and Duncan.
We liked this, particularly ALIQUOT and the mental image summoned up by the clue to UNDERSIDES. NIDUS was new to us as well, but we think we’ve seen BATON clued similarly before.
With the aforesaid ALIQUOT as well as CATALYSIS and EXTRACTED we wonder if Eccles has a scientific, more specifically chemical, background.
Pedants’ Corner: Re 22dn, rectors live in rectories, manses are inhabited by ministers – not forgetting vicars in their vicarages.
Thanks, Eccles and Duncan.
Oxford Dictionaries online support “aliquot” as meaning “A portion of a larger whole, especially a sample taken for chemical analysis or other treatment” (but I thought that Chambers was supposed to be the solvers’ bible).
Thanks to Duncan and Eccles
I’m a little surprised that DEAN wasn’t used instead of RECTOR in 22
Cheers Duncan and all,
Allan C, I am indeed a chemist, but the entries were not specifically chosen.