[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
Eccles is a regular setter of Wednesday Independent puzzles. He provides a puzzle that usually avoids messages and themes. His puzzles would be a good starting point for solvers getting into cryptic crosswords.
All the entries today were words that I have come across in everyday life.
Many of the recent crosswords I have blogged have tended to have the definitions at the beginning of the clue, so it was a bit of a change today to find that all but two of the across clues had the definition at the end.
I liked the clues for DOG STAR, WHITE MEAT, SORCERESS, and PHILISTINE because of the relevance of their surfaces or the pictures they conjured up.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 1 | Winner getting silver finery, essentially, and this? (9) |
CHAMP (champion; winner) + AG (chemical symbol for silver) + NE (middle letters of [essentially] FINERY) CHAMP AG NE |
CHAMPAGNE (a drink or bottle that the winner of a competition or award may receive) |
| 8 | Unusual places to conceal large knife (7) |
Anagram of (unusual) PLACES containing (to conceal) L (large) SCA (L) PEL* |
SCALPEL (small knife for dissecting or operating) |
| 10 | Hit and kill fish (7) |
LAM (beat; hit) + PREY (hunt and kill) LAM PREY |
LAMPREY (a type of primitive fish-like vertebrate) |
| 11 | I’m noisy at exercising, creating ill will (9) |
Anagram of (exercising) I’M NOISY AT ANIMOSITY* |
ANIMOSITY (strong dislike; ill will) |
| 12 | Opening of shopping precincts for underwear (6) |
S (first letter of [opening of] SHOPPING) + MALLS (shopping precincts) S MALLS |
SMALLS (underwear) |
| 15 | Stone thrown from relatively dignified artist’s workshop (7) |
ATELIER |
ATELIER (workshop, especially an artist’s studio) |
| 16 | Get near me to dance in unison (9) |
Anagram of (to dance) GET NEAR ME AGREEMENT* |
AGREEMENT (unison) |
| 19 | Cover field where fighting takes place (5,4) |
FRONT (cover) + LINE (field, as in LINE of work)) FRONT LINE |
FRONT LINE (the most active, exposed or dangerous position or role in any activity or situation, especially a conflict; where the fighting takes place) |
| 20 | Follows sailor, and sailor might follow it (3,4) |
DOGS (tracks and watches constantly; follows) + TAR (sailor) DOG S TAR |
DOG STAR (Sirius, in the constellation of the Great Dog, the brightest star in the heavens; a star that sailors will know and may use as a guide) |
| 22 | Revolutionary astrologer offers to provide sacrifice (6) |
FOREGO (hidden word [to provide] reversed [revolutionary] in ASTROLOGER OFFERS) FOREGO< |
FOREGO (give up or relinquish; sacrifice) |
| 23 | Component in cereal is source of protein (5,4) |
ITEM (component) contained in (in) WHEAT (cereal) WH (ITE M) EAT |
WHITE MEAT (source of protein) |
| 25 | Issue involving former partner quietly abandoning trip (7) |
EDITION |
EDITION (issue) |
| 27 | Pull girl over lounger (7) |
(DRAG [pull] + GAL [girl]) all reversed (over) (LAG GARD)< |
LAGGARD (colloquial term for a lounger) |
| 28 | Witch doctor crosses Peru naked (9) |
Anagram of (doctor) CROSSES containing (crosses) ER (letters remaining in SORC (ER) ESS* |
SORCERESS (witch) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Huge depletion in fossil fuel (8) |
LOSS (depletion) contained in (in) COAL (an example of a fossil fuel) CO (LOSS) AL |
COLOSSAL (huge) |
| 2 | Target of racism regularly ignored (3) |
AIM (letters remaining in RACISM when letters 1, 3 and 5 [regularly] are excluded [ignored]) AIM |
AIM (target) |
| 3 | Spare balls help when covers are taken off in match (8) |
PAR, ALL and EL (letters remaining in each of SPARE, BALLS and HELP when the outer letters [covers] SE, BS and HP are excluded [taken off]) PAR ALL EL |
PARALLEL (match) |
| 4 | Artist to leave, before returning forever (4) |
GO (leave) + AY (always; forever) reversed (returning) GO YA< |
GOYA (Francisco José de GOYA y Lucientes [1746 -1828] was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. |
| 5 | Guess I am stopping baby’s development; not good (10) |
I’M contained in (stopping) EST (IM) ATION |
ESTIMATION (guess) |
| 6 | A Republican blocks European getting early release (6) |
(A + R (Republican) contained in (blocks) POLE [native of Poland; European]) P (A R) OLE |
PAROLE (conditional early release [of a prisoner]) |
| 7 | An entertaining amateur actor (6) |
PER (for each; an) containing (entertaining) LAY (amateur) P (LAY) ER |
PLAYER (actor) |
| 9 | Perhaps Collins can start to explain including Iceland’s word meaning vulgarian? (10) |
(PHIL [reference PHIL Collins {born 1951}, drummer and singer in the rock band Genesis] + TIN [can] + E [first letter of {start to} EXPLAIN]) containing (including) IS (International Vehicle Registration for Iceland) PHIL (IS) TIN E |
PHILISTINE (person of material outlook, usually indifferent or hostile to culture; vulgarian) |
| 13 | A ring, twice damaged, is incriminating (10) |
Anagram of (damaged) A RING A RING (i.e. A RING twice) ARRAIGNING* |
ARRAIGNING (putting on trial; incriminating is defined as to charging with a crime or fault. Chambers Thesaurus has one as a synonym for the other) |
| 14 | Correspondents‘ conclusions after pound initially falls: request investment (3-7) |
PEN (enclosure; pound) + FRI (first letters of [initially] each of FAILS, REQUEST and INVESTMENT) + ENDS (conclusions) PEN FRI ENDS |
PEN FRIENDS (otherwise unknown persons (usually in different countries) who correspond with each other by letter, or possibly e-mail and text today) |
| 17 | Work in toilet, topless, to get drug (8) |
OP (opus; work) contained in (in) ATR (OP) INE |
ATROPINE (a poisonous alkaloid found in deadly nightshade, used in medicine eg for premedication) |
| 18 | Tells of possible consequences of close elections (8) |
RECOUNTS (if a vote is very close, there may be calls for one or RECOUNTS) RECOUNTS |
RECOUNTS (narrates or relates the particulars of) double definition |
| 20 | Single women enthralled by surrealist festival (6) |
(I [Roman numeral for one; single] + W [women]) contained in (enthralled by) DALI (reference Salvador DALI [1904 – 1989], Spanish surrealist artist) D (I W) ALI |
DIWALI (Hindu or Sikh festival of light held in October or November) |
| 21 | Beggar obtained backing – drinking time! (6) |
GOT (obtained) reversed (backing) containing (drinking) ERA TO (ERA) G< (period of time |
TOERAG (beggar, tramp) |
| 24 | Pull apart career (4) |
TEAR (pull apart) TEAR |
TEAR (move very fast; career) double definition |
| 26 | Anger as wife dismissed from Telegraph (3) |
IRE |
IRE (anger) |
Fantastic. I always appreciate the care Eccles puts into the surface constructions and this was a masterclass in that respect. In addition to the clues Duncan singled out, I would add that for PARALLEL. The S.E. quadrant took some work but all solved satisfactorily in the end. Thanks to Eccles and Duncan.
With the SE corner proving particularly challenging I found this at the tougher end of Eccles’ spectrum but it was as enjoyable as ever. He is a master of brief, accurate, humorous cluing.
Without thinking properly and ignoring the “component”, I initially put WHEAT GERM for 23a but eventually realised the error of my ways. Best three for me of a great selection were SMALLS, SORCERESS and ARRAIGNING.
Many thanks to Eccles and Duncan.
No problems for me in any quadrant – just a lovely enjoyable crossword
Many thanks to Eccles and B&J
The more Eccles puzzles I do, the more sorry I am that I came late to them. I’ll stop saying that now and just savour them.
There’s a lovely freshness about Eccles’ clues. I’ll add CHAMPAGNE, SCALPEL, ATELIER and DIWALI to favourites noted above.
Many thanks, Eccles, for the fun – a great start to a murky day.
Can’t say that I found this an easy solve by any means but I did thoroughly enjoy it.
Quite happy to go along with the choices of favourites already made – PHILISTINE in particular because of the mention of one of my all-time favourite singers.
Many thanks to Eccles for the challenge and to Duncan for the blog.
We struggled with EDITION and PHILISTINE: the former because we thought EX had to be included, not removed; the latter because we were thinking of a Collins as being a cocktail (as per Chambers). And we couldn’t parse PEN-FRIENDS.
A great crossword, though, with some nice misdirections here and there.
Incidentally, we didn’t see ‘crosses’ as doing double duty in SORCERESS – we just took it as an anagram of CROSSES + ER.
Thanks, Eccles and Duncan.
Duncan – my apologies for not thanking you for the blog. [I’m used to doing that first!]
allan@6 Same with me for SORCERESS.
Me too.
Me too.
Many thanks to Duncan and commenters.