Eccles is currently the most regular Wednesday setter for the Independent weekday series.
This was a puzzle of two halves for me. I made excellent progress on the top half, but slowed down significantly in the lower half.. My last two in were VIOLATOR and PIRACY. I just couldn’t think of the right instrument for VIOLATOR and it took me a long time to see the right meaning of plot in the PIRACY clue.
Eccles writes clues with good surfaces that serve to delay the understanding of the appropriate meaning of each word in the clue. Clues I liked particularly to day were those for STAPLE (for the supermarket setting), CHURR (with it’s allusion to a Test Cricket ground near Radcliffe Road) and ENDEAVOUR (with the well disguised use of US). Overall though, I think my favourite clue was the one for PIRACY derived from CONSPIRACY.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 1 | How the dealer struggles to be sincere (12) |
Anagram of (struggles) HOW THE DEALER WHOLEHEARTED* |
WHOLEHEARTED (zealous and sincere) |
| 9 | Dryer heat possibly requires one to do this (9) |
Anagram of (possibly) DRYER HEAT REHYDRATE* |
REHYDRATE (enable a person suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration to absorb water and recover) |
| 10 | Nag Republican wearing tights (5) |
R (Republican) contained in (wearing) HOSE (stockings; socks; tights) HO (R) SE |
HORSE (nag) |
| 11 | Cheer hot tennis player with shaved head (6) |
H (hot) + MURRAY (reference Sir Andy H URRAY |
HURRAY (cheer) |
| 12 | Depression of jet-setter? (5-3) |
BLACK [jet] + DOG [a setter is a breed of dog] BLACK DOG |
BLACK-DOG (depression) |
| 13 | Silicon filtered out of rank medicinal drink (6) |
PO POTION |
POTION (draught of liquid medicine; medicinal drink) |
| 15 | Introduction to "Happy New Year" composed in unspecified place (8) |
Anagram of (composed) H (first letter of [introduction to] HAPPY) and NEW YEAR ANYWHERE* |
ANYWHERE (unspecified place) |
| 18 | Picture left by scoundrel touring Italy (8) |
PORT (left) + (RAT [scoundrel] containing [touring] I [International Vehicle Registration for Italy]) PORT RA (I) T |
PORTRAIT (picture) |
| 19 | Rejected help at supermarket bagging essential food item (6) |
STAPLE (hidden word reversed in [rejected … bagging] HELP AT SUPERMARKET) STAPLE< |
STAPLE (main element of diet; essential food item) |
| 21 | Weather provided by sun god in autumn (8) |
RA (Egyptian sun god) + IN + FALL (autumn) RA IN FALL |
RAINFALL (type of weather) |
| 23 | Parody beginning of show, and finish (4,2) |
S (first letter of [beginning of] SHOW) + END UP (finish) S END UP |
SEND UP (parody) |
| 26 | The noise from cricket starts to cause havoc up Radcliffe Road (5) |
CHURR (first letters of [starts to] CAUSE, HAVOC UP, RADCLIFFE and ROAD) At the Trent Bridge cricket ground in Nottingham one of the ends of the pitch is referred to as the Radcliffe Road end CHURR |
CHURR (low trilling sound made by certain birds and insects [such as a cricket]) |
| 27 | Custom from Turkey: one daughter gets wasted in annexe (9) |
TR (International Vehicle Registration for Turkey) + A TR ADITION |
TRADITION (long established custom) |
| 28 | Spies soprano centre stage, wandering around (6,6) |
Anagram of (wandering around) S (soprano) and CENTRE STAGE SECRET AGENTS* |
SECRET AGENTS (spies) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Argument about son in love (7) |
ROW (argument) reversed (about) + S + HIP (trendy; in) WOR< S HIP |
WORSHIP (love) |
| 2 | Spare bishop from inconvenience (5) |
OTHER |
OTHER (spare) |
| 3 | Try to stop each victory of US (9) |
END (stop) + EA (each) + V (victory) + OUR (of us) END EA V OUR |
ENDEAVOUR (try) |
| 4 | Reportedly, Cockney bloke spotted Jacob’s brother (4) |
ESAU (sounds like [reportedly] E [HE, or ‘E as spoken by a cockney] SAW [spotted]) E SAU |
ESAU (son of Isaac and brother of Jacob) |
| 5 | Some Tories linger for alcoholic drink (8) |
RIESLING (hidden word in [some] TORIES LINGER) RIESLING |
RIESLING (type of grape grown esp in Germany and a dry white table wine produced from it) |
| 6 | Welcome cuts and so forth, in principle (5) |
HI (a welcome greeting) contained in (cuts) ETC (et cetera [and so forth]) ET (HI) C |
ETHIC (principle) |
| 7 | Resurrect memories of Unionists admitting terrible greed (6,2) |
DUP (Democratic Unionist Party [Northern Ireland political party]; Unionists) containing (admitting) an anagram of (terrible) GREED D (REDGE*) UP |
DREDGE UP (resurrect memories of) |
| 8 | Keen to include good, uplifting music (6) |
(EAGER [keen] containing [to include] G [good]) all reversed [uplifting; down clue]) (REG (G) AE)< |
REGGAE (strongly rhythmic form of music originating in Jamaica in the 1960s) |
| 14 | Theory oddly lacking conclusion (8) |
TER (letters 1, 3 and 5 [oddly] of THEORY) + MINUS (lacking) TER MINUS |
TERMINUS (end point; conclusion) |
| 16 | Contemptuous and essentially conceited group of criminals (9) |
WITH (and) + E (middle letter of [essentially] CONCEITED]) + RING (a combination or clique, especially one organized to control the market or for other self-seeking purpose; group of criminals) WITH E RING |
WITHERING (contemptuous) |
| 17 | Someone who desecrates instrument on hill (8) |
VIOLA (musical instrument) + TOR (hill or rocky height) VIOLA TOR |
VIOLATOR (one who treats disrespectfully or desecrates) |
| 18 | Robbery plot with no disadvantages (6) |
PIRACY |
PIRACY (robbery on the high seas) |
| 20 | Pays out most of cost to protect Duke (7) |
EXPENS EXPEN (D) S |
EXPENDS (pays out) |
| 22 | Shambles as Rooney originally included in side (5) |
R (first letter of [originally] ROONEY) contained in (included in) FACE (side of a solid geometrical figure) FA (R) CE |
FARCE (shambles) |
| 24 | See fit Scandinavian in conversation (5) |
DEIGN (sounds like [in conversations] DANE [native of Denmark; Scandinavian]) DEIGN |
DEIGN (think it fit or worthy of oneself to do something) |
| 25 | Dropping trousers, rector showing member (4) |
PAT (cowpat; dropping) containing (trousers) R (rector) PA (R) T |
PART (member) |
I always enjoy Eccles’ puzzles and this one was absolutely top drawer.
There were too many good clues to try to pick a single favourite, but in addition to the ones mentioned by Duncan I will just add BLACK DOG.
Brilliant, Eccles, many thanks, and thanks too to Duncan.
Great fun. For some reason, I got onto Eccles’ wavelength today and rattled this off. I suspect on a different day, I may well have struggled with some of this. CHURR was a new word for me. 25d reminds me of a Hoskins’ clue but I can’t recall what it was. Maybe somebody else can – it was a bit of a classic. If there’s anything hidden I have failed to spot it.
Thanks to Eccles and Duncan.
Another splendid Eccles crossword – thank you to him and Duncan
I did find the Hoskins’ clue I referred to @2. It wasn’t that similar but the clue was “Love husband taking down trousers (7)”.
For those fans of the slithery one, don’t miss today’s FT.
What the preceding three commenters have said.
Eccles has become firmly established among my top favourite setters and I’m delighted to see him appear so regularly.
Many thanks to him and to Duncan for he blog.
Great stuff! A puzzle of two halves for me too. I couldn’t parse Piracy until I came here, and I struggled with Reggae, despite thinking of eager early on – not my kind of music! Thanks Eccles and Duncan.
A delightful puzzle. We fairly rattled through it in a couple of passes; can’t say we noticed much difference in difficulty between top and bottom. And as Rabbit Dave@1 says, there were too many good clues to try to pick a single favourite.
Thanks, Eccles and Duncan.
If this is Wednesday it must be Eccles – well almost. I failed to parse PIRACY and the ‘US’ of ENDEAVOUR and took a long time to get REGGAE at the end, so it was more than challenging enough for me.
PART – an unexceptional word, but a memorable clue.
Thanks to Eccles and Duncan
Finished up with the correct answer to 25d but the parsing passed me by – how dim is that!
3d was my favourite for the clever use of US and I did laugh at 22d.
Thanks to Eccles and to Duncan for the blog – as clear and concise as ever.
Fascinating to see all these comments. I got everything except « part » not getting the meaning of trousers
Failed to parse TRADITION, PIRACY and PART, having forgotten about the use of TROUSERS. Hadn’t heard of BLACK DOG before now. Very good puzzle.
Cheers Duncan, and all who commented.
A day late but we’ve only just got around to this one.
All good fun, thanks Duncan for the parsing of 18d.
Thanks Eccles, hope you are keeping safe and well.