Eccles and I seem to meet regularly on a Wednesday. I am perfectly happy with that.
As usual, Eccles treats us to some excellent surfaces which generate answers that make us admire the setter’s craft. My favourites today were the clues for GAZETTEERS (24 across) and MEETING HOUSE (3 down). Others worthy of mention are the clues for LAST MINUTE (1 across), FESTIVE (19 across), INDISCRETION (20 across) , and VIOLATE (1 down)
There were a couple of clues where we had to remove a letter from a constituent part of the wordplay and that letter occurred twice. As I mention in the detail of the blog, it was obvious which occurrence had to be removed to generate the required entry, but there was no specific indication as to whether it was the first occurrence (the K in KICK-OFF as part of 5 down) or the second occurrence (the E in FINESSE as part of 19 down). I wonder if some solvers feel that the location of the omitted letter should have been given?
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| Across | |||
| 1 | Frantic preparation of stimulant drug (4-6) |
Anagram of (preparation of) STIMULANT + E (ecstasy; drug) LAST MINUT* E |
LAST MINUTE (made or done with very little time to spare, usually in a frantic way) |
| 6 | Fishing bait left next to river (4) |
L (left) + URE (river in North Yorkshire) L URE |
LURE (fishing bait) |
| 9 | Titillate Republican with depraved habit in China? (3-7) |
TEASE (titillate) + R (Republican) + VICE (depraved habit) TEA SE R VICE |
TEA SERVICE (descriptive of a set of china cups, saucers and plates used to SERVe TEA) |
| 10 | Earth surrounded by manure forms natural fuel (4) |
E (earth) contained in (surrounded by) PAT (cowPAT; manure) P (E) AT |
PEAT (a natural fuel) |
| 12 | Record individual study about Baltic, oddly (12) |
BIOGRAPHY (written account or history of the life of an individual; individual study) containing (about) BLI (letters 1, 3 and 5 [oddly] of BALTIC BI (BLI) OGRAPHY |
BIBLIOGRAPHY (a list or record of books on a particular subject or by a single author, for instance) |
| 15 | By autumn, Fawkes was one? (4,3) |
FALL (a term for autumn, mostly used in North America) + GUY (reference GUY Fawkes and the gunpowder plot of 1605. Fawkes was the man discovered in the Houses of Parliament with barrels of the explosives) FALL GUY |
FALL GUY (victim or scapegoat) |
| 16 | Chance to cover masts with sails in warship (7) |
FATE (chance) containing (to cover) RIG (masts and sails) F (RIG) ATE |
FRIGATE (type of warship) |
| 17 | Competitive runner from Australia mostly terrible (7) |
EMU (Australian lightless bird that runs very fast) + LOUS EMU LOUS |
EMULOUS (keen to achieve or obtain the same success or excellence as someone else; competitive) |
| 19 | Celebratory number contains beat but no bass (7) |
FIVE (number) containing (contains) BEST (beat) excluding (no) B (bass) F (EST) IVE |
FESTIVE (celebratory) |
| 20 | At home, consider it inappropriate to show boob (12) |
IN (at home) + an anagram of (inappropriate) CONSIDER IT IN DISCRETION* |
INDISCRETION (mistake; boob) |
| 23 | Everybody’s got the back of lovely colleague (4) |
ALL (everyone) + Y (last letter of [back of] LOVELY ALL Y |
ALLY (colleague) |
| 24 | They list places iconic scene from Italia’90 may be heard? (10) |
GAZETTEERS (sounds like GAZZA [Paul Gascoigne, footballer] + TEARS) Gascoigne famously cried during the 1990 World Cup (Italia’90) when he received a yellow card that would have excluded him from the final if England had reached that far. England were knocked out in the semi-final by Germany in a penalty shoot-out GAZETTEERS |
GAZETTEERS (alphabetical lists of geographical places) |
| 25 | Comfort stop about to be dropped (4) |
EASE |
EASE (comfort) |
| 26 | Presses tropical islands to protect butterfly, perhaps (10) |
KEYS (tropical islands) containing (to protect) STROKE (butterfly is a swimming stroke) KEY (STROKE) S |
KEYSTROKES (presses) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Delayed break, losing 6-0 (4) |
LATE |
LATE (delayed) |
| 2 | Crazy military commander leaves African island trauma (4) |
SCAR |
SCAR (shock; trauma) |
| 3 | Enemies ought to work in place of worship (7,5) |
Anagram of (to work) ENEMIES OUGHT MEETING HOUSE* |
MEETING HOUSE (house or building where people, especially Quakers, meet for public worship) |
| 4 | Month with evangelical Tory on vacation? That’s different! (7) |
NOV (November; month) + EL (letters remaining in E NOV EL TY |
NOVELTY (anything new or different) |
| 5 | Tense before start of game, Kelvin escapes reprimand (4,3) |
T (tense) + T ICK OFF |
TICK OFF (reprimand) |
| 7 | Stress free? Chin up mate, could be very different (10) |
Anagram of (could be very different) CHIN UP MATE UNEMPHATIC* |
UNEMPHATIC (without stress) |
| 8 | Basic flat under guard when roof is blown off (5-5) |
ENTRY LEVEL |
ENTRY LEVEL (suitable for someone with no previous experience who is seeking to make a career in that industry; basic) |
| 11 | Amateur enthusiast coaches snooker player (12) |
TRAINS (coaches) + POTTER (a snooker player, for example) TRAINS POTTER |
TRAINSPOTTER (informal term for a person who takes a detailed or obsessive interest in a subject) |
| 13 | Letter by female artist at end of guide camp (10) |
EF (the letter F) + F (female) + EMIN (reference Tracey EMIN [born 1963], artist) + AT + E (last letter of [end of] GUIDE) EF F EMIN AT E |
EFFEMINATE (womanish; posturing; camp) |
| 14 | Iris filled us with extremely reasonable worries (5-2-3) |
Anagram of (worries) FILLED US and RE (first and last letters of [extremely] REASONABLE) FLEUR–DE–LIS* |
FLEUR-DE-LIS (another name for an iris) |
| 18 | Superficial and loveless bad-tempered expression (7) |
S SUR FACE |
SURFACE (superficial) |
| 19 | Health tracker’s introduction welcomed by Polish, but not English (7) |
T (first letter of [introduction] TRACKER) contained in (welcomed by) FINESS FI (T) NESS |
FITNESS (health) |
| 21 | Go in search of follower of religion, we hear (4) |
SEEK (sounds like SIKH [adherent of a monotheistic religion established in the 16th century by those former Hindus who rejected the authority of the Vedas, taking the Granth as their scripture]) SEEK |
SEEK (go in search of) |
| 22 | Questions coronavirus protection measure, moving metre away (4) |
ASKS |
ASKS (questions) |
The consistently high standard of Eccles’ puzzles is amazing, and this one is right up there with the best of his compositions. It was a joy to solve, and I learnt a new word in 17a.
Being spoilt for choice, picking a favourite from his crosswords is always a tough task but today I am going to settle for 9a – what a good surface! – just ahead of 24a.
Many thanks to Eccles and to Duncan.
what rabbit dave said
I found this week’s Eccles slightly trickier than usual but as enjoyable as ever
Thanks to him and Duncan
I can only say ‘hear hear’ to the foregoing. Excellent puzzle, no quibbles, every clue a favourite, so thanks Eccles also to Duncan for the blog.
I agree with all the above!
Many thanks to Eccles and Duncan.
Very nice. 17 was new but very solvable. LOI 26 was my favourite as I originally misdirected myself in several directions simultaneously.
A superb puzzle. GAZETTEERS in particular was outstanding.
Thank you Eccles and Duncan
Wewere mostly on Eccles’ wavelength today as we solved this without too much difficulty – SURFACE took a while to get, but then our last two, GAZETTEERS and KEYSTROKES fell into place.
We liked BIBLIOGRAPHY, LATE, SCAR and MEETING HOUSE.
There are some setters who take the trouble to indicate which of two occurrences of a letter to remove, but we think it may depend on how easy it is to include in the clue while maintaining a smooth surface.
Thanks, Eccles and Duncan
Agreed. Great crossword with lovely surfaces. 14d a favourite among many. Enjoyed Gazza’s tears. Thanks for the blog, too!
Excellent puzzle as many have already said.
My top prize goes to 2down with Gazza’s tears a very close second
Very enjoyable puzzle from today’s setter with a new word for me in 17a and a couple of bits of parsing that had to be sorted out post-solve.
Thanks to Eccles and also to Duncan for the review.
Wonderful addition to Eccles’(s) already great oeuvre.
Rabbit Dave @1 sums it up perfectly well.
Although …. I couldn’t see how GAZZATEERS worked – silly me, now a favourite.
And 22dn was another brilliant clue, simple but brilliant.
Perhaps, our blogger has a point with what he said about Kelvin (5dn) but it didn’t bother me.
Eccles, precision, fine surfaces, no gimmicks or themes. All very natural, all very very good.
Many thanks to duncanshiell for the blog, and Eccles (nuff said).
Many thanks to Duncan for the blog, and to all who commented. Regarding which of two occurrences of a letter to remove, my thought aren’t that far away from what Allan_C suggests – it is nice if I can, but I don’t tend to worry if I can’t (as long as the cryptic instructions don’t say that all examples of a letter are removed). I consider that if a solver can think of the correct synonym and work out what the wordplay must be, then it is not going to be beyond them to decide which of the two possibilities for deletion are correct.