Independent 10646 / Eccles

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Eccles makes his regular fortnightly appearance today

 

 

 

One of the features of  Eccles crosswords is the smoothness of the surface of his clues and the misdirection generated by some of the words.  There were some good examples today.  If I’ve got the reference right, the dotty cryptic definition for MAIDEN at 23 is very clever.  I also enjoyed the ‘Finnish’ dessert at 8 down.

With Eccles it is very unlikely that there will be a message or a theme as he just usually just concentrates on producing good clues, but I have a look anyway.  I didn’t find anything.

No Clue Wordplay Entry
Across
1 Caught fungal infection scratching backside, with your pen essentially inserted – that’s embarrassing (12)

C (caught) + (E [middle letter of [essentially] PEN contained in [inserted] [RINGWORM {fungal infection} excluding the final letter {scratching backside} M + THY {your}] )

C RING (E) WOR THY

 CRINGEWORTHY (acutely embarrassing)
9 Disorganised figure taking clothes off has problem (9)

SHAPE (figure) excluding the outer letters S and E (taking clothes off) + HAZARD (problem)

HAP HAZARD

 HAPHAZARD (disorganised)
10 Old fashioned doorman powerless, on reflection (5)

PORTER (doorman) excluding (less) P (power) reversed (on reflection)

RETRO<

RETRO (reminiscent of, reverting to, or recreating the past, especially for effect; old-fashioned)
11 As part of Commonwealth day I ran around city (6)

RIYADH (hidden word [part of] reversed [around] in COMMONWEALTH DAY I RAN)

RIYADH<

 RIYADH (capital city of Saudi Arabia)
12 Titillating at first, star novelist makes waves (8)

T (first letter of [at first] TITILLATING) + SUN (star) + AMIS (reference either of Kingsley [1922 – 1995] or Martin AMIS [born 1949], both are novelists)

T SUN AMIS

 TSUNAMIS (tidal waves)
13 Medic in court blocking entrance (6)

CT (court) contained in (blocking) DOOR (entrance)

DO (CT) OR

 DOCTOR (medic)
15 Make pleasant smell with fragrant plant (8)

HUM (smell) + ANISE (plant with aromatic seeds; fragrant plant)

HUM ANISE

 HUMANISE (make pleasant)
18         is caused by my repeated depression  and "Special One" going to pub (5,3)

SP (special) + ACE (number one) + BAR (pub)

SP ACE BAR

 SPACE BAR (repeated depression of the SPACE BAR will cause a series of blank characters to be produced as at the beginning of the clue)
19 Effective place to wee when camping? (6)

PO (chamberpot) + TENT (portable shelter used in camping), so a PO TENT would be where one goes to wee when camping

PO TENT

 POTENT (powerful; effective)
21 Forward unwise to ignore introduction from referee (8)

IMPRUDENT (unwise) excluding (to ignore) R (first letter of [introduction from] REFEREE)

IMPUDENT

 IMPUDENT (shamelessly bold; forward)
23 Dotty over young woman (6)

I think this a reference to cricket scoring where a MAIDEN over (one where there are no runs scored from the bat) is depicted in bowler’s records as six dots – hence the cryptic definition dotty over.

MAIDEN

 MAIDEN (young woman)
26 K Cobain’s widow provides spice (5)

Kurt Cobain [1967 – 1994] was a singer songwriter married to Courtney Love (born 1964) at the time of his death.  C LOVE therefore represents Courtney is the same form as K Cobain

C LOVE

 CLOVE (spice)
27 On my way to drink drop of malt – the French blend (9)

(COMING [on my way] containing [to drink] M [first letter of {drop of} MALT]) + LE (one of the French forms of ‘the’)

COM (M) ING LE

 COMMINGLE (mix together; blend)
28 Patriot’s song upset supporters (12)

Anagram of (upset) PATRIOTS SONG

PROTAGONISTS*

 PROTAGONISTS (advocates; supporters)
Down
1 That girl in school is stuck (7)

HER (that girl) contained in (in) COED (co-educational school)

CO (HER) ED

 COHERED (stuck)
2 Suggest, in a feeble manner, going topless (5)

LIMPLY (in a feeble manner) excluding the first letter (going topless; down entry) L

IMPLY

 IMPLY (suggest)
3 Organised criminal is impressive (9)

Anagram of (criminal) ORGANISED

GRANDIOSE*

 GRANDIOSE (imposing; impressive)
4 River sport (4)

WEAR (reference the river WEAR in North East England which flows to the sea in Sunderland)

WEAR

 WEAR (be dressed in; display; sport)
5 Endures river that is flooding Oxford University (5,3)

R (river) + (ID EST [that is] containing (flooding) OU [Oxford University])

R ID ES (OU) T

 RIDES OUT (gets safely through; survives; endures)
6 Leading man’s new bird (5)

HERO (leading man) + N (new)

HERO N

HERON (large long-legged, long-necked wading bird)
7 Male animal in discomfort beginning to emit unpleasant chemical (8)

(TOM [male cat] contained in [in] PAIN [discomfort]) + E (first letter of [beginning to] EMIT)

P (TOM) AIN E

PTOMAINE (loosely used name for amino-compounds, some poisonous, formed from putrefying animal tissues)
8 Dessert in Finland mostly served up with peel of star-apple (6)

SUOMI (Finland) excluding the final letter (mostly) I reversed (served up; down entry) + SE (outer letters of [peel of] STAR-APPLE)

MOUS< SE

 MOUSSE (type of dessert)
14 Cold meat pie with no base concerning Victor (6)

C (cold) + HAM (type of meat) + PIE excluding (no) E (base of natural logarithms) + ON (concerning)

C HAM PI ON

 CHAMPION (victor)
16 Love how much fuss one can receive? (9)

ADO (fuss) + RATION (fixed allowance or portion; amount that can be received)

ADO RATION

 ADORATION (love)
17 Wooden panelling was hemming in bed (8)

WAS containing (hemming) IN + COT (type of bed)

WA (IN) S COT

 WAINSCOT (woodwork panelled on an interior wall)
18 Evacuated station with long grass (6)

SN (letters remaining in STATION when the central letters TATIO are removed [evacuated]) + ITCH (yearn; long)

SN ITCH

 SNITCH (inform; grass)
20 Bores head back north and get lost regularly (7)

NUT (head) reversed (back) + N (north) + ELS (letters 2, 4 and 6 [regularly] GET LOST)

TUN< N ELS

 TUNNELS (bores)
22 Gloomy daughter’s back (5)

D (daughter) + REAR (back)

D REAR

 DREAR (gloomy)
24 Artist to prepare air-free environment? (5)

DE GAS (take the gas out of, creating a vacuum; prepare an air-free environment)

DE GAS

 DEGAS (reference Edgar DEGAS [1834 – 1917], French impressionist artist)
25 Sticks up for superior (4)

GUMS (sticks) reversed (up; down entry)

SMUG<

 SMUG (superior)

17 comments on “Independent 10646 / Eccles”

  2. Thanks to Eccles for another great puzzle and to DS for the customary excellent blog. The clue for MAIDEN is as good as any I’ve seen this year

  4. Another excellent Eccles Wednesday.   I particularly liked 18a but could have listed many more.   And, and it is big AND, I did understand the clue for MAIDEN thanks to a spell of village cricket scoring many many moons ago

    Thanks to Eccles and Dancan

  5. I could only guess how Maiden worked but when explained it’s excellent.  Likewise I needed Duncan to confirm my hazy understanding of Cringeworthy and Haphazard.  Thanks Eccles and Duncan.

  6. I had thirteen ticks – obviously far too many to list, so I’ll go along with crypticsue’s top favourite. (I can’t say ‘what crypticsue said’ today, because I didn’t know the dotty over.)

    many thanks to Eccles, as ever and to Duncan.

  7. Eccles maintains his usual very high standard of cluing with smooth surface readings throughout.

    I was rather puzzled by 18a when working from a print out which had inconveniently omitted the space at the start of the clue.   When I spotted that the clue didn’t begin with a capital “i”, I was able to guess what had happened.

    1a was 1a but it did make me laugh.   DEGAS deserves a special mention, but MAIDEN was my runaway favourite.

    Many thanks to Eccles and to Duncan.

  8. Great fun as usual.  MAIDEN was right up my street, but I was fearing that the opinions on here would be that referring to a piece of cricket scoring terminology was unfairly obscure.  Glad to see that that’s not the case.

    The spaces at the start of 18a also failed to reproduce on the Independent online site, so that caused us some confusion, but as with Rabbit Dave @7 we were able to deduce what had gone wrong when we got the answer from the wordplay.

    Thanks to Eccles and to Duncan.

  9. Splendid puzzle.  Second today where I’ve been defeated by one (SPACE BAR) which I should have got but failed to appreciate the significance of the space.  Shake Bar (milkshakes in a pub???) was my rather pathetic and unparsed attempt.

    Along with those already mentioned – MAIDEN obviously but also RD’s two additions of DEGAS and CRINGEWORTHY – I’d highlight SNITCH for its beautifully smooth surface, CHAMPION and WAINSCOT which were fun to construct, ADORATION for the cryptic definition and the wordplay for TUNNELS.

    Thanks to Eccles and Duncan for the thorough blog.

  10. Great puzzle. I didn’t know 7d but it was neatly clued and solveable and I needed the blog to explain 23A.

    Thanks to Eccles and Duncan.

  11. I did need to look up the alternative name for Finland and was unsure about all those M’s in 27a but no problem with MAIDEN, although it was doubtless an inspired guess!

    CRINGEWORTHY and DEGAS took top honours with a mention for PTOMAINE which reminded me of that poor lad stuck in Camp Granada!

    Thanks to Eccles and to Duncan for the review.

  12. We too were puzzled by 18ac, but thought something unusual must be going on with the clue not starting with a capital letter.  We blame the software.  And in 14dn we took ‘with no base’ simply to mean dropping the last letter of ‘pie’ as it was a down clue – although identifying the base as ‘e’ is a neat touch which would allow use in an across clue.

    We were held up in the NW quadrant by initially putting ‘Test’ for 4dn – thinking of the Hampshire river and a test match for the sport, but once we got the right river we were able to finish.

    All very sound and satisfying.  Thanks, Eccles and Duncan.

  14. Joyce used to score for her school cricket team (many years ago) so understood MAIDEN. 19ac raised a laugh from both of us so that probably means it was our COD.

    Good to see an Eccles puzzle receiving more comments.

    Thanks to Eccles and Duncan.

  15. Excellent stuff. Space bar a clear winner of COD, but I also liked the Finnish pud and the use of id est in 5d. I guessed the over in 23a implied cricket, but needed the blog to understand it. Thanks to Eccles and Duncan. It’s being a good week in the Indy so far.

  16. Late to the party as usual but you probably heard my groan (followed by big smile) when I realised why it was maiden.

    Great puzzle and only parsing of 1A escaped me so thanks to Duncan for that (and the rest of the blog) and Eccles for the usual high quality offering.

  17. Thanks to Duncan and all commenters.  A pity 18a had problems in some places – I originally wrote it as My depression repeatedly results in             “Special one” going to pub (5,3), but change it because the spaces could easily occur between lines, so not be obvious.  I thought putting them at the start would avoid problems. I had the same worry about 23a as DavidO, so I’m relieved that it went down well.

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