It’s Wednesday and we have an Eccles to blog.
What else can we say, that hasn’t been said before in previous blogs? Always a pleasure to solve – we’ve already said that. Neat clueing – we’ve said that too. Smooth surfaces – yes, we’ve commented on that before. Clues that raise a smile – we are pretty sure we have made that comment too.
Perhaps we can say thanks to Eccles for another great puzzle but we are positive that we have said that as well.
SINES (functions as used in mathematics) inside or ‘stopping’ BUS and CAR (people carriers) D (first letter or ‘beginning’ to depreciate)
E (European) YES (certainly) TRAIN (file)
A reversal or ‘overturning’ of SIX AM (early in the morning)
Regular letters in uKraIniAn pOweRboAt
PINE (long) around or ‘accepting’ A (first letter or ‘piece’ of advice) FOR (in place of)
RUFF (Trump as in the old card game) around or ‘accepting’ NO. We had to check the card game, but what a great surface!
S (Sweden) after an anagram of CLIMATE – anagrind is ‘changed’
If something is described as ‘shorter and thicker’ it may well be SQUATTER
CUP (mug) RUM (drink) – a new word for us
A homophone (‘audibly’) of WHY (what’s the reason) TOUT (to push)
STATUtE (law) without T (time) or with ‘time running out’
U (university) inside for ‘donning’ GAG (joke) E (English)
A (American) FA (football authority) STUCK (baffled) about B (British)
CT (court) around or ‘over’ ATTLEE (former PM) which is also around MARK (obsolete currency)
BEAKER (one of the Muppet characters) around R (Republican) – we did have to check the name of the Muppet
Hidden or ‘found’ in waSTELAnd
An anagram of TRIP OFTEN – anagrind is ‘scattering’
StEAM (hot water) without or ‘dropping’ T (temperature)
CAN (is able to) TICkLE (delight) without or ‘passing’ K (king)
RUM (strange) BA (graduate). We are looking forward to Bill Bailey’s rumba next Saturday!
EX (former) PORTER (doorman)
SSSS (4 ‘souths’ or ‘points repeatedly’) around or ‘nursing’ E (last letter or ‘close’ to collapse) after A (advanced)
UTILiSe (employ) missing last letter or ‘mostly’ and substituting U (union) for i (‘initial’ letter of insurgents) after AN reversed or ‘uprising’
A reversal or ‘returning’ of AN TET (offensive – as in the Vietnam war) NU (Greek letter – ‘from Athens’) after MO (short time)
An anagram of ETRUSCAN – anagrind is ‘bust’ – we’d vaguely heard of the word
An anagram of WEE and GAS – anagrind is ‘mixture of’
A homophone (‘reportedly’) of MERE (only) + CAT (pet)
Hidden or ‘shown’ in obscENE MAgazine
Triple definition
FlAKE (bar of chocolate) with L (left) omitted or ‘out’
B&J’s introduction sums up perfectly the problem of what to say when it is “Eccles Wednesday”
So I’ll agree with them and then Eileen can agree with all three of us 😉 and we’re sorted
Thanks to all concerned
Make it (at least) four of us in full agreement.
Brilliant!
Many thanks to Eccles and to B&J.
A few Ks, Q, X…. Aha, a pangram! Nope, The devious Eccles strikes again. I only knew Kia-Ora from cinema days long ago. As usual I found it hard going for a few minutes then wondered why later on, as everything fell neatly into place. Thanks to S and Bs.
Sorted. 😉
…but I’d just like to expand a bit.
I gave ticks to about a dozen clues, so I’ll just mention those I gave double ticks. I really enjoyed working out the construction of 1 BUSINESS CARD and 28ac CATTLE MARKET (‘stock exchange’) and 16dn MOUNT ETNA (since I hadn’t then sussed CUPRUM, the initial M initially made me think of ‘lum’, the usual ‘smoker’) and admired the surfaces – and 5dn CANTICLE tickled me, too!
Many thanks to Eccles and B&J for a super puzzle and blog.
[Another brilliant puzzle from Vlad (Tyrus) in the Guardian today. ]
Another double thumbs up from me – excellent! For info, “kia ora” is Maori for “good health” and is also a range of concentrated fruit juices, which were very popular when I was a lad. Haven’t seen it for years but seems to be still made. Thanks Eccles and N&J.
Tanks Eccles and B&J, cuprum itself is a bit obscure but it long lives on in why Copper= Cu though.
Excellent, so thanks to Eccles. And I couldn’t parse Mount Etna, not knowing the Vietnam war reference, so thanks to Bertandjoyce for that (among the rest).
That’s twice today I’ve needed to remember details of the Vietnam War! If I hadn’t encountered the first, I’d have failed on the second. CUPRUM was new to me too and, for a moment, I thought it was a policeman and similar, if shorter, than panjandrum. And then the penny – or should I say the copper – dropped and now I know where ‘Cu’ comes from, as Flashling points out.
I loved the surfaces for RUN OFF, GAUGE and (although slightly nauseating) SEWAGE, the SSSS device in ASSESS (similar to the LLL in Radian’s LULL yesterday), and the unexpected definition in PINAFORE (I was somewhat disadvantaged in that, despite its prevalence in the news this year, PPE still means Politics, Philosophy & Economics to me so I wasn’t looking for the solution in remotely the right area). COTD is CATTLE MARKET: I may possibly have seen something similar before but, whether I did or not, it’s a lovely misdirect and a believable surface.
I was expecting someone more scientific than me to query hot water = steam. It didn’t stop me solving but we wouldn’t say ice was cold water – or would we? Frozen water, yes, but that implies a change in state for which, I imagine, boiled or evaporated water would be the steamy equivalent. My only slight ‘meh’ moment was RUMBA which, at some point, every setter seems to discover can be clued as it has been today.
Thanks Eccles and B&J
Reflecting on my wee gripe it struck me I shouldn’t just criticise if I’m not prepared to have a go myself so volunteer “Getting drink on British Airways requires nifty footwork (5)” as an alternative approach. Not that, I suspect, it will be seen by many, if any, given the relatively low post count on the Indy page in recent times.
PostMark @9. Steam is defined in Chambers as “water in the form of a gas or vapour,” and ice as “frozen water”, so I think the clue for 4d is fine.
Like our bloggers, I had to check on CUPRUM and the Muppets character but I was OK with RUFF because is turned up in a recent puzzle, although the explanation of it in Bridge terms was a whole new unknown to me!
No problems with Kiaora as our BD Wednesday bloggers from NZ use it as their regular greeting and I also remember that ghastly TV advert for orange squash from years ago.
My favourite was the short, thick uninvited guest, made me laugh and I’m sure I’ve met him at parties in the past!
Thanks to Eccles and to B&J for the review.
Finally Beaker comes up in a crossword! after all those guinea pig moments ..about time he got the recognition he so justly deserves.. 5 stars all round!
thanks Eccles and Bertandjoyce
“Ruff” can also mean “trump” in modern bridge (and perhaps other games with trumps?), as in “South threw her last diamond on dummy’s ace of spades and then ruffed a diamond in hand.”
Needed quite a bit of help and hadn’t heard 11ac (when I got the K and A I knew it wouldn’t be something I knew) but 1d was the first one in, as I grew up with Beaker and friends!
Oh, and thanks Eccles and bertandjoyce! I couldn’t enjoy these without the puzzles <i>and</i> the explanations.
We’ll join the party, if we may, with B&J, CS, RD and Eileen. Great stuff!
Thanks, Eccles – and B&J of course.
Thanks to B&J and all commenters. I’ll agree that rumba isn’t the most original clueing in the world, it always seems to be clued rum + ba – although I’ve just had an idea to save for next time.