Today brings us the latest offering from our every-other-Wednesday setter, Eccles.
For me, this was pitched at exactly the right level for a mid-week puzzle, with challenge and entertainment on offer in equal measure.
I think that I have parsed everything to my satisfaction today. I didn’t know the fish at 6 or the expression for tired at 15, which appears to be mainly American usage, but both could be arrived at confidently via the wordplay.
My favourite clues today were 1A, for wordplay around “parliament” and “members”; 5D, 8, 22 and 24, all for making me smile; and 18, for smoothness of surface.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | BOW LEGS | Pleads with inspiring member of parliament to reveal bent members
OWL (=member of parliament, the collective noun for owls!) in BEGS (=pleads with); cryptically, bow legs are bent members! |
| 05 | SIDE-ON | Team being broadcast is not facing the front
SIDE (=team) + ON (=(being) broadcast, of programme) |
| 08 | WAIST | Fritter reportedly might affect this?
Homophone (“reportedly”) of “waste (=fritter (away), squander)”; eating fritters will affect one’s waist(line)! |
| 09 | ANTEATER | Insectivore’s tense, enthralled by American cattle with heads in electric railings
{T (=tense, in grammar) in [A (=American) + NEAT (=cattle)]} + E<lectric> R<ailings> (“heads in” means first letters only) |
| 11 | LOSS RATIO | Sailors to fake performance metric
*(SAILORS TO); “fake” is anagram indicator |
| 12 | OTAGO | Filling holes is game for children in part of New Zealand
TAG (=game for children) in O O (=holes, pictorially) |
| 13 | EDAM | Mother of Parisian sent back Dutch produce
MA (=mother) + DE (=of Parisian, i.e. the French word for of); “sent back” indicates reversal |
| 14 | UNDERPAY | Don’t provide enough support for carpet company, essentially, for final part of revival
UNDERLAY (=support for carpet); “company essentially (=middle letter)” means letter “p” replaces letter “l”, i.e. “final part of revival (=last letter)” |
| 18 | MEETINGS | Segment for organisation to describe current engagements
I (=current, in physics) in *(SEGMENT); “for organisation” is anagram indicator |
| 19 | BOON | Benefit of metalloid with no resistance
BO<r>ON (=metalloid, i.e. element combining features of metals and non-metals); “with no resistance (=R)” means letter “r” is dropped |
| 22 | NAVEL | Retiring televangelist exposes body part
Reversed (“retiring”) and hidden (“exposes”) in “teLEVANgelist” |
| 24 | PESTILENT | I slept with ten cooks, which is likely to lead to infectious disease
*(I SLEPT + TEN); “cooks” is anagram indicator |
| 25 | INFERIOR | Conclude Ireland is backward and second-rate
INFER (=conclude, deduce) + IOR (ROI=Ireland; “is backward” indicates reversal) |
| 26 | EPOCH | Before lunch, finally manage to go back in time
EPOC (COPE=manage; “to go back” indicates reversal) + <lunc>H (“finally” means last letter only) |
| 27 | GLUTEN | Protein excess seen regularly
GLUT (=excess) + <s>E<e>N (“regularly” means alternate letters only) |
| 28 | SHYSTER | Dodgy lawyer restricted by flashy stereotype
Hidden (“restricted”) in “flaSHY STEReotype” |
| Down | ||
| 01 | BEWILDERMENT | Speculate about angrier chaps’ confusion
[WILDER (=angrier) + MEN (=chaps)] in BET (=speculate) |
| 02 | WHIP SNAKE | Reptile in zoo died, replaced by aardvark ultimately
WHIPSNADE (=zoo, in Bedfordshire); “died (=D)” replaced by “aardvark ultimately (=last letter only, i.e. K)” means letter “d” becomes “k” |
| 03 | ENTIRE | No Trump may enter European country, uncastrated
[NT (=no trump(s), in cards)] in EIRE (=European country) |
| 04 | SCANTY | Inadequate soprano is unable to start to yodel
S (=soprano) + CAN’T (=is unable to) + Y<odel> (“start to”) |
| 05 | SET POINT | Important moment in match, when one might turn to jelly?
Cryptically, a liquid might turn to jelly at set(ting) point! |
| 06 | DRAGONET | Police search boxing ring for fish
O (=ring, pictorially) in DRAGNET (=police search, for a wanted person); a dragonet is a small Indo-Pacific marine fish |
| 07 | OPERA | Work together to remove two layers of clothing in musical performance
<co->OPERA<te> (=work together); “to remove two layers of clothing” means the first two letters and the last two letters are dropped |
| 10 | BODY SNATCHER | Criminal excited by hot dancers
*(BY HOT DANCERS); “excited” is anagram indicator |
| 15 | POOPED OUT | Tired due to partying after photo-op, oddly
P<o>O<t>O<o>P (“oddly” means odd letters only are used) + *(DUE TO); “tired” is anagram indicator |
| 16 | SILLIEST | Reclines in muddy sediment, which is most ridiculous
LIES (=reclines) in SILT (=muddy sediment) |
| 17 | EGYPTIAN | African film about swindle in Austria is boring
[GYP (=swindle, cheat) in ET (=film, by Stephen Spielberg)] + [A (=Austria, in IVR) in IN] |
| 20 | OSIRIS | Old personal assistant’s becoming underworld boss
O (=old) + SIRI (=personal assistant, on Apple devices) + ’S; Osiris was the god of the afterlife in Egyptian mythology |
| 21 | FINERY | About to leave oil production plant in glad rags
<re>FINERY (=oil production plant); “about (=re-) to leave” means letters “re-” are dropped |
| 23 | VENAL | Corrupt path very regressive
LANE (=path) + V (=very); “regressive” indicates reversal |
Loved WAIST and UNDERPAY.
Yet another brilliant puzzle from Eccles. The quality of both the clueing and the surface readings is impeccable. The surface of 3d provided a LOL moment.
I’ve never heard of the 6d fish, so this one needed a quick visit to Google for verification after following the instructions in the clue.
Pick any three from thirty for a podium choice.
Many thanks to Eccles and to RR.
Perhaps fortunately, I’ve never come across the performance metric, nor had I met the beautiful fish – must try to remember him.
A lot of great clues but the ones that stood out for me were BOW LEGS & SET POINT.
Thanks to Eccles and to RR for the review.
Another enjoyable crossword – thank you Eccles – my favourites were 1a and 8a
Thanks also to RR
When having a new floor installed last year I had the (infrequent but not to be missed) opportunity to point at the “carpet support” and shout “Underlay! Underlay! – I suppose it’s an old joke in that business as there were no chortles offered. That being said I felt(!) that the path to UNDERPAY was a bit tortuous. And I knew OPERA would be something like that (guess what I mean and do something with it – cf Bilbo Baggins?). A similar trick with FINERY which I decided was ‘livery’ and something to do with olives and their olfactory properties.
Apart from that there were many delights and BODY SNATCHER stood out for me – great anagram, great surface. Surfaces at a high level in general in fact. I look forward to my next Eccles.
Thanks both.
Had to come here to understand the parsing of my LOI, OSIRIS. Siri (or, indeed, Alexa) belong in other people’s worlds as far as I’m concerned. The usual excellent offering from Eccles.
Alphalpaha @5. The lack of chortles may be because Speedy Gonzales cartoons are not so well known these days so connecting “underlay” with “ándale” may have been beyond your audience. That’s all folks.
Quite a toughie as far as we were concerned and we had to resort to e-help. We couldn’t fully parse UNDERPAY and totally failed to parse EPOCH having read ‘finally’ to refer to the last letter of ‘manage’.
But we liked the bits we did get. Favourite was BOW LEGS once we remembered that sort of parliament.
Thanks, Eccles and RR.
Really liked this one. Very funny surfaces. Especially enjoyed the picture of a reptile having to be replaced by an aardvark. Time travel before lunch was amusing too, among the others already mentioned.
Hovis@7: Thanks for that – it’s not a great joke and it’s old (arcane?) now but its day doesn’t come around very often in life.
We have heard the joke so many times that now we carry a handful of coffee beans with us on every job. When the customer dares to say ‘Underlay Underlay!’ we simply chuck the coffee beans at them and shout ‘Arabica Arabica!’.
I wonder if there is a guitar shop equivalent when someway plays Stairway to Heaven …
Very late to this beauty. A slow solve with d
heavy eyelids but got there eventually.
BOW LEGS, SET POINT, ENTIRE, FINERY all excellent. Last in was the first bit of the snake. Failed to parse it & I live not too far away.
Thanks to Eccles & RR