Eccles continues to deliver crosswords with excellent surfaces for clever clues.
This week we have a crossword with a strong political theme, but I wonder whether Eccles realised that one of his featured people would be history rather than current when the crossword was published.
We have many references to Liz Truss, now former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the new United Kingdom King, Charles. There was also another political reference in the clue for 15 across as Mark Field was the Conservative MP for the Cities of London and Westminster from 2001 to 2019. The entry, BELIZE, at 9 down can be viewed as political as well with its reference to tax havens.
The surfaces of many clues were excellent. I will highlight just four – the ones for EPIGLOTTIS and TILDE which both had well disguised definitions, plus INERTIA and BANE which painted very clear word pictures. BANE was my last one in when I was faced with the dreaded ‘Blank A Blank E’ for a four letter word. I believe there are around 150 possible words that can be formed from that construction. Indeed the other two of my last three in, which intersected at 23 across and 24 down, also had Blank A Blank E in the incomplete grid I still had in front of me. I got GAVELS reasonably quickly but SHARE I had to think about quite a bit.
CATION in the wordplay for 1 down was a new term for me. I was aware of ION as a charged particle, but not the positively charged CATION.
As ever, thanks to Eccles for an tough but satisfying workout.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 |
Help us with nothing to be fair (2-2) SO-SO (neither very good nor very bad; fair) SOS (appeal for help or rescue) + O (character representing zero; nothing) SO S O |
| 3 |
Sit back after English airman captures German in a flap (10) EPIGLOTTIS (cartilaginous flap over the entrance to the larynx or windpipe) E (English) + (PILOT [airman] containing [captures] G [German]) + SIT reversed (back) E PI (G) LOT TIS< |
| 10 |
Short feel, entertaining partner, is unprofessional (7) AMATEUR (some one who is not a professional; unprofessional) AURA (atmosphere; feel) excluding the final letter (short) A containing (entertaining) MATE (partner) A (MATE) UR |
| 11 |
Gastropod found in American sausage, reportedly (7) ABALONE (any of several marine snails, constituting the genus Haliotis and family Haliotidae in the subclass Prosobranchia [class Gastropoda]; gastropod) A (American) + BALONE (sounds like [reportedly] BOLONEY [American term for a Bologna sausage]) A BALONE |
| 12 |
Melting ice cap close to Finnish social gathering (7) CEILIDH (especially in Scotland and Ireland, an informal evening with traditional music and dancing; social gathering) Anagram of (melting) ICE + LID (cap) + H (final letter of [close to] FINNISH) CEI* LID H |
| 13 |
Plastic factory covers island (6) PLIANT (flexible; plastic) PLANT (factory) containing (covers) I (island) PL (I) ANT |
| 15 |
Mark Field ‘visiting’ Truss and unloading: I’m outraged! (5) TILDE (the diacritical sign used over n in Spanish to indicate the sound nyi) FIELD excluding (unloading) FIE (interjection denoting disapprobation or disgust, real or feigned; I am outraged) contained in (visiting) TIE (truss) TI (LD) E |
| 16 |
Dash to capture crippled flotillas, essentially, in battle (2,7) EL ALAMEIN (reference the Battle of EL ALAMEIN fought in the Second World War in Egypt from late October to early November 1942) ELAN (vigour and style; dash) containing (to capture) (LAME [crippled] + I [central letter of {essentially} FLOTILLAS]) EL A (LAME I) N |
| 18 |
Male wearing fancy leotard’s an artist (3,6) OLD MASTER (any great painter of a period previous to the 19 century [especially of the Renaissance]) M (male) contained in (wearing) an anagram of (fancy) LEOTARD’S OLD (M) ASTER* |
| 21 |
Hence, Greek character is found in Olympic city (5) SOCHI (Russian city that hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics) SO (hence) + CHI (character of the Greek alphabet) SO CHI |
| 23 |
Donated large and small hammers (6) GAVELS (judges’ or auctioneers’ hammers) GAVE (donated) + L (large) + S (small) GAVE L S |
| 25 |
Tries to collect quantity of food (not peppers, initially) for reptiles (7) GECKOES (lizards of the genus of the same name) GOES (attempts; tries) containing (to collect) PECK (slang term for food) excluding (not) P (first letter of [initially] PEPPERS) G (ECK) OES |
| 27 |
Sloth starts to investigate new environs, requiring trees in abundance (7) INERTIA (sloth) INERTIA (first letters of [starts to] each of INVESTIGATE, NEW, ENVIRONS, REQUIRING, TREES, IN and ABUNDANCE) INERTIA |
| 28 |
Military leader from Iron Age rejected separately (7) NORIEGA (reference General Manuel NORIEGA [1934 – 2017], ruler of Panama from 1983 to 1989) IRON reversed (rejected) + AGE reversed (rejected) showing that the component parts are reversed separately rather than the concatenated EGANORI NORI< EGA< |
| 29 |
Gauge fight to restrict colonial worker beginning to expostulate for India (5,5) WATER METER (example of a measuring gauge) WAR (fight) containing (to restrict) (TERMITE [white ant, an insect that ‘works’ in a colony; colonial worker) with E (first letter of [beginning to] EXPOSTULATE replacing (for) I (India is the international radio communication codeword for the letter I) WA (TER METE) R |
| 30 |
Source of misery is wailing female (she is wasted) (4) BANE (source of misery) BANSHEE (female spirit who wails and shrieks before a death in a household) excluding (is wasted) SHE BANE |
| Down | |
| 1 |
Truss charged unit for holiday (10) STAYCATION (holiday in which leisure activities are pursued whilst staying at one’s home) STAY (prop or support; truss) + CATION (positively-charged ion) STAY CATION |
| 2 |
Well-prepared speech about a new King Charles? (7) SPANIEL (King Charles is a breed of small spaniel made fashionable by King Charles II) SPIEL (glib plausible style of talk associated especially with salespeople; well prepared speech) containing (about) (A + N [new]) SP (A N) IEL |
| 4 |
Old paper, The Guardian, welcomes Charlie the King (9) PARCHMENT (skin of a sheep, goat, or other animal prepared for writing on; fine-quality writing paper resembling it; old paper) PARENT (guardian) containing (welcomes) (C [cocaine; Charlie] + HM [His Majesty the King]) PAR (C HM) ENT |
| 5 |
Seize file with ‘Government’ on the front (5) GRASP (seize and hold) G (government) + RASP (a coarse file) G RASP |
| 6 |
Music producer trapped in Mondeo car in accident (7) OCARINA (musical instrument; music producer) OCARINA (hidden word in [trapped in] MONDEO CAR IN ACCIDENT) OCARINA |
| 7 |
Turkey and large cat walk over (7) TROUNCE (defeat comprehensively; walk over) TR (International Vehicle Registration for Turkey) + OUNCE (snow leopard; bug cat of Asia) TR OUNCE |
| 8 |
She wrote about Adrian M getting fat (4) SUET (solid fatty tissue) SUE T (SUE Townsend wrote the Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4, so write SUE T in the form of Adrian M) SUE T |
| 9 |
In tax haven, Truss embraces competition? On the contrary (6) BELIZE (Caribbean country of the north coast of Central America. It is a haven that allows individuals and corporations to legally reduce their tax liabilities) BEE (gathering of people for a competition) containing (embraces) (LIZ (reference Elizabeth (LIZ) Truss, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) This is the opposite (on the contrary) of the wordplay set out in the clue BE (LIZ) E |
| 14 |
Low speed, in case pal’s struggling (6,4) SNAIL’S PACE (very slow speed) Anagram of (struggling) IN CASE PAL’S SNAIL’S PACE |
| 17 |
Orange car somehow suggests overconfidence (9) ARROGANCE (undue assumption of importance; conceit; overconfidence) Anagram of (somehow) ORANGE CAR ARROGANCE* |
| 19 |
Current treatment to prop up face and tongue (7) DIALECT (form of language; tongue) DIAL (face [of a clock]) + ECT (electroconvulsive therapy [treatment using a current)] In this down entry, the letters ECT are below and act as a prop for the letters DIAL DIAL ECT |
| 20 |
Accomplice‘s response to ‘B: Good’? (7) ABETTER (accomplice) But ‘A BETTER‘ is a possible response to B GOOD? A BETTER |
| 21 |
Rescue flailing Truss (6) SECURE (fasten; teher; truss) Anagram of (flailing) RESCUE SECURE* |
| 22 |
Study with conclusion ignored contains flaw, leading to disease (7) CHOLERA (acute and frequently fatal infection of the small intestine; disease) CRAM (prepare for an examination, etc by hasty and intensive learning; study) excluding the final letter (with conclusion ignored) M containing (contains) HOLE (error; flaw) C (HOLE) RA |
| 24 |
Believe singer on the radio a lot (5) SHARE (sounds like [on the radio] CHER [born 1946]. American singer who, in 1998, released a very successful album entitled Believe) SHARE (allocation; lot) SHARE |
| 26 |
Compete with prospect (4) VIEW (prospect) VIE (compete) + W (with) VIE W |
Pleased to finish this without aids with BANE the loi. Was just about to give up on that one when the answer suddenly struck me. Got SHARE but didn’t know the album ‘Believe’, so only partially parsed. TILDE was a sneaky construction. Never spotted the NORIEGA/IRON AGE wordplay before, so that was nice.
As expected from this setter – simply superb with super-smooth surfaces and great fun from start to finish.
A day in politics is a long time and it presents quite a challenge to produce a politically themed puzzle which remains current but that certainly doesn’t detract from the enjoyment.
My list of ticked clues is extraordinarily long: EPIGLOTTIS, OLD MASTER, NORIEGA, WATER METER, BANE, STAYCATION, SPANIEL, BELIZE, ABETTER and, my last one in and favourite, SHARE.
Many thanks to Eccles and to Duncan.
Sounds like similar experiences to duncan and Hovis with BANE LOI preceded by SHARE. I had guessed at the likely parse for the latter but don’t have the GK. However, I did allow myself a Google of who sang it and that cracked the case.
Again, boringly repeating others, I found the variety of clues quite delightful and lots of clever spots like the ‘Iron Age’>NORIEGA device. Very original indeed if I can tautologise. I hadn’t parsed TILDE with its missing ‘Fie!’ but everything else came together well. I’d echo RD’s list of big ticks and would add to it PLIANT and the two lovely anagram/surface combos in ARROGANCE and SNAIL’S PACE. (Particularly nice in the latter to have an ‘S in the fodder as well as one in the solution. In my own puzzles, apostrophes are the punctuation sign I feel most awkward about including in/omitting from wordplay)
Oh, and duncan you win the prize for the most unusual reference to Charles III I have yet encountered: the new United Kingdom King, Charles. Not convinced that one’s going to make it into common usage 😉
Thanks Eccles and Duncan
I couldn’t parse 1D as I didn’t know ‘cation’, but it had to be that. 20D doesn’t work for me as the usual sequence is ‘good better best’ (as in Antiques Roadshow) so it seems out of order here. I got 24D wrong (with unparsed ‘spate’). Otherwise much enjoyed so thanks Eccles and Duncan.
The usual enjoyable crossword from Mr Every Other Wednesday. My last one in was 24d
Thanks to Eccles and Duncan
Thanks Eccles – fun as always – and Duncan.
In 25a I read PECK as “quantity of food” = the old measuring unit for volume of foodstuffs (a quarter of a bushel), as in “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”. I’ve come across “peck” as meaning to eat in small quantities, but not as a generic term for food.
Thanks both. I share others’ admiration, though fell short, only getting at second guess ABALONE which I don’t think I have come across before, and certainly didn’t know the pronunciation. SHARE was a belated realisation, and I suspect the reference may be to the no. 1 single, not the album. I did not know of Mark Field, but will of course get my own back when the member for Warrington West (a 53 hour walk from London) gets a mention
Quinster @ 6
Chambers has food (slang) as a definition for peck at peck [1] along with a quick or cursory kiss and a hole made by pecking, and the more common ‘measure of dry goods [quarter bushel]’ at peck [2]
TFO @ 7
Is there a Warrington West parliamentary constituency? I can only find a Warrington North and a Warrington South
duncanshiell@9….there is not….it is a game I play with family or friends when politics is discussed along the lines of ‘Warrington West will never elect a conservative/labour/etc candidate’ whereafter I observe the outcry and then revisit my comment. My earlier remark effectively admits I know the names of barely anybody in the Westminster zoo, and would prefer it remains that way, but others may still feel there is a hint of capital bias on occasions in crossword clues
I admire some setters for how clever they are, but Eccles pulls off the trick of making you feel clever. A delight. TFO Eccles is a few miles east of Warrington.
Found this one quite hard work in places and never did manage to parse 24d.
I did have to check on the spelling of CEILIDH and probably won’t remember it for future reference!
Tops for me were EPIGLOTTIS and BANE with a nod to SOCHI & SNAILS PACE.
Thanks to Eccles and to Duncan for the review.
Thanks Eccles. Rabbit Dave @2 said it best: As expected from this setter – simply superb with super-smooth surfaces and great fun from start to finish. My top choices included SO-SO, SPANIEL, PARCHMENT, and BANE. I failed with CEILIDH and by typing it yet again maybe I’ll remember it next time. I couldn’t parse my correct guess of TILDE and I needed a word finder for the very clever NORIEGA and DIALECT. Thanks duncanshiell for the blog.
TFO@10. As a Yorkshireman living in the Midlands I don’t feel that I have a capital bias – my main interest in Mark Field was that he had an affair with Liz Truss several years ago (I did have a much ruder version of that clue) that is well documented. I wrote the Truss clues on the day she became PM. I was indeed assuming she would still be PM when it appeared.
Thanks to Duncan and all commenters