Eccles fills the midweek slot today – this should be good!
Another great Wednesday work-out from Eccles with the trademark smooth surfaces and some original wordplay. The ‘French’ clue at 7d is probably our favourite today, but there are a lot of good clues to choose from. We initially had some difficulty parsing 25ac, but when the penny dropped we really appreciated the ingenuity.
An anagram (‘agitated’) of CAT ‘stuck’ in OAK (tree) + E (last letter or ‘bit’ of stale)
A reversal (‘inverted’) of PER (‘an’ as in miles an hour) + LACE (spike – as in spiking a drink)
S Y (first and last letters or ‘extremes’ of sexy) + a reversal (‘retro’) of BALL (dance) + I (first letter or ‘origin’ of Ilford)
An anagram (‘surprisingly’) of NOT ARSE
LEGO (‘interlocking pieces’) FLAMBé (served lit with brandy) missing the last letter or ‘mostly’
stRANGEst (most peculiar) without ‘abandoning’ the two ‘st’s (saints – ‘good women’)
NEE (‘half’ of needle) in a reversal (‘back’) of PACK
ROSTER (register) round or ‘installing’ I (independent)
CAME (arrived) L (large)
An anagram (‘out’) of AND LET GO and E (last letter or ‘end’ of rope)
ON (‘regularly taking’, as in being ‘on’ a prescription drug) in BUTTS (victims – as in butt of a joke)
A ‘boring’ into TANGiER (Moroccan city) missing or ‘dispatching’ the ‘i’
C (first letter or ‘piece’ of chicken) LEANER (less fat)
An anagram (‘criminal’) of MAD round or ‘seizing’ IRAN (country)
F (following) + SS (steamship) ‘covered’ in OIL (fuel)
A reversal (‘uplifting’) of GALAS (celebrations) round or ‘suppressing’ T (time)
A reversal (‘upset’) of A TAD (slightly)
MEDIAN (average) with the A (American) moved to the back or ‘falling down’
CROSS (ball in from the wing) BAR (save, as in ‘except’)
SPYING (snooping) round IN (home) DR (doctor)
MARTIN (‘Amis peut-etre’ – the author, not French friends, perhaps) ET (French for ‘and’, a synonym of ‘with’ – ‘avec’ in French)
A repeated homophone (‘picked up’) of HERE (present)
An anagram (‘changes’) of LOT OF PANIC
KICK (stop, as in kicking a habit) BACK (advocate)
An anagram (‘being confused’) of MEN + IT (sex) IE (that is) S (satisfactory)
An anagram (‘jumble’) of SALE in or ‘spreading’ PURE (sheer)
An anagram (‘in performance’) of MENTIOn without the last letter or ‘brief’
A reversal (‘up’) of EAT round or ‘downing’ GIN (drink)
An anagram (‘snarled’) of RIyADH without of ‘leaving’ the Y (last letter or ‘close’ to apoplexy) and M (miles) – the dirham is the currency of the UAE Thanks redddevil
Hidden in LondoN OR Manchester
KNEECAP outright favourite. I won’t get on the wrong side of Eccles. Liked ENMITIES (‘that is satisfactory’ ?), DIRHAM, LEG OF LAMB, and MEDINA. Not easy. Took ages. Needed a reveal for DATA. NHO. LOI. Don’t get how ‘replace’ is synonymous with ‘put back’. I’d put back the same one. Thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks Eccles and B&J. .
Good Morning Sofamore – Chambers Thesaurus has ‘put back’ as a synonym for ‘replace’.
Struggled with a few unknowns. Once I had the T & N in 26, I immediately thought TINAMOU but it wasn’t to be. Not sure if I’ve met TANAGER. Feel like I should have known MEDINA but didn’t and definitely didn’t know DIRHAM.
Thanks B&J for BUTTONS, that one I didn’t see why
The expected entertaining puzzle from Eccles. I’ve never been a Star Trek fan so had to get DATA from wordplay and same thing with BUTTONS. Looking it up now, I realise I saw the MIRANDA TV series a few times, but I associate the name more with the ? early 1950’s film starring Glynis Johns as a mermaid.
Favourites were the French ‘despot’ and the image of the almost LEGO FLAMBÉ.
Thanks to Eccles and B&J
Entertaining as ever, thanks to Eccles and B&J
9a us obviously biscuit of the day, there’s another cat stuck in a tree in another place today
A nice Middle-Eastern flavour to this. I, too, needed help with DATA. BUTTONS and MARTINET were my favourites. Thanks to Eccles and B and J.
Lots of fun as per usual with Eccles. Didn’t parse BUTTONS so thanks for clearing that up for me.
Haven’t seen S for satisfactory before and I can’t find it in Chambers but I’m sure it’s in another dictionary (incidentally having looked in the BRB I then replaced it /put it back on the shelf).
MARTINET has to be COTD for me
Thanks Eccles and B&J.
B&J said “this should be good”. It was more than good.
Impossible to pick a favourite from such an excellent selection.
Many thanks to Eccles for the fun and B&J for the review.
I was nutmegged by 1d as it looked like CO(SS)AL-no such word of course
Then I woke up!
Thanks Eccles and B&J
Had the same doubts as Blah over S for satisfactory and don’t know much about Star Trek but those were my only sticking points.
Ones I really liked were LEG OF LAMB, TANAGER & MARTINET.
Thanks to Eccles and to B&J, particularly for the parsing help with BUTTONS.
Thanks both. A fair struggle with much to enjoy. LOI was MEDINA wherein I did not know its meaning, and my understanding was that median in maths means middle, derived by taking an average only if processing an even number of digits. I did wonder if OATCAKE would ignite the ‘is a Jaffa Cake a biscuit?’ debate
Very very good and, having seen the French clue as a taster on Twitter, it was lovely to be able to solve it here – albeit as LOI but one. Clever. As were many other clues including REPLACE, SENATOR, LEG OF LAMB, KNEECAP, CLEANER, CROSSBAR and SPIN DRYING. I have never encountered satisfactory = S and I haven’t found a source for that yet but I am sure there will be one somewhere. Maybe if Eccles pops in …
One nice spin-off from the puzzle. The POW camp finally prompted me to look and see whether the old ‘Colditz’ series I recall from my youth is still available to watch – and it is. I’m sure it’s politically incorrect to watch these days but I have fond recollections and it’s free to watch on YouTube!
Thanks Eccles and B&J
wondeful stuff from Eccles.
Finished quite quickly but didn’t see parsing of BUTTONS so thanks B&J for that.
MArtinet was clever but almost annoyingly easy!
There does appear to be a superfluous ‘of’ in the blog for 24…
Thanks to Eccles and B&J
redddevil – thanks – blog corrected.
s = satisfactory is in our dead tree Collins (1983).
A nice mini-theme across clues and answers relating to the Arab world, especially Morocco. Very enjoyable, so thanks Eccles and B&J.
Yeah, this was a terrific puzzle in which not much yielded on the first pass. Great range of clue types. Loves the use of Amis in MARTINETS, and LEG OF LAMB was very neat.
Couldn’t parse BUTTONS either, so thank you, Bertandjoyce for explaining that.
TFO@12. 7d I too was unhappy with equating Average and Median. However it appears that common usage allows a looser definition of average as “typical” and could be the mean, mode or median.
Graham@18 “Consort in one average to produce another?” 6?
It was a bit of a surprise to me, but one of the few things I’ve retained from the obligatory statistics course at LSE was that an average could be a mean, median or mode.
I studied Statistics as well and am now always sceptical when an ‘average’ is used. A ‘mean’ wage is often quoted which can be skewed by a small number of very large figures. The ‘average weekly pay’ in the UK is actually based on the median wage. I had many conversations with students who argued that the median and the mode were not averages!
Lovely clues, same slightly odd grid as last time?
The average debate always mystifies me. I was taught at about age 10 that an average could be a mean, median or mode, and nothing between then and the end of a maths degree contradicted that. What am I missing?
I’d also like to know what sort of washing machine Eccles has. My spin cycle leaves my clothes damp when they weren’t to begin with.
Not being into Star Trek we didn’t get 3dn; we wondered if there was a character called ‘Raja’ which might parse as a reversal of ‘ajar’ meaning ‘slightly (open)’. Ho hum.
Otherwise an enjoyable and not too difficult crossword. Thanks, Eccles and B&J.
Very enjoyable though I do have a couple of quibbles
Some editors wouldn’t allow KNEECAP, and why are Saints good “women”… surely it applies to either gender? Never seen S for Satisfactory either though I’m sure it can be justified somewhere..
In a strong field my ticks go to LEG OF LAMB, SPIN DRYING and the outstanding PLEASURE.
Thanks Eccles and B&J.
Thank you B&J and all the commenters. s=satisfactory is in the current Collins (online) too. I tend to go for abbreviations which are in both Collins and Chambers, but if not I find Collins tends to have less wild ones. I normally only try to use them if I have an idea where they come from but I admit I didn’t here. It seems it was from grading schemes, either S(atisfactory) or U(nsatisfactory) – but that would suggest that Unsatisfactory would be U in Collins. Oh.
There was indeed a Moroccan hint, as I wrote a few clues when I was on holiday there (some only related to things that happened on my holiday, so not obviously themed). The grid was the one where I could get as many as possible in.
I was slightly worried that a French indicator was an unfair misdirection, so glad people liked that one.
James, I think spin dryers don’t get things completely damp free, but drying is their job.
Stephen L @24: I think there has been a tradition of crosswords signalling ST by ‘a good man’. Which is outdated. There are plenty of female saints so it’s a great opportunity to change the dynamic.
Thanks, Eccles & B&J. As everyone has said already, this was lots and lots of fun. After Tramp and Gozo as well, I feel spoilt for excellent crosswords today. All brilliant in very different ways. Loved the French clue and the retribution. As for DATA… Oh, *that* Star Trek! Took far too long to cotton on there.
Like James @10, I was taught at a young age that mean, median and mode are all varieties of average and have never understood that objection.