Another fun puzzle from Wednesday regular Eccles.
I wasn’t familiar with the terms at 17d or 27a, but clear wordplay made them fairly easy to guess and then check. I liked the long anagram in 1a, the surfaces in 3d and 24d, the sneakily misleading punctuation in 6d, and the neatly succinct 20d. Thanks Eccles as always.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MANIPULATIVE |
I’ve put animal in transit, controlling others in an underhand way (12)
|
| Anagram (in transit) of I’VE PUT ANIMAL. | ||
| 9 | REFERENDA |
Votes, official but incomplete, and blunders (9)
|
| REFERE[e] (official in a sports match) without the last letter (incomplete), then an anagram (blunders) of AND.
Plural of referendum = a public vote. |
||
| 10 | CATCH |
Concealed difficulty in contract? Strike (5)
|
| Triple definition. A hidden problem, as in “it sounds good but there’s a catch”; contract, as a verb = to catch (an illness), as in “you might catch a cold”; or to hit, especially with an accidental blow, as in “it caught me on the side of the head”. | ||
| 11 | IDYLLS |
Silly, silly duke shown in scenes of happy innocence (6)
|
| Anagram (silly) of SILLY + D (abbreviation for duke). | ||
| 12 | BAHRAINI |
Intellectual welcomes a hard opening to interview for Middle Eastern native (8)
|
| BRAIN (intellectual = an intelligent person) containing (welcoming) A + H (abbreviation for hard, as in 2H pencils), then the opening letter of I[nterview]. | ||
| 13 | TOBAGO |
Caribbean island also conserves land (6)
|
| TOO (also), containing (conserving) BAG (land, as a verb = achieve). | ||
| 15 | DISCIPLE |
Student lied, unfortunately, about photographs being returned (8)
|
| Anagram (unfortunately) of LIED, around PICS (short for pictures = photographs) reversed (returned). | ||
| 18 | SKULLCAP |
Row audibly about pressure in protective helmet (8)
|
| Homophone (audibly) of SCULL (row = propel a boat using oars), then CA (abbreviation for Latin circa = about = approximately) + P (abbreviation for pressure).
Skullcap now often means a small close-fitting brimless hat, but it can also mean a protective metal cap. |
||
| 19 | STIR UP |
Set in motion metal hoop right away (4,2)
|
| STIR[r]UP (a metal hoop, part of horse-riding equipment) with one R (right) taken away. | ||
| 21 | IN THE BAG |
Harry beating Henry guaranteed (2,3,3)
|
| Anagram (harry, as a verb = harass) of BEATING + H (abbreviation for henry, the unit of electrical inductance).
In the bag = already achieved, or sure to be achieved. |
||
| 23 | IMPAIR |
Hinder international couple stashing away millions (6)
|
| I (abbreviation for international) + PAIR (couple), containing M (abbreviation for millions). | ||
| 26 | CURED |
Swore last of patients would leave disease-free (5)
|
| CUR[s]ED (swore), without the S which is the last letter of [patient]S. | ||
| 27 | LAGER TOPS |
See royal knocked back slightly diluted alcoholic drinks (5,4)
|
| SPOT (as a verb = see = notice) + REGAL (royal), all reversed (knocked back).
Lager top = lager beer with a small amount of lemonade added. Or so I’m told; it’s not my sort of drink. |
||
| 28 | ARTESIAN WELL |
Source of free-flowing water, primarily less saline (8,4)
|
| Anagram (free-flowing) of WATER + first letter (primarily) of L[ess] + SALINE.
Extended definition: a well that uses the pressure of underground fresh water to bring it to the surface. This isn’t quite a clue-as-definition because “source” doesn’t contribute to the wordplay; but “free-flowing water” and “less saline” are both relevant to the definition. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MARXIST |
Communist China’s leader’s entering trading area (7)
|
| XI’S (China’s leader Xi Jinping is) entering MART (a variant of market = trading area). | ||
| 2 | NIFTY |
i newspaper printed in New York, which is neat (5)
|
| I + FT (Financial Times = newspaper), in NY (New York).
Neat in the sense of “smart / stylish” or “cleverly done”. |
||
| 3 | PARALEGAL |
Lawyer’s assistant: average girl, drinks beer (9)
|
| PAR (average = a typical score in sports, especially golf) + GAL (slang pronunciation of girl), containing (drinking) ALE (beer). | ||
| 4 | LONE |
Live on English sole (4)
|
| L (abbreviation for live, in electrical wiring diagrams) + ON + E (abbreviation for English).
Lone = sole = single. |
||
| 5 | TIA MARIA |
Drink it when reflecting in the morning air (3,5)
|
| IT reversed (when reflecting) + AM (Latin ante meridiem = before noon = in the morning) + ARIA (Italian word for air = musical term for a song).
Brand name for a liqueur based on coffee and rum. |
||
| 6 | VICAR |
Clergyman obtained second-hand sheds: money promised (5)
|
| VICAR[ious] (obtained second-hand, as in a “vicarious pleasure” = enjoying someone else’s experience rather than your own), without (shedding) IOUS (plural of IOU = money promised). | ||
| 7 | STRIPPER |
Son’s holiday with an exotic dancer? (8)
|
| S (abbreviation for son) + TRIP (holiday) + PER (an, as in “miles per hour” = “miles an hour”).
Exotic dancer = euphemism for a striptease performer. |
||
| 8 | CHOICE |
Pick cold snack that’s less cold (6)
|
| CHO[c] ICE (chocolate-coated ice cream = a cold snack), without one C (abbreviation for cold).
Pick = choice = the best. |
||
| 14 | BLUSTERY |
Turbulent times in which unusual result is accepted (8)
|
| BY (times, as in “3 by 2”) containing (in which . . . is accepted) an anagram (unusual) of RESULT.
As in blustery weather = with varying wind strength and direction. |
||
| 16 | CATAMARAN |
Boat of Spaniard left to go to ruin (9)
|
| CATA[l]AN (someone from Catalonia in north-eastern Spain), with the L (left) changed to MAR (ruin, as a verb = spoil).
A boat with two parallel hulls. |
||
| 17 | CANAILLE |
Lake emptied after Italian’s head hidden in waterway for The Mob (8)
|
| First letter (head) of I[talian] hidden in CANAL (waterway), with L[ak]E (emptied = inner letters removed) after it.
Despite the surface, we’re not talking about the Italian Mafia; it’s a word meaning “the mob” in the sense of “rabble” or “the masses”. (From French, but ultimately from the Italian word canaglia = a pack of dogs.) |
||
| 18 | SNITCH |
Poles wish to inform (6)
|
| S + N (abbreviations for the South and North Poles) + ITCH (wish, as a verb = yearn).
Snitch = inform = to betray someone to the authorities. |
||
| 20 | PERUSAL |
Examination of country’s aluminium (7)
|
| PERU’S (country’s) + AL (Al = chemical symbol for aluminium, or aluminum in US spelling). | ||
| 22 | EIDER |
Again end up getting duck (5)
|
| RE-DIE (a rather fanciful way of saying “end up again”) – I can’t help thinking this one deserved a question mark in the clue.
The type of duck whose down (feathers) made a traditional filling for bedding (eiderdowns). |
||
| 24 | ADORE |
Are nurses beginning to despair over love? (5)
|
| ARE, containing (nursing) the beginning letter of D[espair] + O (abbreviation for over, in cricket scoring). | ||
| 25 | UGLI |
Fruit is repulsive when picked up (4)
|
| Homophone (when picked up = heard) of UGLY (repulsive).
It’s a hybrid of tangerine and grapefruit (or something similar). |
VICAR was very clever and I liked the counterintuitive idea of drinking TIA MARIA with my morning crossword. Thanks to Eccles and Quirister.
CANAILLE was new to me, I could see the parts but it didn’t make sense until I looked up the word I’d made. Which with ARTESIAN WELL, that I knew but didn’t work out the anagram material, that corner held out for ages.
Good challenge, thanks to Eccles and Quirister
Another work of sheer brilliance from Eccles with fine clueing capped off with his trademark super-smooth surfaces. Any one of these clues could come into consideration as favourite but TIA MARIA gets it by a nose at the post.
CANAILLE was a new word for me, but derived easily by simply following the instructions in the wordplay.
When I was working, I had the great pleasure of visiting Barcelona frequently. The locals would be mortified to be referred to as Spaniards!
Many thanks to Eccles and to Quirister.
Thanks both. Like others I did not know CANAILLE but I do tend to struggle with more obscure words lifted from other languages. In the interest of saying anything further, as so much made good sense, I did wonder if STRIPPER might have been clued as ‘Son on holiday….’ to avoid what I saw as a superfluous ‘s.?
TFO @4. The ‘s in 7d is short for “has”, which is just a link word.
I’m just rushing out for a dental appointment, so no time for a detailed comment but just had to express my appreciation for another great puzzle from Eccles.
Many thanks to him and to Quirister – I didn’t see LAGER TOPS at all!
Always look forward to the (approx.) fortnightly tussle with Eccles and yet again I wasn’t disappointed. I vaguely remembered CANAILLE, just enough for the wordplay to prod it into consciousness anyway. Took a long time to get “tea” out of my head for my last in TIA MARIA. Satisfying to eventually work out the parsing for VICAR and CATAMARAN, even if it did take a good night’s sleep to get there.
Thanks to Eccles and Quirister
We live in France now so French terms are usually ok. Here though I initially had RACAILLE before realising that the parsing didn’t work. Scraped through this without parsing everything, including the anagram for ARTESIAN WELLS, but needed Google to correct TEA to TIA. I use aids freely as a rule, not distinguishing between following up a GK curiosity and strictly solving a clue, so it is quite a challenge to try and leave all till afterwards. Didn’t manage it this time.
Thank you very much to Eccles for a tricky in places crossword and to Quirister for the blog
There were four I solved but couldn’t parse, but now I’ve seen Quirister’s explanations I realise how brilliant they are. Superb! Thanks Eccles and Quirister.
I didn’t know CANAILLE EIDER. But CAN I interest you in a homophone?
SKULL/SCULL or UGLI/UGLY – your CHO[c]ICE.
And LAGER TOPS TIA MARIA any day.
Absolutely brilliant puzzle. I solved it quite quickly but was only when going through it to nail the parsings that I appreciated its cleverness.
I particularly liked IN THE BAG, CURED, LAGER TOPS (great spot), MARXIST, TIA MARIA and SNITCH but my favourite has to be CHOICE.
Many thanks Eccles and Quirister.
Thanks Eccles. After Brendan and Basilisk I thought I had enough but judging by the number of clues I ticked this was the best of the day. I missed LAGER TOPS and couldn’t begin to parse VICAR but all else made sense. My top choices were IDYLLS, DISCIPLE, IN THE BAG (great surface), CURED, ARTESIAN WELL, MARXIST, TIA MARIA, and EIDER. Thanks Quirister for the blog.
Relieved to see that I wasn’t alone in not knowing that particular term for ‘The Mob’ but Eccles does have a penchant for lobbing the occasional curved ball into his excellent compilations!
Tough to make choices but I’ll give a shout out to IDYLLS, CURED, NIFTY & PARALEGAL.
Thanks to Eccles for a great puzzle and to Quirister for the review.
Agree with Shanne, they were my problem words!
Wonderful puzzle. The grid fill was reasonably straightforward but the joy was in the parsing & I needed Quirister to explain CATAMARAN & MARXIST (fancy not twigging Xi). Not a dud in there & loads of ticks but if pressed TIA MARIA just edges it in a photo finish with LAGER TOPS, VICAR & CHOICE.
Thanks both.
CANAILLE is pronounced “CAN EYE”