Eccles fills the mid-week slot this week.
As expected, another enjoyable puzzle from Eccles. we found this a bit trickier than usual for this setter, with a couple of new words for us – but that didn’t spoil the enjoyment. All good fun.
An anagram (‘in battle’) of GRENADE USE and BAN – ‘lower’ being an animal that lows
A B (black) pOLISH (sheen) with the ‘p’ (phosphorus) missing or ‘leaving’
M (miles) A TAD (a bit) OR (middle or ‘essential’ letters of unwORthy)
An anagram (‘lit’) of FUEL after SPIT (discharge)
gigANTIC (mammoth) missing ‘gig’ (show) – a new meaning of ‘antic’ for us
An anagram (‘mushy’) of PEAS
A TALL (big) CO (company) S T S (first letters or ‘starts’ of Sell Their Soul)
ROMA (traveller) ‘bathing’ in GALLON (quantity of water?) – our last one in – we had to check this online as we’d never come across the term before – it was however readily solvable from the wordplay
A reversal (‘on return’) of MET (encountered) I (one)
A way to remove a broken down car would be to TOW IT
An anagram (‘bananas’) of SIGH and SWAP – another new one for us – we were only aware of ‘pigs-swill’ for kitchen waste
REEVE (magistrate) round or ‘describing’ OK (fine)
As a light switch can turn lights ‘on’ or ‘off’, it could whimsically be described as an ON-OFFER
THe missing or ‘lacking the ‘e’ (echo in the phonetic alphabet) UNDER (beneath) S (small) TRUCK (lorry)
Double definition
pRAISE (acclaim) missing the ‘p’ (power)
An anagram (‘criminal’) of THE ANXIOUS
Hidden (‘clothed by’) and reversed (‘about’) in undEMANding
Alternate or ‘regular’ letters of eNd Up + THATCH (roof) – one of our favourite birds
UP (excited) DATE (romantic partner) S (first letter or ‘beginning’ to Soil)
MAN’S (chap’s) LAUGHTER (giggles)
ROCKS (‘crack’ cocaine) A MP (politician) H (heroin) IRE (anger) – Bert had vaguely heard of this plant – apparently an edible pungent succulent member of the carrot family
NOUS (French – ‘in Marseille’ – for ‘we’) after or ‘supporting’ an anagram (‘erratic’) of GOALIE – it took a while to sort this one out – not the most common of words
N (noon) after TWO (couple) in or ‘charging’ FOR round or ‘inspiring’ O (love)
An anagram (‘pants’) of WET in LOCH (lake)
A reversal (‘with a boost’) of C (caught) IF (providing) FART (trump) – we won’t comment on the appropriateness of the former US president’s name
SOUR (bitter) round C (Conservative)
T (time) in or ‘blocking’ FEE (payment)
An interesting puzzle and a beautiful blog!
Thanks, Eccles and B&J!
ROCK SAMPLES
crack=ROCK
Is cocaine/crack called ROCKS too?
ROCK SAMPHIRE*
Sorry.
Another brilliant puzzle from this setter although,. like KVa @2, I was puzzled by where the S comes from in ROCK SAMPHIRE. I found references to “crack” = ROCK but not ROCKS.
From a stellar selection, TRAFFIC made me roar with laughter and gets my vote as favourite.
Many thanks to Eccles and to B&J.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rocks
Noun – rocks pl (plural only)
1 (slang) Money.
2 (vulgar, slang) Testicles.
3 (slang) Crack cocaine. “You seem a bit out of it lately, have you been smoking rocks again?”
Decidedly a few tricky ones in here – nho PIGS-WASH and somehow dredged OLEAGINOUS from the depths of memory. I needed the blog for ANTIC – I’d worked out it was (gig)ANTIC but not why – and was thinking ANTIC = show! Nonetheless, despite the challenges, a delightful and well clued puzzle as always. ON-OFFER and MANSLAUGHTER were both very amusing; ABOLISH, MATADOR, THUNDERSTRUCK, NUTHATCH, UPDATES and FOOTWORN my other favourites.
Unusually, I have one slightly raised eyebrow at REEVE = magistrate where I feel an indication of the historical nature of the term might be needed?
Finally, I flirted with the idea that 2d might be CHOUGHS. They have colourful feet, for sure, and the second def of ‘chough’ in Chambers is a clown which I thought might = TIT!
Thanks Eccles and B&J
Another entertaining puzzle from Eccles. A few unusual words as mentioned by B&J, including ROCK SAMPHIRE which I had met once before in crossword land, though having lived a sheltered life I thought ‘crack’ was a verb for ROCK and I didn’t know where the S came from. I did remember the unusual sense but only parsed ANTIC at the end.
Yes, TRAFFIC was v. good but my favourite was OLEAGINOUS which brings to mind Obadiah Slope, played by Alan Rickman, in the 80’s BBC TV series “The Barchester Chronicles”.
Thanks to Eccles and B&J
FrankieG@5
Thanks.
OLEAGINOUS – a word often used to describe Michael Howard.
And here’s a BOOBY “with colourful feet”
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/booby#/media/File:Blue-footed_Booby_(Sula_nebouxii)_-one_leg_raised.jpg
Thanks E & B&J
Thanks FrankieG for the link. We din’t want to upset Pierre by adding an obligatory bird link. His lawyer can be particularly challenging to deal with. It might have been worth it this time though for the colourful feet.
Thanks both. I think I made some of this harder work than necessary, however did not know GALLO-ROMAN and was preoccupied with finding a bathing traveller not realising it just aided the surface, as I assume does ‘must’ in OLEAGINOUS. Delighted to learn of birds called BOOBIES
With …ANGUS ROCKS… around the corner, and THUNDERSTRUCK, I wondered if an AC/DC theme might emerge. ON-OFF-ER a reference to Flick Of The Switch? Not seeing more than that, I guess I’ll go and listen to Chinese Rocks by The Ramones instead. 🙂
Here’s the red-footed version: 🙂
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booby#/media/File:Sula_sula_by_Gregg_Yan_01.jpg
Oh no! We really would be in trouble if we had included two photos of the same bird. It does look very colourful though – not just colourful feet.
Well, I’ve heard of both hogwash and pigs-swill but never a combination of the two!
Great puzzle from Eccles and my top three were BOOBIES, TO WIT & ON OFFER.
Incidentally, we pick a fair amount of samphire from the rocks locally and it tastes delicious with fish.
Thanks to Eccles and to B&J for the review.
I did a double take at 2D, thinking “surely the Independent wouldn’t…”, but oh yes it would, and why not? Well up to usual high standard, so thanks Eccles and B&J.
Many thanks B&J, and all commenters. I went to the Galapagos Islands earlier this year, an amazing experience, and Boobies came from that, along with a few (less obviously linked – some are in-jokes) clues in my previous puzzle. I went with a number of amazing wildlife artists and photographers – if you want to see some stunning work, do have a look at the various Instagram and home pages of zoefitchetart, sarahstribblingwildlifeart, liz.wildlife.artist, sophiegreenfineart, mr.shutterz and shiva_wildlife. As I have no such talent, it astounds me. Sophie does a lot – she has just popped up interviewing David Baddiel on another podcast on unquestionablepod.
Re the rocks question, the alternative for the plural would be cracks?