Eccles has filled the mid-week slot with his latest creation today.
I found this to be a middle-difficulty puzzle, with a good measure of (toilet) humour and high entertainment value. I think that I have parsed everything satisfactorily, although I would appreciate confirmation from others that I have read 13 correctly as regards “morning”.
My favourite clues were 1, for topicality; 8, for smoothness of surface and use of both “stopped” and “review”; and the toilet humour in 15 appealed to the schoolboy in me. Incidentally, the entries at 18 and 25 were both new to me but could be worked out satisfactorily from the wordplay.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | ESTABLISHMENT | Conservative ruined NHS timetables
*(NHS TIMETABLES); “ruined” is anagram indicator; “conservative” and “establishment” are both used adjectivally here, meaning traditional, orthodox |
| 10 | REACT | Respond to events, and edit duke out
RE<d>ACT (=edit; “duke (=D) out” means letter “d” is dropped) |
| 11 | ROY CASTLE | Windsor, for example, rejects a line dancer and multi-instrumentalist
ROY<al> CASTLE (=Windsor for instance; “rejects a line (=l)” means letters “al” are dropped); the reference is to the incredibly versatile British performer Roy Castle (1932-94) |
| 12 | AGGREGATE | Get garage to adjust total amount
*(GET GARAGE); “to adjust” is anagram indicator |
| 13 | STOIC | Historic shot of morning also not right, but I’m not complaining
<hi>STO<r>IC; “shot of morning (=hi, i.e. greeting) and also not right (=R)” means that letters “hi” and “r” are dropped |
| 14 | AERATES | Pumps gas into defined region on return
SET (=defined) + AREA (=region); “on return” indicates reversal |
| 16 | OBLASTS | Russian river continues to supply local administrative districts
OB (=Russian river) + LASTS (=continues, goes on) |
| 18 | DIDACHE | Suffered from pain delivering Christian treatise
DID ACHE (=suffered from pain); The Didache is a brief anonymous Christian treatise, written in Koine Greek and dated to the first century AD |
| 20 | KUWAITI | Arabian resident in the Home Nations backed Rishi’s conclusion over hiatus
WAIT (=hiatus, break) in [KU (UK=Home Nations; “backed” indicates reversal) + <rish>I (“conclusion” means last letter only)] |
| 22 | RANKS | Orders stamps with head scrubbed out
<f>RANKS (=stamps, e.g. an envelope; “with head scrubbed out” means first letter is dropped); to rank is to classify, e.g. according to performance, hence “(to) order” |
| 24 | DIFFUSION | Essentially, Indian boffin amused by charged particle’s random motion
<in>DI<an> <bo>FF<in> <am>US<ed> (“essentially” means middle letters only) + ION (=charged particle) |
| 26 | OVERACUTE | Northing sexy about Lynn perhaps being too keen
VERA (=Lynn perhaps, i.e. WW2 forces’ sweetheart) in [O (=nothing) + CUTE (=sexy)] |
| 27 | GAINS | Profits from spiking drinks with Adderall, primarily
A<dderall> (“primarily” means first letter only) in GINS (=drinks) |
| 28 | ONCE UPON A TIME | Continue a poem modified to form introduction to fantasy?
*(CONTINUE A POEM); “modified” is anagram indicator |
| Down | ||
| 02 | STAGGER | Astonish someone on a pre-nuptial celebration?
Cryptically, someone attending a stag party (=pre-nuptial celebration) could be described as a “stagger”! |
| 03 | AUTHENTIC | Original Protestant uncovered boring prank
<l>UTHE<r> (=protestant, i.e. Martin Luther; “uncovered” means first and last letters are dropped) in ANTIC (=prank) |
| 04 | LARVA | Popular vaccine protects juvenile
Hidden (“protects”) in “popuLAR VAccine” |
| 05 | STYLEBOOK | Let’s boy off with fine, producing rules and regulations in writing?
*(LET’S BOY) + OK (=fine, all right); “off” is anagram indicator |
| 06 | MEALS | Eccles additionally cut short breakfast and dinner?
ME (=Eccles, i.e. our compiler) + ALS<o> (=additionally; “cut short” means last letter is dropped) |
| 07 | NATIONS | States “Drug-induced dreams reduced by 50%”
<halluci>NATIONS (=drug-induced dreams; “reduced by 50%” means that 7 of 14 letters are dropped) |
| 08 | TRIAL AND ERROR | A way to discover miscarriage of justice that can be stopped by DNA review
*(DNA) in TRIAL ERROR (=miscarriage of justice): “review” is anagram indicator; “stopped” here means bunged up with |
| 09 | PERCUSSIONIST | Musician from America arrested by inspectors, I suspect
US (=America) in *(INSPECTORS I); “suspect” is anagram indicator |
| 15 | SPEED HUMP | Incentive to slow down, sons number one and two blocked by husband
H (=husband) in [S (=sons) + PEE (=number one, in toilet!) + DUMP (=number two, in toilet!)] |
| 17 | LOW-BUDGET | Affordable item at auction inspires women to compromise
[W (=women) + BUDGE (=to compromise)] in LOT (=item at auction) |
| 19 | DUNGEON | One is relocated after faeces found in cell
DUNG (=faeces) + *(ONE); “relocated” is anagram indicator |
| 21 | IRIDIUM | Element of risk, at first, in one phrase on the radio
R<isk> (“at first” means first letter only) in [I (=one) + homophone (“on the radio”) of “idiom (=phrase)”] |
| 23 | SLATE | Soprano passed on schedule
S (=soprano) + LATE (=passed on, deceased); to slate is to schedule, timetable, in US) |
| 25 | FREON | Regularly fart a very long time, producing unpleasant gas
F<a>R<t> (“regularly” means alternate letters only) + EON (=a very long time); Freon is any of the family of chemicals containing fluorine, used as refrigerants, etc |
2d – STAGGER – thought this might be another whimsical clue – indicated by the question mark – but: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stagger#Etymology_2
Etymology 2 – Noun – stagger (plural staggers) – (UK) One who attends a stag night. – 2013, Phil Hubbard, Cities and Sexualities, page 144:
“Tallinn no longer takes pride in the title of ‘favourite destination of British staggers.'”‘ So no “?” needed.
Nice to get a namecheck at 22a
It’s always a pleasure to solve an Eccles puzzle, and ! really enjoyed this one.
I quickly twigged that the first word of 15d was SPEED but spent far too long trying to work out if the second word was TRAP or BUMP, until the penny dropped that it was neither! It must be some sort of record to get number one and number two in the same clue!
Many thanks to Eccles. Thanks too to RR – I parsed 13a as you did.
STOIC
Parsed it as RR.
The ‘shot of’ is the clue to remove the ‘hi’ bit.
get shot of=get rid of.
shot=exhausted.
Not sure which sense Eccless had in mind.
FREON
‘unpleasant gas’
Not a foul-smelling gas (almost odorless). Due to the unpleasant effects this gas has on the environment,
it’s an unpleasant gas (a greenhouse gas contributing to global warming).
FrankieG@1
I had the same assumption.
In defence of the ?, we can say that there could be other types of pre-nuptial
celebrations.
Had to clear some cobwebs for Roy Castle
Good fun as always
Thanks RatkojaRiku and Eccles.
Good puzzle.
Could not get IN (popular) into MMR (vaccine) to get MINOR for juvenile…then I saw the obvious.
Good to see I was right to get ‘hi’ for shot of morning.
Thought of SPEED BUMP first, the more common term….then changed brother to husband.
Liked:
STAGGER
KUWAITI
Congratulations, Eccles, you managed to get two of my pet hates into one clue and then rounded it off with some faeces and farts! Wash your mouth out with soap, young man.
Couple of new things learnt today in the shape of the Russian districts and the treatise although I’ve probably come across them previously and simply forgotten.
Top clue here was the ruined NHS timetables.
Thanks to Eccles and to RR for the review.
Thanks both. All at the right level of difficulty and entertainment for me, with special mention for TRIAL AND ERROR and SPEED HUMP – I was never in any doubt about the intention of the ones and twos, but it still took a while for the solution to flush through