Once again we have an Eccles to solve on Wednesday …..
….. and once again we have smooth surfaces. We do however have a few unusual words which we needed to check online or in Chambers.
An anagram (‘up’) of STIR + PLIGHT (trouble)
LUMP (swelling) with P (quietly) moving to the front or ‘head’
PA (father) reversed or ‘with twisting’ and an anagram (‘dancing’) of LAP
AH (I see) ME (Eccles – the setter) DAB (spot) AD (advertisement)
PRO (professional) TRACT (pamphlet)
A and a homophone (‘in audition’) of VEIL (mask)
ODE (poem) around or ‘welcoming’ tUTSI (Rwandan) missing first letter or ‘initially ignored’. We were just about to check this but then realised that an ‘outside chance’ of something happening could also be a ‘slight chance’.
An anagram (‘broadcast’) of EMIGRE by N (nationalist)
SH (be quiet) ‘entering’ PUlPIT (platform) without ‘l’ (line). Another one that needed checking – it’s a safety rail at the stern of a yacht.
MeSSAGE (communication) with A (American) instead of E (European). As E stands for European we don’t actually need to know that Eccles wants us to use the first or ‘leading’ letter in European. However, it does help with the surface reading.
REF (referee – ‘official’) with IT (indefinable charisma)
C (first letter or ‘entrance’ to church) ON CRETE (Greek island)
H (husband) and L (left) inside or ‘separately overwhelmed’ as they are not next to each other by SANGRIA (fruit punch)
P (penny) OWE (to be in the red) R (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of car)
Hidden (‘accommodated’) in geNEROusly
DEcENCY (fairness) with PEN (writer) and D (director) replacing or ‘instead of’ ‘c’ (Charlie)
Double definition
RIPe (ready) missing last letter or ‘nearly’
I (one) in PLOT (bed)
A play on the fact that if you want to be admitted to a party without an invite and are feeling cheeky, you may well explain that, I’M A MATE
H (Henry) and R (right) round or ‘hiding’ AMSTEl (lager) missing last letter or ‘most of’
LIBRAry (book store) without or ‘shedding’ ‘ry’ (railway)
An anagram (‘mills’) of INDULGE MRS. We are not sure that we have seen ‘mills’ used as an anagram indicator before but mill can be ‘to froth up’ or ‘ to turn over in the mind’ so it works as far as we are concerned.
IDEAS (proposals) around or ‘tackling’ LoGjAm (odd letters only)
ROT (to become weak) AS (when)
COMP (school) A with a reversal (‘raised’) of NO (denial) SIR (teacher)
I’M (I am) PET (cherished) I GO (develop)
MEAN (average) T (temperature)
A reversal (‘climbing’) of CAT (feline) on TILE (part of roof)
An anagram (‘liberal’) of UNNAMED
FAIR (just) about L (last letter of functional)
RAID (sally) around or ‘hosting’ P (first letter or ‘leader’ of private)
A homophone (‘reportedly’) of BRAE (Scottish river bank). We had to check the definition on line as it wasn’t in Chambers.
WI (group of ladies) and N (last letter or ‘close’ of ‘on’)
MASSAGE
The ‘leading European’ is the first E in MESSAGE, I think.
Another truly excellent puzzle from Eccles. Today’s only new word for me was PUSHPIT.
B&J, I think the “leading” in 22a is an indicator ro replace the first E.
I’ve ticked almost every clue, so I can’t pick even a short list of favourites.
Many thanks to Eccles and to B&J.
My online Chambers has this for Bray (2):
“To break, pound, or grind small, as in a mortar“ but no reference to Northern England.
Apart from having to check that and a bung in from the crossers for IMAMATE all went in fully parsed and thoroughly enjoyed as usual from Eccles.
Many thanks to him and of course for the excellent blog which explained the aforementioned. I don’t think I would have ever parsed IMAMATE if I stared at it for a whole day!
The safety rail on the bow of a yacht is a PULPIT.
Thanks as always to setter and blogger
I do like synonyms like outside and slight. Maybe their obliqueness is due to their, um, sort of ‘exclusivity’, ie I can’t think of anything but chance that they work with. Meanwhile, pushpit was new, and dependency was a shrug (I thought fairness must be the def, d’oh). And I’m not sure you can interchange use and avail without adding “oneself of” or something similar to the latter. Enjoyable overall, ta Eccles and BandJ.
ginf@5
AVAIL
If we consider them as nouns, use=AVAIL seems to work better.
KVs @6, can you make a sentence where they’re interchangeable?
‘It is of no avail/use.’
Correct me if I am wrong.
I was able to work out and then confirm with Chambers PUSHPIT and IMAMATE; I did get the Indian city right too but I’m afraid I lazily used Check to confirm it. However, BRAY was confusing as I came up against the same second definition as gsolphotog @3. ‘mills’ is certainly an unusual indicator – to mill is also to box or indulge in roughhousery so qualifies via that route too.
Rather like RD, I find there are too many good ‘uns to make compiling a list of faves that easy. Sticking with a very small podium then, I’ll highlight OUTSIDE, REGIMEN, LIBRA, TACTILE and WIN to go with the aforementioned MUDSLINGER.
Thanks Eccles and B&J
As a Geordie by birth, I can confirm that use of BRAY even if the dictionaries don’t. ‘When I get hold of him, I’ll bray the little bugger.’ Not to suggest that my fellow north-easterners are innately aggressive, of course. Just divvent argue with us, bonny lad.
One of your dedicated Canadian readers here – many thanks for the incredible blog and community! I’m a bit surprised to see people looking askance at “mills” – as a word meaning “grinds,” it seemed entirely appropriate to me as an, er, anagrind? I’m generally happy to see creative indicators – you’re teaching me the list of them is more tightly controlled than I’d thought!
I thought “mills” was a good anagrind, and indefinable charisma a more original way of defining “it” than many.
Welcome to fifteensquared Universal*Rundle. Hope to see more comments from you!
Oh yes of course, thanks KVa @8, I’d forgotten that usage, it works fine!
[Apols it’s 4 hours later, had a nap].
Exactly right, KVa @6 – as nouns they are perfectly interchangeable. Also agree with Rabbit Dave @2 re the ‘leading’ in 22a – a good example of the kind of precision I expect to see in an Eccles puzzle. It’s one of the reasons his puzzles are always so enjoyable for the solver. Lovely stuff all round.
Played Ye Banks and Braes on the fiddle as a kid (it was in one of those primers that start at Baa Baa Blacksheep and Twinkle Twinkle and then work up 🙂 ] So I always thought brae must mean something different from bank. Not so, apparently. Always learning!
DNF due to Pushpit. I had that word as PARAPET instead. Oh well. Good effort Eccles and thanks for the blog
Thanks both. Mostly straightforward for me, but I slowed right down towards the end, with IMAMATE an unknown but eventually I worked out the wordplay, as was the case with HAMSTER (a known!) – all very entertaining, though I was half looking forward to finding out who Mrs Mills the MUDSLINGER was, and revealing I’d never heard of her…