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Eccles has once again provided our mid-week cruciverbal challenge.
I found this to be a medium-difficulty puzzle through which I made steady, but not speedy, progress. At no point did I really grind to a complete halt, though. I think that I am happy with my parsing today, but please let me know if I am mistaken.
As for my favourite clues today, I would single out five: 1 and 11, both for smoothness of surface; 12, where I found the definition to quite deceptive; 17, for all its cruciverbal content; and 26, for proving surprisingly elusive for a hidden solution. Incidentally, I did not know the entry at 23, but it could be reliably teased out from the wordplay and then confirmed in Chambers.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | AMENABLE | Hernia regularly stops gentle walk in open
<h>E<r>N<i>A (“regularly” means alternate letters only) in AMBLE (=gentle walk, stroll); to be amenable is to be open to an idea or suggestion, persuadable |
| 09 | VENERATE | Weaken, with Victor advancing to get honour
ENERVATE (=weaken, deprive of nerve, courage); “with Victor (=V, in NATO alphabet) advancing” means letter “v” means to an earlier place in the word |
| 10 | SNAG | Small horse in difficulty
S (=small, of sizes) + NAG (=horse) |
| 11 | ASTONISHMENT | NHS inmates to fake stupefaction
*(NHS INMATES TO); “fake” is anagram indicator |
| 13 | ARNICA | Caught in fantasy land, heading off to make tincture
C (=caught, on cricket scorecard) in <n>ARNIA (=fantasy land, invented by C S Lewis; “heading off” means first letter is dropped); arnica is a tincture typically applied to sprains and bruises |
| 14 | ESCARGOT | Slow mover received fright when cycling at the front
ESCAR (SCARE=(a) fright; “when cycling” means last letter moves to front) + GOT (=received) |
| 15 | SLEEPER | It supports // railway carriage
Double definition: a sleeper is a beam supporting a weight AND a sleeping car on a train |
| 16 | ADMIRER | Fan of a doctor drinking hot water
MIRE (=hot water, tricky situation) in [A + DR (=doctor)] |
| 20 | MONOKINI | Religious man in India covers hole in swimsuit
O (=hole, pictorially) in [MONK (=religious man) + IN + I (=India, in NATO alphabet)]; a monokini is a woman’s topless beach garment consisting of the lower half of a bikini |
| 22 | MEANER | Relatively tight turning – front of Daimler’s scratched
MEAN<d>ER (=turning, especially of a river); “front (=first letter) of Daimler’s scratched” means letter “d” is dropped; mean is tight, stingy |
| 23 | HYPERKINESIS | Extremely happy, with joie de vivre concealing one’s overactive muscle movement
H<app>Y (“extremely” means first and last letters only) + [I (=one) in PERKINESS (=joie de vivre, liveliness)] |
| 25 | EVIL | Settle back in base
LIVE (=settle, establish oneself in); “back” indicates reversal; as an adjective, base means mean, nasty, evil |
| 26 | RED PANDA | Scoured pan daily to accommodate Asian vegetarian
Hidden (“to accommodate”) in ‘scouRED PAN DAily” |
| 27 | NICOTINE | Modified notice about popular drug
IN (=popular, trendy) in *(NOTICE); “modified” is anagram indicator |
| Down | ||
| 02 | MINSTREL | Musician in religious building left after dropping ecstasy
MINSTRE (MINISTER=religious building; “after dropping ecstasy (=E)” means letter “e” falls to a lower place in the word) + L (=left) |
| 03 | NEGATIVE POLE | Part of magnet, for example, taken by someone born and bred in Warsaw?
E.G. (=for example) in NATIVE POLE (=someone born and bred in Warsaw) |
| 04 | BOAT RACE | Couple eating cereal in combative row
OAT (=cereal) in BRACE (=couple); “the competitive row” of the definition involves rowing boats! |
| 05 | EVANGEL | Gospel section part of church rejected
LEG (=section, e.g. of race) + NAVE (=part of church); “rejected” indicates reversal; the evangel is the Christian gospel |
| 06 | INK-SAC | Component of protective mechanism in overturned vat
IN + KSAC (CASK=barrel; “overturned” indicates reversal); an ink-sac is a sac in some cuttlefishes, used as a defence mechanism |
| 07 | TAPE | You shouldn’t have to get exercise record
TA (=you shouldn’t have!, much obliged) + P.E. (=exercise, i.e. physical education) |
| 08 | TESTATOR | One’s willed tenor to turn up without son
T (=tenor, in music) + [S (=son) in ETATOR (ROTATE= turn; “up” indicates vertical reversal)] |
| 12 | MARGINAL SEAT | Here, divided constituents of anagram up with tiles
*(ANAGRAM + TILES); “up” is anagram indicator; in marginal seats in UK elections, constituents are divided in terms of their political affiliations |
| 15 | SAMPHIRE | County welcomes a politician providing food from the coast
[A + MP (=politician, i.e. Member of Parliament)] in SHIRE (=county); samphire is a salt-tolerant coastal plant, some varieties of which are used as food |
| 17 | DOMESTIC | Help solve Times cryptic crossword, to start with
DO (=solve) + *(TIMES) + C<rossword> (“to start with” means first letter only); “cryptic” is anagram indicator; a help is a hired servant, especially a domestic one |
| 18 | EVERSION | Turning in book on Kindle?
Cryptically, a book on a Kindle could be the e-version of a printed work!; to evert is to turn inside out |
| 19 | LINNEAN | Local probes rest of classification system
INN (=local, public house) in LEAN (=rest (on), for support); Linnean relates to the Swedish botanist Linnaeus and his system of classification of living organisms |
| 21 | IRKING | Irish leader is annoying
IR (=Irish) + KING (=leader) |
| 24 | PADS | Daughter visiting father’s homes
D (=daughter) in PA’S (=father’s); cf. bachelor pad |
Top faves: ESCARGOT, MONOKINI, N POLE, BOAT RACE, TESTATOR, DOMESTIC and M SEAT.
Good puzzle. Neat blog.
Thanks Eccles and RR
For some reason I found this chewier than the average Eccles. Topica sounded like a plausible tincture but it turned out that Narnia was the fantasy land rather than Utopia. MARGINAL SEAT was my favourite.
I was always taught that magnets have North and South poles not positive and negative.
Thanks as always to setter and blogger.
Eccles-ellent, as always.
Petert, I’m with you, went Utopia, first, then others.
Finally, Narnia….but that’s a real place, isn’t it?
As for ARNICA, the solution, (13ac), was a gungadin.
LINNEAN (19d) was also a gungadin, and not as fair a clue as I expect from Ecc.
LEAN= “rest”, OK….but in a tough definition like this one?
Like Graham@3, “negative pole” is a ? May be on a battery, but a magnet? Stretchy.
Whatever, normal service from this setter, albeit slightly tougher than many he sets.
Cheers, Ecc & R-Riku
An Eccles puzzle is always a treat and this was no exception.
Surprisingly though, there were no new words for me today.
As ever, it is difficult to select any clues as being more meritorious than any others but, if you twist my arm, I think BOAT RACE gets the nod.
Many thanks to Eccles and to RR.
Sorry to disagree with the above, but I found this to have just hit the sweet spot in terms of difficulty.
The LINNEAN classification system is, with many subsequent modifications, what we still use today, so I do think that one’s fair game, though it took me a while to dredge it up, since “lean” isn’t at all the first synonym one thinks of for “rest.” [Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species–King Philip Came Over From Great Spain.] The other obscurity here, HYPERKINESIS, is brilliant because of the “perkiness”.
Ah well, YMMV, as they used to say here on the Nets (“your mileage may vary,” a reference to a common disclaimer in US car ads whenever a claim is made about fuel efficiency–incidentally, do they even use the word mileage in countries where it’s all kilometers?).
Good puzzle, no complaints… not sure why “lean” should be a problem, I feel u can swap it for “rest” in a variety of contexts eg rest/lean your bike against a wall… also agree with mrpenney@6 that I know only 1 classification system, certainly involving _INN_… I would agree that “negative” goes better with electrode, than “pole”, but the crossers made it clear..
Thanks Eccles and RatkojaRiku
Everything I expect from an Eccles puzzle – some tough parsing, a couple of entries that require investigating and overall another chance to admire his excellent setting. Think my picks would be RED PANDA, NICOTINE & DOMESTIC.
Many thanks to Eccles and to RR for the review.
MrP@6 Here in Greece, a very civilised country, though the speedos default to Km, ditto the speed limits, the car mechanics seem to often use mpg and mph.
When using Km, they spell it Kilometre. Which is the correct way.
I jest, of course; and I stand humbly corrected on LINNEAN, which I have since googled, and yes, another day at school. I still think “rest” = “lean” is a bit of a push.