Independent 12,096 by Eccles

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Eccles in his usual Wednesday slot. No complaints here.

We puzzled over 13ac guessing it was one of the Knights of the Round Table – he even appeared in Spamalot. COTD though was 14ac.

Thanks Eccles – keep ’em coming!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Playground gossip briefly about waste storage facility (6)
RECTAL

REC (playground) TALk (gossip) missing last letter or ‘briefly’

4. Gather, with difficulty, what Farage wants to do quietly? (6,2)
SCRAPE UP

SCRAP EU (what Farage wants to do) P (quietly)

10. Being in the vicinity of surprisingly huge robin (9)
NEIGHBOUR

An anagram (‘surprisingly’) of HUGE ROBIN

11. Snap up hot, outgoing nurses (5)
PHOTO

Hidden (‘nursed’) in uP HOT Outgoing

12. Field is tip, predominantly (3)
LEA

LEAn (tip) missing last letter or ‘predominantly’

13. One in senior competition welcoming Tom Daley, say — a legendary figure (3,8)
SIR BEDIVERE

I (one) in SR (senior) BEE (competition) around or ‘welcoming’ DIVER (Tom Daley, say). We thought we may be looking for one of the Knights of the Round Table when we had all the crossing letters but it took a while for us to think of BEE as a competition.

14. Perhaps Melania initially only becoming American for Trump? (6)
FLATUS

FLoTUS (Melania perhaps – First Lady of The United States) with ‘o’ (first or ‘initial’ letter of only) becoming A (American)

16. Person who photographs fish (7)
SNAPPER

Double definition

19. Amateur a big fan of lecture (3,4)
LAY INTO

LAY (amateur) INTO (a big fan of)

20. Someone excessively fond of sailor in party dress, at first (6)
DOTARD

TAR (sailor) in DO (party) and D (first letter of dress)

22. Fat dude’s content doing without bit of orange dessert (4,7)
PLUM PUDDING

PLUMP (fat) dUDe (middle letters only or ‘content’) DoING (missing ‘o’ – first letter or ‘bit’ of orange)

25. Hopelessness when both wingers get dismissed in game (3)
LOO

gLOOm (hopelessness) missing first and last letters or ‘with wingers dismissed’

26. One spreading legs, producing bulb (5)
ONION

I (one) inside or ‘spreading’ ON ON (legs)

27. Glower, then I long for change (4,5)
NEON LIGHT

An anagram (‘change’) of THEN I LONG

28. Authenticate this is a pay freeze, therefore — ? (8)
NOTARISE

A play on the fact that a pay freeze is NOT A RISE

29. Songs of Praise suspended after letting minister swear, primarily (6)
PSALMS

First or ‘primary’ letters of Praise Suspended After Letting Minister Swear

DOWN
1. Irritate the French, supporting division (6)
RANKLE

LE (French for the) underneath or ‘supporting’ RANK (division)

2. Unusual canal between X and Y that provides component of porcelain (5,4)
CHINA CLAY

An anagram (‘unusual’) of CANAL between CHI (X) and Y

3. Residue from ablutions women ignored (5)
ASHES

wASHES (ablutions) ignoring w (women)

5. Rush to get blue screen for planning assistant (7,7)
CAREERS ADVISOR

CAREER (rush) SAD (blue) VISOR (screen)

6. Singer Arnold enters Spanish city briefly, to become candidate (9)
APPLICANT

PP (as in PP Arnold) inside or ‘entering’ ALICANTe (Spanish city) missing last letter or ‘briefly’. PP Arnold was a soul singer. She was around in the late 60s – we both remembered ‘The First Cut is the Deepest’ but only Bert remembered who sang it.

7. Recalled taking clothes off to arouse (5)
EVOKE

rEVOKEd (recalled) missing first and last letters or ‘with clothes off’

8. Morgan, possibly, drinks drink and opens up (8)
PIONEERS

PIERS (as in Piers Morgan) around or ‘drinking’ ONE (drink)

9. Porn den with escorts corrupted journalists (14)
CORRESPONDENTS

An anagram (‘corrupted’) of PORN DEN and ESCORTS

15. Rope in ten jockeys, and one helps to access food (3-6)
TIN-OPENER

An anagram (‘jockeys’) of ROPE IN TEN

17. Knock over beer on girl, a lawyer’s assistant (9)
PARALEGAL

RAP (knock) reversed or ‘over’ + ALE (beer) on GAL (girl)

18. Rebuke upwardly mobile friends in adversity (4,4)
SLAP DOWN

PALS (friends) reversed or ‘upwardly mobile’ + DOWN (in adversity)

21. Enemy beginning to taunt American youngster yet to make an appearance (6)
FOETUS

FOE (enemy) T (first letter or ‘beginning’ to taunt) US (American)

23. Australian punches one member of Eastern church (5)
UNIAT

A (Australian) inside or ‘punching’ UNIT (one)

24. Festivities in German, unfortunately (5)
GALAS

G (German) ALAS (unfortunately)

14 comments on “Independent 12,096 by Eccles”

  1. Definitely a wrestling match, for me, and full-fat Eccles.
    Very clever setting, not so clever solving.
    I’m afraid UNIAT (23d), is a bit of a stinker, and I thought DOTARD, 20(ac) was to do with “dotage” rather than “doting”, but I expect I’m wrong.
    A good smattering of risque clues, very entertaining. RECTAL/ FLATUS/ LOO/ S[CRAP]EUP…..I started looking for a theme. Oh…missed out, “spreading legs”!
    The usual super puzzle + blog, big thumbs-up, Ecc & BJ

  2. Two of these were bung and pray as I either didn’t know the solution – UNIAT – or didn’t know an element of the WP – PP Arnold. To my shame, ‘primarily’ did not immediately have me looking for initial letters so PSALMS was unfathomable for a while. Also to my shame, I had it in my head the BEDIVERE was spelled BEDeVERE although what could Tom Daley be other than ‘diver’ – or possibly ‘knitter’? Faves inc PHOTO, FLATUS, DOTARD, NOTARISE, CAREERS ADVISOR and FOETUS. I was a little surprised by RECTAL – not wanting to delve too deeply into this but I thought the rectum was specifically an exit rather than a storage facility?

    Thanks Eccles and B&J

  3. PM@2 We must have had the same King Arthur book as kids – I’m for BEDEVERE too…..
    Thanks to Eccles for an entertaining puzzle, and to B&J for elucidation of some parsing that passed me by.

  4. The last time I saw a similar clue for ONION it was along the lines of “one between the legs” together with “it can make your eyes water”. Can’t remember if that was Eccles as well. I bet there will be a few setters out there who are thinking “Why didn’t I think of that clue for ‘flatus’?” Lovely!

  6. I struggled to think of a singer called Arnold until the penny dropped and I always avoid thinking of Piers Morgan. As others have said FLATUS is brilliant.

  7. Not sure how global the slang meaning of onion is, but it’s somewhat shockingly apt for the wordplay.

  8. I guess I’m in a minority of one, but “Morgan, possibly, drinks a quick drink” might have given me half a chance of downing that solution.

    FOI was the wannabe PM at 4a and I almost quit there and then. I’d quite like not to be reminded of these people in my leisure time.

    Grumble over.

    Thanks all.

  9. Thanks both. I did know PP Arnold however with just two low-ranking ‘hits’ from the 60s, and it not being clear whether first or last name, the clue for APPLICANT felt ungenerous. FLATUS works well now I see it, but I didn’t know the originating acronym yet thankfully the US piece wrongfully aided me. I did check with RECTAL and apparently there is a function of temporary storage of chemical formula SH1@, which equates to what my brain does most days lately.

  10. TFO @ 9 I think PP Arnold’s biggest claim to fame is her incendiary backing vocals on things like The Small Faces’ Tin Soldier, I&TT’s River Deep, Mountain High etc.

    Her wikipedia entry is worth checking out.

  11. I found this to be an easier Eccles than usual, with the only nho being the jorum UNIAT. I gave up on RECTAL though; I didn’t tokenize the cryptic reading appropriately and so was never looking for an adjective.

    I ninja turtled SIR BEDIVERE thanks to Monty Python, and am another whose instinct was to spell it with an E. And I went through an awful lot of Spanish cities before arriving at ALICANTE to match my AnT.

    My podium was FLATUS, FOETUS and PLUM PUDDING.

    Thanks both

  13. I wish there were a way to make Google think I’m in London. Googling “singer Arnold” got me links to Eddy Arnold (a country artist) and Brad Arnold (some sort of southern rocker). Only “Singer Arnold UK” got the required P.P. And she wasn’t even born in Britain!

    But I should say the same thing about myself. Without thinking, I entered CAN OPENER, taking the anagram on faith, and obviously forgetting that I have to pretend to be in London, in all things, when solving these. That gave me some trouble with the excellent clue for FLATUS.

  14. mrpenney@13. I wish I could stop google sending me results in Spanish. Even though I’ve set language to English and my home location on maps to Buckingham Palace. 😡

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