Eccles appears in his customary slot with another splendid puzzle. You know what you are going to get with Eccles – good clues, a mix of well-known and slightly obscure entries, generally without themes or messages in the grid.
I have come across BYELORUSSIANS and TERMAGANT before, but they are not words I use regularly in conversation. I don’t think I have seen EGRESSIVE before.
I found the wordplay more helpful than the definitions in quite a few clues today.
Given the tone of many messages on social media these days, i thought the clue for THREADS was very good. The clue for PITILESS was fairly disturbing in the picture it conjured.
ASTROTOURIST was another new word, but the reference to Katy Perry helped.
Defining cow as ‘an animal that contains milk’ was quirky, but does a beef cow also contain milk?
Thanks to Eccles for maintaining his high standards.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Not cheap to move memorial (8)
CENOTAPH (monument honouring a dead person or persons buried elsewhere; memorial) Anagram of (to move) NOT CHEAP CENOTAPH* |
| 5 | Plenty returned before space taken (6)
STOLEN (taken [by theft]) LOTS (plenty) reversed (returned) + EN (a space equivalent to the width of a letter n) STOL< EN |
| 9 | Brutal sex stops haemorrhoids scarring, initially (8)
PITILESS (without mercy; cruel; brutal) (IT [sex] contained in [stops] PILES [haemorrhoids]) + S (first letter of [initially] Scarring) P (IT) ILES S |
| 10 | Return for match (6)
PROFIT (return) PRO (in favour of; for) + FIT (match) PRO FIT |
| 12 | Serbians upset with lousy fellow European citizens (13)
BYELORUSSIANS (language or people of Belorussia, Byelorussia or White Russia, a region to the west of Moscow; fellow European citizens) Anagram of (upset with) SERBIANS and LOUSY BYELORUSSIANS* |
| 15 | Periodically loud, clear and bright (5)
LURID (glaringly bright) LURID (letters 1 and 3 [periodically] of LoUd) + RID (clear) L U RID |
| 16 | Noise made in speech from Earl, belligerent after losing silver (9)
EGRESSIVE ([of speech sounds] pronounced with exhalation of breath; noise made in speech) E (Earl) + agGRESSIVE (belligerent) excluding (after losing) AG (chemical symbol for silver) E GRESSIVE |
| 17 | Scold Republican supporter of Trump entering shelter (9)
TERMAGANT (a brawling scolding woman; a scold) (R [Republican] + MAGA [a person who believes Donald Trump will Make America Great Again; a Trump supporter]) contained in (entering) TENT (a shelter) TE (R MAGA) NT |
| 19 | John Doe’s day out in boat (5)
CANOE (a type of boat) CAN (toilet; john [informal term for a lavatory or toilet]) + dOE excluding (out) D (day) CAN OE |
| 20 | Mother and son only intended to suppress a problem dealing with society (13)
MALADJUSTMENT (failure to meet the demands of society, such as coping with problems and social relationships) MA (mother) + LAD (boy; son) + JUST (only) + MEaNT (intended) excluding (to suppress) A MAL AD JUST MENT |
| 22 | Fruit in cold alcoholic drink with no head (6)
CHERRY (a fruit) C (cold) + sHERRY (alcoholic drink) excluding the first letter (with no head) S C HERRY |
| 23 | Eccles’s corn, reportedly, is debilitating malady (8)
MIGRAINE (a severe throbbing pain affecting only one half of the head or face and usually accompanied by nausea; debilitating malady) MI (sounds like [reportedly] ME [Eccles] or MY [Eccles’s]) + GRAINe (sounds like [reportedly] GRAIN [corn is a grain]) MI GRAINE |
| 25 | Flat ring used to be in this place, briefly (6)
WASHER (a flat ring of metal or rubber) WAS (used to be) + HERe (in this place) excluding the final letter (briefly) E WAS HER |
| 26 | Begin as bestperforming solicitor (5,3)
START OUT (begin) STAR (pre-eminent; bestperforming) + TOUT (solicitor) STAR T OUT |
| Down | |
| 1 | Top talent’s potential (10)
CAPABILITY (potential) CAP (top) + ABILITY (talent) CAP ABILITY |
| 2 | Lace fruit carrier’s no joke (3)
NET (lace) punNET (small shallow basket for fruit such as strawberries) excluding (no) PUN (quip; joke) NET |
| 3 | Bridge designer to allow elevated crossing point (7)
TELFORD (reference Thomas TELFORD [1757 – 1834], Scottish civil engineer, famous for his infrastructure projects, including bridges, canals, and roads.) LET (permit; allow) reversed (elevated; down entry) + FORD (a place where water may be crossed by wading) TEL< FORD |
| 4 | Areas for grazing antelopes supporting historical Sumerian city (12)
PASTURELANDS (areas for grazing) PAST (former; historical) + UR (city in Sumeria) + ELANDS (antelopes) PAST UR ELANDS |
| 6 | Social media platform spreading hatred with society (7)
THREADS (Meta’s social media platform integrated with Instagram, competition for Elon Musk’s X) Anagram of (spreading) HATRED + S (society) THREAD* S |
| 7 | Eccles fine, I fancy, in biochemistry? (4,7)
LIFE SCIENCE (biochemistry is an example of a LIFE SCIENCE) Anagram of (fancy) ECCLES FINE I LIFE SCIENCE* |
| 8 | Distinction in nanotechnology (4)
NOTE (eminence; distinction) NOTE (hidden word in [in] naNOTEchnology) NOTE |
| 11 | When communist is beginning to talk about ‘Our Katie Perry’, perhaps (12)
ASTROTOURIST (person who pays to travel into space; Katy Perry [born 1984], American singer, went into space in April 2025 on the Blue Origin New Shephard rocket along with others including Jeff Bezos [born 1964], founder of Amazon and owner of Blue Origin) AS + (TROT [TROTskyist; communist] + IS + T [first letter of {beginning to} Talk] containing [about] OUR) AS TROT (OUR) IS T |
| 13 | Tear up terms for fixing old hearing aids (3,8)
EAR TRUMPETS (old hearing aids) Anagram of (for fixing) TEAR UP TERMS EAR TRUMPETS* |
| 14 | One leaving concerning opinion results in bad feeling (10)
RESENTMENT (bad feeling) RE (with reference to; concerning) + SENTiMENT (opinion) excluding (leaving) I (Roman numeral for one) RE SENTMENT |
| 18 | Mostly free (2,5)
AT LARGE (generally; mostly) AT LARGE (free) double definition AT LARGE |
| 19 | Food provider of, say, Queen Elizabeth II, the former monarch (7)
CATERER (food provider) CAT (a queen is an adult female cat) + ER (Elizabeth Regina; former Quieen) + ER (Eizabeth Regina, the most recent [former] UK monarch before King Charles) CAT ER ER |
| 21 | Small milk container is lighter (4)
SCOW (a flat-bottomed open boat; lighter) S (small) + COW (an animal that contains milk) S COW |
| 24 | I use derivative of Esperanto (3)
IDO (an auxiliary international language developed from Esperanto) I + DO (use as in ‘do drugs’) I DO |
All clear enough to solve though some of the long ones took some teasing out. Like our blogger, I had not encountered EGRESSIVE before. I was slightly thrown by Katy Perry having her name spelled differently into which I read more than I should (wondering if we were going to get a clue for the cider-like drink). nho THREADS but then I have absolutely no time for Facebook/Meta/Instagram or X so it has happily passed me by.
CENOTAPH, CANOE and CATERER my alliterative podium today.
Thanks Eccles and duncan
A very enjoyable challenge again with brief, tight and inventive clueing as always with this setter. This week only THREADS was a NHO for me.
CANOE was my favourite.
Many thanks to Eccles and to Duncan.
Yet another nho word for a type of fish, even more of the little buggers than antelopes! Threads are familiar to do with online chats and comments, but not as a specific service. Don’t much notice the antics of celebs, but guessed Ms Perry must’ve gone up in a rocket. [$$ better spent saving the planet, but kids love their toys!]. Enjoyed the puzzle, ta Eccles and duncan.
I enjoyed the surface of THREADS and the construction of PASTURELANDS. I wasn’t sure if the Esperanto derivative was going to be IGO or IDO. I AM not looking forward to seeing a clue for Volapuk.
Like PostMark, I’ve never seen Katy Perry spelt as Katie. I guess it’s a mistake but an easy one to make.
This was just my level of difficulty – hard enough that I really had to work at it, but satisfying to slowly build out the grid. IDO was my only NHO, which I’m a bit embarrassed about considering I got my undergrad in linguistics. It did help with EGGRESSIVE, though, so I suppose the degree was worth it in the end.
I saw that BELORUSSIAN almost fit early on, but dismissed it since I’d never seen it spelled with a Y, which slowed me down for a while.
My favourites were MALADJUSTMENT and PITILESS. Thanks Eccles and Duncan!