[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
We’re more used to seeing Eccles on a Wednesday, but I’m quite happy to meet him on a Thursday instead.
As usual there’s a guess-and-check unfamiliar word (9a), but with clear wordplay to make the guess easier. I liked the misdirection of “against the grain” in 17a (which had me fooled for quite some time) and the sneaky construction of 18d; my favourite was 10d, for both the remarkable anagram and the well-chosen anagram indicator. Thanks Eccles for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SESSION |
Hearing sounds rebounding around start of seminar (7)
|
| NOISES (sounds) reversed (rebounding), around the starting letter of S[eminar].
Hearing = session, in a court of law. |
||
| 5 | COWISH |
Bovine couple’s shared desire? (6)
|
| Whimsically, a desire shared by two people could be a CO-WISH. | ||
| 8 | EUROCRATS |
Foreign courts are targets of Farage’s rants (9)
|
| Anagram (foreign) of COURTS ARE.
Eurocrat = slang term for a civil servant in the administration of the European Union, much derided by Eurosceptic politicians such as Nigel Farage. |
||
| 9 | NOINT |
Chastise at home, not outside (5)
|
| IN (at home) with NOT outside it.
I’ve never heard of this word, and nor has Chambers, but the Collins online dictionary recognises it. |
||
| 11 | LOUSY |
Ridiculous yogurt pots unsatisfactory (5)
|
| Hidden answer (. . . pots, as a verb = contains) in [ridicu]LOUS Y[ogurt]. | ||
| 12 | EXCHEQUER |
Picked up old draughtsman in US government department (9)
|
| Sound-alike (picked up = heard) of EX (prefix ex- = previously but no longer = old) + CHECKER (a playing piece or “man” in the game of draughts, which is called checkers in the US).
Old name for the government finance department now known as the Treasury; its boss is still known as the Chancellor of the Exchequer. |
||
| 13 | MUSCADET |
Problem returning trainee’s wine (8)
|
| SUM (a mathematical problem to be worked out) reversed (returning), then CADET (a military trainee).
French white wine from the Loire Valley. |
||
| 15 | NAUSEA |
Custom in Ankara regularly leads to sickness (6)
|
| USE (custom = common practice, as in “fallen out of use”), inside alternate letters (regularly) of [a]N[k]A[r]A. | ||
| 17 | RECOAT |
Again paint play area, going against the grain (6)
|
| REC (short for recreation ground = play area), next to (against) OAT (grain = cereal crop). | ||
| 19 | CAROUSAL |
Charlie getting stimulation in party (8)
|
| C (Charlie in the radio alphabet) + AROUSAL (stimulation).
Carousal = a noisy drunken party. |
||
| 22 | HALLOWEEN |
Let in man, with space and time for door-to-door beggars (9)
|
| ALLOW (let) in HE (a specific man), then EN (typographical term for a medium-width space between characters).
The evening of 31 October, when children traditionally go from door to door asking for treats. |
||
| 23 | BRAIN |
British fall in intellect (5)
|
| B (abbreviation for British) + RAIN (a fall of water, or metaphorically of other substances). | ||
| 24 | NOBEL |
New Romantic singer sent back annual prize (5)
|
| LE BON (Simon Le Bon, lead singer of the New Romantic band Duran Duran) reversed (sent back).
The annual Nobel Prizes; the 2025 winners are being announced this week. |
||
| 25 | LOBSCOUSE |
Contemptible person eating fresh cobs and stew (9)
|
| LOUSE (slang for a contemptible person), around (eating) an anagram (fresh) of COBS.
Meat and vegetable stew, traditionally associated with sailing ships and the port regions they sail from; the ingredients are basically whatever you have available. |
||
| 26 | TETHER |
Bond in holiday in Vietnam with that woman (6)
|
| TET (Vietnamese New Year’s Day festival) + HER (that woman).
I wouldn’t quite equate “bond” with “tether”: one suggests adhesive, the other rope. But they both mean to fix in place. |
||
| 27 | LAY BARE |
Reveal where a dark horse lives to Spooner (3,4)
|
| Spoonerism of BAY (a brown horse, though not necessarily dark brown, with black mane and tail) LAIR (where one might live). Or perhaps dark = secretive, so this horse is hiding in a lair rather than being visible in a field. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | STEAL A MARCH ON |
Plagiarise answer and continue to covertly gain advantage (5,1,5,2)
|
| STEAL (plagiarise = to steal someone else’s work and pass it off as your own) + A (abbreviation for answer) + MARCH ON (continue). | ||
| 2 | STRAUSS |
Second Prime Minister to bottle a Waltzer? (7)
|
| S (abbreviation for second) + TRUSS (Liz Truss, former British Prime Minister), containing (to bottle) A (from clue text).
Johann Strauss I or his son Johann Strauss II, both of whom wrote waltz music. |
||
| 3 | ITCHY |
Eager sex at church ending in ignominy (5)
|
| IT (slang for sexual activity) + CH (abbreviation for church) + end letter of [ignomin]Y.
I think I’d use “itching” rather than “itchy” to mean eager (as in “itching to get started”), but Collins recognises this usage. |
||
| 4 | NEATENED |
Made orderly want to receive a top mark (8)
|
| NEED (want in its older sense of shortage, as in “for want of . . .”), containing (to receive) A TEN (as in “I’d give it a ten” = short version of “ten out of ten” = a top mark). | ||
| 5 | CUSACK |
Family of actors reportedly see you on bed (6)
|
| C U (sound-alike, or “reportedly”, of see you) + SACK (as in “in the sack” = slang for bed).
The late Irish actor Cyril Cusack and his family, including several actor children (Sinéad, Niamh . . .) and one who’s a theatre producer. Jeremy Irons as a son-in-law probably counts too. |
||
| 6 | WINNEBAGO |
We bang on excitedly about current motorhome (9)
|
| Anagram (excitedly) of WE BANG ON, around I (scientific symbol for electrical current).
US brand name for motorhomes. |
||
| 7 | SKI RUNS |
Hides around Rugby’s curated slopes (3,4)
|
| SKINS (hides = animal skins) around RU (abbreviation for the game of Rugby Union).
Snow-covered slopes prepared (curated) for skiing on. |
||
| 10 | TURN A BLIND EYE |
Pretend not to notice an interlude by Brahms and Liszt (4,1,5,3)
|
| Anagram (Brahms and Liszt = Cockney rhyming slang for pissed = drunk) of AN INTERLUDE BY. | ||
| 14 | AYATOLLAH |
Opening remark thanks young adult for boosting religious leader (9)
|
| HALLO (opening remark) + TA (short for “thank you” = thanks) + YA (young adult, especially in describing fiction written for teenagers), all reversed (boosting = lifting up = upwards in a down clue).
Title for a Shia Muslim leader. |
||
| 16 | HANNIBAL |
Man-eater’s head becoming hot, in general (8)
|
| [c]ANNIBAL (man-eater), with the first letter (head) changed from C to H (abbreviations for cold and hot), so “becoming hot”.
Carthaginian general who fought against the Roman Empire in the third century BC. |
||
| 18 | CALIBRE |
Stature of Liberal being looked after in a cryptic manner (7)
|
| LIB (abbreviation for Liberal in the political sense) contained in CARE (cryptically “in care” = being looked after).
Calibre = originally the measurement of a gun-barrel or the ammunition it fires, but figuratively it also means “stature” in the sense of excellent character. |
||
| 20 | SPATULA |
Alas, put nuts in kitchen implement (7)
|
| Anagram (nuts = crazy) of ALAS PUT. | ||
| 21 | FELLER |
Chap who cuts down trees? (6)
|
| Double definition. Dialect pronunciation of fellow = chap = a man; or someone who fells (cuts down) trees. | ||
| 23 | BICCY |
Writer, extremely cheerfully, provides small snack item (5)
|
| BIC (brand name for a ballpoint pen = writer) + end letters (extremes) of C[heerfull]Y.
Slang (probably derived from baby talk) for a biscuit. |
My top picks: COWISH, RECOAT, TURN A BLIND EYE and CALIBRE.
Very good puzzle. Very good blog.
Thanks Eccles and Quirister.
Typical Eccles. Great fun with lots of interesting wordplay and definitions. Two NHOs for me were NOINT (I found this in my Chambers app) and LOBSCOUSE.
Shame about the unindicated American answer to 6d.
My top picks were TURN A BLIND EYE and CALIBRE.
Many thanks to Eccles and Quirister.
This was worth it for the splendid TURN A BLIND EYE alone but there were many other great clues. I held myself up for too long by reading ‘stature’ in 18dn as ‘statue’ but, once the penny dropped, CALIBRE shot up to become one of my top favourites – which brings me pretty much into line with KVa and Rabbit Dave.
Other ticks were for EUROCRATS, NOBEL, STRAUSS and HANNIBAL and I enjoyed following the directions on the tin to arrive at NOINT and LOBSCOUSE.
Many thanks to Eccles for the fun and to Quirister for another geat blog,
I know I’ve said this before, but, personally, I don’t think setters need to indicate American words (although they can if they want to). Or for that matter, Australian, South African etc. If they are in UK dictionaries (and are accepted in the British word game Countdown) then that’s fine by me. American spellings (e.g. color) are another matter altogether and should always be indicated. I’m never that sure about obsolete words. Indeed, spellings such as color were once accepted here. I think they tend to be closer to their Latin origins but we moved more to French spellings after the Norman invasion. I admit I’m not entirely sure of this but it rings a bell.
Another excellent puzzle from our setter with just one unknown for me in the shape of NOINT. Top clues here were STRAUSS, TURN A BLIND EYE & CALIBRE.
Thanks to Eccles and to Quirister for the review.
I got 24ac with Agnes Obel, a singer I like. I did wonder about the sent back bit though….