We have another good crossword from Eccles this Wednesday.
As is usual, Eccles serves us a basic crossword without messages, themes or gimmicks. I don’t think there were any particularly unusual or esoteric words in the grid although I probably don’t use TISANE or SOFT ROT in everyday conversation.
With the football World Cup now in play, it’s good to be reminded of PICKLES the dog who found the stolen trophy in 1966.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Son married English nationalist in European country (6)
SWEDEN (European country) S (son) + WED (married) + E (English) + N (nationaiist) S WED E N |
| 5 | Beyond sick, ultimately crave medicated sweet (8)
PASTILLE (a small, often medicated, sweet) PAST (over; beyond) + ILL (sick) + E (last letter of [ultimately] cravE) PAST ILL E |
| 9 | Sloe gin, a volatile, flammable liquid (8)
GASOLINE (a low-boiling petroleum distillate; flammable liquid) Anagram of (volatile) SLOE GIN A GASOLINE* |
| 10 | In the morning, sex with a female knocked over Catholic shrine (6)
FATIMA (The Sanctuary of Fátima, or Shrine of FATIMA, is a group of Catholic Church religious buildings and structures located in the city of FATIMA in Portugal) (AM [ante meridiem; before noon; in the morning) + IT [sex] + A + F [female]) all reversed (knocked over) (F A TI MA)< |
| 11 | Toy weapon upset OAP, so there! (10)
PEASHOOTER (a small tube for blowing peas through, used as a toy weapon) Anagram of (upset) OAP SO THERE PEASHOOTER* |
| 12 | A practice exam delivered in a frenzy (4)
AMOK (in a frenzy) A + MOK (sounds like [delivered] MOCK [a practice examination]) A MOK |
| 13 | Leather shoe with hole in losing mass, in time (8)
OCCASION (the time of a particular happening or event) mOCCASIN {leather shoe) excluding (losing) M (mass) and containing (with … in) O (character representing a hole) OCCASI (O) N |
| 16 | Some artisan elderflower tea (6)
TISANE (An infusion of dried or fresh leaves or flowers, such as camomile, which can be used to make tea) TISANE (hidden word in [some] arTISAN Elderflower) TISANE |
| 17 | Being stroppy, regularly avoided clowns here (3,3)
BIG TOP (the circus tent where clowns perform) BIGTOP (letters remaining in BeInG sTrOpPy after excluding [regularly avoided] letters 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12) B I G T O P |
| 19 | Very drunk and impolite, lacking bit of refinement, in isolation (8)
SOLITUDE (isolation) SO (very) + LIT (drunk_ + rUDE (impolite) excluding (lacking) R (first letter of [bit of] Refinement) SO LIT UDE |
| 21 | I put on clothes to murder (2,2)
DO IN (kill; murder) DON (put on) containing (clothes) I DO (I) N |
| 22 | With luck, revolution repelled minister (10)
CHANCELLOR (reference CHANCELLOR of the Exchequer, senior government minister) CHANCE (luck) + ROLL (a revolution) reversed (reprelled) CHANCE LLOR< |
| 25 | Coach agreed to back political alliance (6)
CARTEL (political alliance) CAR (railway carriage; coach) + LET (agreed to) reversed (to back) CAR TEL< |
| 26 | Deduce northern Alabama is hellish (8)
INFERNAL (relating to the uinderworld; hellish) INFER (deduce) + N (northern) + AL (Alabama) INFER N AL |
| 27 | Ring American editor experiencing tough patch (8)
CALLUSED (having hard skin; experiencing tough patch) CALL (ring) + US (United States; American) + ED (editor) CALL US ED |
| 28 | Original characters in Robin Hood myth reformed in time (6)
RHYTHM (time) RH (first letters of [original characters in] each of Robin and Hood) + an anagram of (reformed) MYTH R H YTHM* |
| Down | |
| 2 | It’s said you and I have to mingle (5)
WEAVE (criss-cross; mingle) WEAVE (sounds like [it’s said] WE [you and I] + HAVE; WE’VE) WEAVE |
| 3 | Declines operation in doctor’s (5)
DROPS (declines) OP (operation) contained in (in) DRS [doctors]) DR (OP) S |
| 4 | West African beginning to bid for victory over East African capital (7)
NAIROBI (Capital city of the East African country of Kenya) IVORIAN (native of the West African country of Cote D’Ivoire) with B (first letter of [beginning to] Bid) replacing (for) V (victory) and then all reversed (over) NAIROBI< |
| 5 | Pressure to relax before playing City (7)
PRESTON (city in Northern England) P (pressure) + REST (relax) + ON (playing) P REST ON |
| 6 | Bit of sentimentality from left-winger for fungal disease (4,3)
SOFT ROT (bacterial disease of plant tissues which reduces them to soft, mushy, foul-smelling rot; fungal disease) S (first letter of [bit of] Sentimentality) + OF (from) + TROT (follower of the beleiefs of Leon TROTsky [1879 – 1940], Russian reolutionary and left-wing political theorist) S OF T ROT |
| 7 | Stubborn, loses information on the way (2,7)
IN TRANSIT (on the way) INTRANSIgenT (stubborn) excluding (loses) GEN (information) IN TRANSIT |
| 8 | Made fun of escape from Alcatraz number two by Scottish hooligan (9)
LAMPOONED (ridiculed; made fun of) LAM (American[from Alcatraz] slang for escape) + POO (number two defecation) + NED (Scottish slang for a young hooligan) LAM POO NED |
| 14 | Piece of pork joint in cola originally tasted amazing (9)
CHIPOLATA (small sausage; piece of pork) (HIP [joint] contained [in] COLA) + TA (first letter of [originally] of each of Tasted and Amazing) C (HIP) OLA T A |
| 15 | Article on number visiting a lake during pregnancy (9)
ANTENATAL (before birth; of, or relating to, the health and care, etc of women during pregnancy) AN (indefinite article) + TEN (a number) + AT (visiting) + A + L (lake) AN TEN AT A L |
| 18 | Choose the French World Cup hero? (7)
PICKLES (In March 1966, the stolen Jules Rimet football world cup was found in south London by a dog named PICKLES, while out for a walk on Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood with his owner Dave Corbett) PICK (choose) + LES (one of the French forms of the indefinite article ‘the’) PICK LES |
| 19 | Drunk bride’s welcoming a shag? (7)
SEABIRD (a shag is a SEABIRD) Anagram of (drunk) BRIDE’S containing (welcoming) A SE (A) BIRD* |
| 20 | I’m a match for Satan? (7)
LUCIFER (Satan) LUCIFER (a match of wood tipped with a combustible substance to be ignited by friction) double definition LUCIFER |
| 23 | Large gold robbery cleared out truck (5)
LORRY (truck) L (large) + OR (in heraldry, the tincture gold or yellow) + RY (letters remaining in RobberY when the central letters obber are removed [cleared out]) L OR RY |
| 24 | Old men are going hungry, initially, in Irish town (5)
OMAGH (town in County Tyrone, Ireland) OMAGH (first letters [initially] of each of Old, Men, Are, Going and Hungry) O M A G H |
A very accommodating puzzle, but excellent as always from Eccles.
It’s being churlish, but would “US coach” be kinder, 25(ac)?
Three clues use the similar device, LOSES/ LOSING/LACKING, but the “word-finds” by the setter are so clever ( 13ac, 19ac, 7d ), I’ll take this all day long.
Totally enjoyable, every clue gets the thumbs up.
Thanks Eccles & duncan
Great fun as ever from this setter, although my repetition radar bleeped regarding the use of “bit of” to signify a first letter in both 19a and 6d. I was pleased to see the American indicator in 8d.
My favourite was the clever NAIROBI.
Many thanks to Eccles and to Duncan.
NAIROBI was indeed very clever. My inner schoolboy liked SEABIRD. I was expecting to have to separate “leather” and “shoe”, so OCCASÎON was my koi.
A lot of write-ins but a few more challenging clues plus some challenges in parsing an obvious answer. Most enjoyable.
Thanks, Eccles and Duncan.
Good effort working out Nairobi! I was trying to make something out of IBO but it was much cleverer than that.
I have never been beaten by NAIROBI in whatever way setters try to hide it. COD 1a.
Thanks Eccles for a top-notch crossword. All the solutions came to light but not all of the parsing e.g. NAIROBI which I never would have seen. Top picks included FATIMA, DO IN, CARTEL, INFERNAL, and CHIPOLATA. Thanks duncanshiell for the blog.
LAMPOONED made me laugh out loud. Thanks Eccles. It was lots of fun.
Thanks Eccles, so refreshing to be able to actually finish a puzzle!