We have a standard second Wednesday puzzle from Eccles today.
I wonder if we would find clues 1 and 2 down (FASCIST and ‘imposing tariffs on a whim’) in the crosswords of right-wing newspapers, but the sentiments expressed fit with the political stance of The Independent.
Eccles sometimes includes one or two unusual words or phrases in his puzzles. Today we have GANDHI CAP, ANGLO-BOER WAR and IURE. The cap is new to me and I have always thought the War was simply the BOER WAR, but a bit of research filled in the gaps in my knowledge. IURE is a word I only see in crosswords.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Fancy panties no fun for writers (8,4)
FOUNTAIN PENS (writing implements; writers) Anagram of (fancy) PANTIES NO FUN FOUNTAIN PENS* |
| 9 | Dumbfounded, put on nursing registration number the wrong way round (9)
STAGGERED (dumbfounded) STAGED (presented; of a show, put on) containing (nursing) REG (registration number) reversed (the wrong way round) STAG (GER<) ED |
| 10 | Dance move following beat (5)
TANGO (a dance) TAN (beat) + GO (move) TAN GO |
| 11 | Picture of assistant scratching head, worried (6)
IDEATE (imagine; picture in your mind) aIDE (assistant) excluding the first letter (scratching head) A + ATE (worried) IDE ATE |
| 12 | As I see it, I’m bony, active and very well (2,2,4)
IN MY BOOK (in my view; as I see it) Anagram of (active) I’M BONY + OK (okay; very well) IN MY BO* OK |
| 13 | Difficult to deal with Hertfordshire town stores closing in July (6)
TRYING (causing strain; difficult to deal with) TRING (town in Hertfordshire) containing (stores) Y (last letter of [closing in] julY) TR (Y) ING |
| 15 | Present material from file with images heralding running water (8)
GIFTWARE (anything that might be given as a present; present material) GIF (Graphic Interchange Format; standard image format) + (coming beforfe; heralding) + an anagram of (running) WATER GIF TWARE* |
| 18 | Rabble-rousing second issue of book (8)
SEDITION (public speech or actions intended to promote disorder; rabble-rousing) S (second) + EDITION (an issue of a book) S EDITION |
| 19 | Bury the hatchet in liner? (4-2)
MAKE UP (settle an argument; bury the hatchet) MAKE-UP (a liner, or usually eye-liner is a type of cosmetic MAKE-UP) double definition. The second definition does also apply without the hyphen MAKE-UP |
| 21 | Put up with fee for bridge, say, getting close to extortionate for learner driver (8)
TOLERATE (put up with) TOLL RATE (a fee paid to cross a bridge, for example) with E (last letter of [close to]) replacing the second L (learner driver) TOLERATE |
| 23 | Somewhat weak, I’m bobsleighing in a distinctive position (6)
AKIMBO (with hand on hip and elbow out; in a distinctive position) AKIMBO (hidden word in [somewhat] weAK I’M BObsleighing) AKIMBO |
| 26 | Greatly affect unionist and await decision (5)
UPEND (alter greatly; greatly affect) U (Unionist) + PEND (await decision or settlement) U PEND |
| 27 | Indian headgear is impediment, hard to move to the right after warping, ultimately (6,3)
GANDHI CAP (a cap made of white hand-woven cloth worn by some men in India) G (last letter of [ultimately] warpinG) + HANDICAP (impediment) with the H (hard, as in description of pencil lead) moved to the right to form ANDHICAP G ANDHI CAP |
| 28 | Dispute or ban low gear manoeuvres? (5,4,3)
ANGLO-BOER WAR (an alternative name for the second Boer War fought from 1899 to 1902) Anagram of (manoeuvres) OR BAN LOW GEAR ANGLO-BOER WAR* |
| Down | |
| 1 | Primarily, Farage acted somewhat callously in school, teacher describing him thus (7)
FASCIST (In 2013, Channel 4 News broadcast a story citing a letter written by one of his teachers at Dulwich College in the late 1970s suggesting that the pupil Nigel Farage displayed FASCIST tendencies. Farage [born 1964], currently the leader of Reform UK, denies the accusations) FASCIST (first letters of [primarily] each of Farage, Acted, Somewhat, Callously, In, School and Thus) F A S C I S T |
| 2 | Custom of country imposing tariffs on a whim gets halved (5)
USAGE (custom) USA (United States of America, a country that has been actively creating or increasing tariffs on goods) + GE (letters remaining in GEts when the second two of four [half] letters are removed). I don’t think ‘on a whim’ contributes to the wordplay, but is there for the surface reading and opinion expressed. USA GE |
| 3 | Nocturnal idiot, according to Spooner, is completely integrated (9)
TIGHTKNIT (closely integrated) Reverend Spooner might pronounce TIGHTKNIT as NIGHT (nocturnal) TIT (idiot) TIGHTKNIT |
| 4 | By law, liquor regularly taken with drug (4)
IURE (by law) IUR (letters 1, 3 and 5 [regularly taken]) + E (ecstasy; drug) IUR E |
| 5 | Academic went half heartedly with buffoon (8)
PEDANTIC (PEDANT has an archaic meaning as a schoolmaster or teacher, so PEDANTIC could mean ‘academic’) PEeD (urinated; went) excluding one of the middle two Es [half-hearted)+ ANTIC (a buffoon) PED ANTIC |
| 6 | Elegant attorney supports ombudsman’s conclusion (5)
NATTY (dapper; elegant) N (last letter of [conclusion] ombudsmaN) + ATTY (attorney) – this being a down entry, the letter N in the grid is ‘supported’ by the letters ATTY N ATTY |
| 7 | A big fan of Nathaniel is articulate (8)
INTONATE (to pronounce or articulate) INTO (interested or enthusiastically involved in; a big fan of) + NATE (a shortened form of Nathaniel) INTO NATE |
| 8 | Male libertine on vacation getting seafood (6)
COCKLE (a large bivalve mollusc; seafood) COCK (male) + LE (letters remaining in LibertinE when the central letters ibertine are removed [on vacation]) COCK LE |
| 14 | Singer very upset, ignoring small piece of advice about poem (8)
YODELLER (singer who changes frequently from ordinary voice to falsetto and back again) REaLLY (very) reversed (upset; down entry) excluding (ignoring) A (first letter of [small piece of] Advice) containing (about) ODE (a poem) Y (ODE) LLER< |
| 16 | Something to put on athlete’s foot? (5,4)
TRACK SHOE (a foot covering worn by an athlete) TRACK SHOE – is this a not very cryptic definition trying to misdirect by use of ATHLETE’S FOOT‘ (fungal infection of the skin)? TRACK SHOE |
| 17 | Left university, with young lady, for foreign land (8)
PORTUGAL (a foreign land to non-Portuguese solvers) PORT (left side of a vessel when facing the bow) + U (university) + GAL (girl; young lady) PORT U GAL |
| 18 | Display European beer bottles (3,3)
SET OUT (display) STOUT (beer) containing (bottles) E (European) S (E) T OUT |
| 20 | Appropriate to protect top of stand for flower (7)
PROSPER (flourish; flower) PROPER (appropriate) containing (to protect) S (first letter of [top of] Stand) PRO (S) PER |
| 22 | Staff meeting popular sculptor (5)
RODIN (reference Auguste RODIN [1840 – 1917], French sculptor) ROD (staff) + IN (popular) ROD IN |
| 24 | Colourful flier made anniversary cake appear wonderful, initially (5)
MACAW (any of the large, long-tailed, brightly-coloured tropical American parrots of the genus Ara or Anodorhynchus; colourful flier) MACAW (first letters of [initially] Made, Anniversary, Cake, Appear and Wonderful) M A C A W |
| 25 | Revolutionary gets rid of bolt (4)
SNIB (the bolt or fastening of a door) BINS (gets rid of) reversed (revolutionary) SNIB< |
Good question, duncan:
“Comparison of political biases in cryptic crosswords across the print media spectrum”
PhD-worthy, surely!
Beaten by SNIB. That has to be one of those “things you never knew there was a word for” words.
[Back in the twentieth century I used to buy paperback books of collections of newspaper crosswords. Topical clues were always difficult to solve. If such books still exist hopefully anyone solving this one in fifteen years time will scratch their head in ignorance of the meanings of 1d and 2d after the characters involved are long forgotten.]
Several words for a SNIB, Pete#2. My London in-laws call it a SNIB; here in east Yorkshire it’s a sneck. Otherwise a latch, I think.
The one I was pleased to dig up was IDEATE. The sort of word you know of but can’t imagine ever using.
Thanks to Eccles and duncanshiell.
1D. Snorted tea out of my nose, then had to try and explain to non-crosswording colleagues.
Gandhi cap a new one on me.
grantinfreo@1 Too late! It’s been done already apparently – put it into Google AI (Ugh).
Thanks both.
Interesting to see SNIB – I always thought it was just one of those ‘family’ words which we (the family) all understood but didn’t expect others to ‘get’. Others were ‘gueck’ (the little peak imbedded in a pullover, say, caused by hanging it up on a hook and ‘goatser’ (whereby a child would have their cheek rasped by the chin of an unshaven and bristly male relative (all in good affectionate fun you understand)).
Ele @8, yep, not at all surprising …