Eccles makes his usual appearance, two weeks after his previous puzzle was published.
Eccles often has one or two slightly obscure entries, but this week seemed to be almost all well-known words or phrases. SYSOP is jargon, but I think it is a fairly well-known term. OSMOSIS took me back to my school days, growing beans in the biology class. SMARTS may be uncommon outside America, but the US reference was clear.
COWHEEL is given as one word in Chambers, while Collins lists it as two words COW HEEL.
‘bread’ for ‘money’ seems to be prevalent in wordplay at the moment. I have come across it in quite a few puzzles in different publications the last three or four weeks.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | American Intelligence stings (6)
SMARTS (American term for know-how, intelligence or wit) SMARTS (stings) double definition SMARTS |
| 5 | Intrude and hence, lacking boundaries, run over a child (8)
ENCROACH (advance beyond the usual or proper limits; intrude) ENC (letters remaining in hENCe when the outer letters H and E are removed [lacking boundaries]) + R (run) + O (over) + A + CH (child) ENC R O A CH |
| 9 | Boy covering new ground (4)
LAND (ground) LAD (boy) containing (covering) N (new) LA (N) D |
| 10 | Device to protect a piercing (10)
IMPALEMENT (piercing) IMPLEMENT (device) containing (to protect) A IMP (A) LEMENT |
| 11 | Welcome tools to conserve bit of harmony for a married couple? (3,3,4)
HIS AND HERS ([of paired objects] for a man and woman respectively; for a married couple, for example) HI! (expression of welcome) + (SANDERS [tools] containing [to conserve] H [first letter of {bit of}Harmony]) HI S AND (H) ERS |
| 12 | Picked up pieces of wood in river with ferry (4)
STYX (a river in Greek mythology that separates the living world from the underworld, and carries the ferryman, Charon) STYX (sounds like [picked up] STICKS [pieces of wood]) STYX |
| 13 | Man left to invest independent capital (8)
HELSINKI (capital city of Finland) HE (man) + L [left] + SINK (to invest in) + I (independent) HE L SINK I |
| 16 | Set up home next to salt supply (6)
INSTAL (set up) IN ([at] home) + an anagram of (supply [derived from supple]) SALT IN STAL* |
| 18 | Win gold carriage (6)
LANDAU (a four-wheeled carriage, usually horse-drawn) LAND (win) + AU (chemical symbol for gold) LAND AU |
| 20 | Programme broadcast from the empty abandoned castle (8)
TELECAST ([television] programme) TE (letters remaining in ThE when the central letter h is removed [empty]) + an anagram of (abandoned) CASTLE TE LECAST* |
| 22 | Knocks box over (4)
RAPS (knocks) SPAR (to box) reversed (over) RAPS< |
| 24 | Journalist spotted popular German cutting things up (10)
HACKSAWING (cutting things up) HACK (a mediocre journalist) + SAW (spotted) + IN (popular) + G (German) HACK SAW IN G |
| 27 | Accounts from inveterate liar especially suspicious, initially (10)
CHRONICLES (records; accounts) CHRONIC (inveterate) + LES (first letters of [iniitally] each of Lies, Especially and Suspicious) CHRONIC L E S |
| 28 | Oscar, with regret, rebuffed French bread (4)
EURO (currency used in France; French bread [slang for money]) (O [Oscar is the international radio communication codeword for the letter O) + RUE (regret) reversed (rebuffed) (EUR O)< |
| 29 | Island linked by bridge to mainland transformed Senegal close to Saly (8)
ANGLESEY (Welsh island linked to the mainland by a bridge) Anagram of (transformed) SENEGAL and Y (last letter of [close to] salY) – Saly is Senegal’s premier beach resort. ANGLESE* Y |
| 30 | Shot Swiss folk hero returning after exercise (6)
PELLET (a piece of small shot) PE (physical education; exercise) + TELL (reference the Swiss Folk hero William TELL) reversed (returning) PE LLET< |
| Down | |
| 2 | Setter’s repeatedly turned over ace in US city (5)
MIAMI (US city in Florida) A (ace) contained in (in) (I’M [I am; setter is] + I’M [I am; setter is] – repeatedly) reversed (turned over) (MI (A) MI)< |
| 3 | Military police officers scraped around (7)
REDCAPS (military policemen – members of the Royal Military Police wear RED CAPS) Anagram of (around) SCRAPED RED CAPS* |
| 4 | Threw Eccles in outhouse (5)
SHIED (threw) I (the setter, Eccles) contained in (in) SHED (an outhouse) SH (I) ED |
| 5 | Suggestively, Brussels drug-dealer quietly replacing Conservative in charge with friend (15)
EUPHEMISTICALLY (expressing an unpleasant term by use of a milder word that suggests the true meaning; suggestively) EU (European Union [the headquarters of which is in Brussels) + CHEMIST (supplier of drugs; drug dealer) with P (quietly) for (replacing) C (Conservative) + I/C (in charge) + ALLY (a friend) EU PHEMIST IC ALLY |
| 6 | Surprisingly, Stella with ice is heavenly (9)
CELESTIAL (heavenly) Anagram of (surprisingly) STELLA and (with) ICE CELESTIAL* |
| 7 | Method for passing through universe is not constant (7)
OSMOSIS (diffusion of liquids through a semipermeable membrane; a method for passing through) cOSMOS (universe) excluding (not) C (a mathematical constant representing the speed of light) + IS OSMOS IS |
| 8 | City supporting John Sharp (5)
CANNY (knowing; skilful; sharp) CAN (slang term for a lavatory. John is a similar term) + NY (New York) – as this is a down entry, the letters NY are ‘supporting’ the letters CAN CAN NY |
| 14 | Old Queen Anne’s first important date (3)
ERA (an important date) ER (Elizabeth Regina; Queen Elizabeth I or II, a former [old] queen of England) + A (initial letter of [‘s first] Anne) ER A |
| 15 | Sufficient late-starting matches for a decade (9)
NOUGHTIES (a term describing the 10 years [decade] from 2000 to 2009 inclusive) eNOUGH (sufficient) excluding the first letter (starting late) E) + TIES ( [sports] matches) NOUGH TIES |
| 17 | Idiot in Kansas oddly ignored (3)
ASS (idiot) ASS (letters remaining in kAnSaS when letters 1, 3 and 5 [oddly] are excluded (ignored) ASS |
| 19 | I sloped off to strip (7)
DESPOIL (to strip) Anagram of (off) I SLOPED DESPOIL* |
| 21 | Company push source of gelatine (7)
COWHEEL (the foot of an ox that can be stewed to a jelly; source of gelatine) – this is shown as one word in Chambers, but two words in Collins CO (company) + WHEEL (push, a pram for example) CO WHEEL |
| 23 | Very pale, like bride-to- be? (5)
ASHEN (very pale) AS (like) + HEN (a bride-to-be often goes on a HEN party before the wedding) AS HEN |
| 25 | Extremely silly to soak network manager (5)
SYSOP (a computing term for a person who manages a system or network) SY (outer letter of [extremely] SillY) + SOP (to soak) SY SOP |
| 26 | Treat back sores, running somewhat (5)
NURSE (look after; tend; treat) NURSE (reversed [back] hidden word in [somewhat] sorES RUNning) NURSE< |
A quick solve for me, although I hadn’t heard of SYSOP (easy to guess though). I thought TELECAST was a poor clue and (in my opinion) would have been better if ‘broadcast’ had been left out. Duncan’s parsing pretty much ignored it.
Thrown by 21D, I thought cows have trotters or feet but cow heels seems to be a thing.
Otherwise pretty much straightforward.