Eccles continues his fortnightly appearance today.
We had the usual mix of entries today, ranging from the well-known to the slightly obscure. GINNEL (1 across) is a word I have learnt from my wife, who grew up in an area where it was in common usage. NEMATODE (20 across) is a word I only meet in crosswords.
If you have been following the Tour de France over the past three weeks, then PELOTON will have been a word you heard or read daily.
There were a couple of ‘palaces’. I am sure someone in America considers MAR-A-LAGO (13 across) to be a palace.
I liked the use of tin and cans in the clues for OCEAN (8 down)
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Local punching setter in narrow alleyway (6)
GINNEL (Scottish and Northern England dialect word for a narrow alley or path between high walls or buildings) INN (public house; local) contained in (in) GEL (a setting agent; setter) G (INN) EL |
| 5 | Notes OAP is terrible stirrer (8)
TEASPOON (an item of cutlery used to stir teas or coffees, for example; stirrer) Anagram of (terrible) NOTES OAP TEASPOON* |
| 9 | Heather is untruthful, taking year out (4)
LING (heater) LyING (is untruthful) excluding (taking … out) Y (year) LING |
| 10 | Seller with Visa unusual in palace location (10)
VERSAILLES (reference the French Palace of VERSAILLES, located south west of Paris) Anagram of (unusual) SELLER and (with) VISA VERSAILLES* |
| 11 | When housing benefit gets bit of money for youth (10)
ADOLESCENT (a youth) (AS [when] containing [housing) DOLE (a payment made by the state to unemployed people; a benefit]) + CENT (a small amount of money in some currencies) A (DOLE) S CENT |
| 12 | Quietly happy to leave rip-off shelter (4)
TENT (a shelter) conTENT (quietly happy) excluding (to leave) CON (swindle; rip-off) TENT |
| 13 | Perhaps Robbie cut cakes as prepared in opulent mansion (3- 1-4)
MAR-A-LAGO (President Trump’s opulent mansion in Florida) MARGOt (reference Margot Robbie [born 1990], Australian actress) excluding the final letter (cut) T) containing (cakes [covers]) A LA (prepared [in the manner of]] MAR (A LA) GO |
| 16 | Shy singer picked up in French city (6)
RENNES (French city) RENNES (sounds like [picked up] WREN [a shy secretive bird {singer}]) RENNES |
| 18 | Leave, then go back and chat (6)
GOSSIP (chat) GO (leave) + PISS (urinate;go) reversed (back) GO SSIP< |
| 20 | New poem about repellent domesticated worm (8)
NEMATODE (an unsegmented worm) (N [new] + ODE [poem]) containing (about) TAME (domesticated) reversed (repellent) N (EMAT<) ODE |
| 22 | Steal ring from East Scotland town (4)
OBAN (town on the west coast of Scotland) (NAB [steal] + O [ring-shaped character]) read from the East end of the word to form OBAN (O BAN)< |
| 24 | Hear client somehow not under suspicion (2,3,5)
IN THE CLEAR (not under suspicion) Anagram of (somehow) HEAR CLIENT IN THE CLEAR* |
| 27 | Maybe blonde female character ran to the audience (4-6)
FAIR-HAIRED (a word that could describe a blonde) F (female) + AIR (character) + HAIRED (sounds like [to the audience] HARED (ran) F AIR HAIRED |
| 28 | Great English scientist, losing heart, produces gas (4)
NEON (a gas) NEwtON (reference Sir Isaac Newton [1643 – 1727], famous English scientist]) excluding the central letters (losing heart) WT NEON |
| 29 | Desserts in school regularly loathed by son (8)
COMPOTES (desserts of stewed fruit) COMP (Comprehensive school) + OTE (letters 2, 4 and 6 [regularly] of lOaThEd) + S (son) COMP OTE S |
| 30 | Common UK mammal given baguettes possibly to eat, according to Spooner (3,3)
RED FOX (a common UK mammal) Reverend Spooner would pronounce RED FOX as FED (given to eat) + ROCKS (gems – a baguette is a small gem) RED FOX |
| Down | |
| 2 | Epic tale of single boy going round India (5)
ILIAD (epic tale) I (Roman numeral for one [single]) + (LAD [boy] containing [going round] I [India is the international radio communication codeword for the letter I]) I L (I) AD |
| 3 | D’Artagnan finally brought up “All for one, and one…” a bloomer (7)
NIGELLA (any plant of the genus of ranunculaceous plants Nigella, with finely dissected leaves, and whitish, blue or yellow flowers) N (last letter of [finally] D’ArtagnaN) + (ALL + E.G. [for example; for one] + I [Roman numeral for one]) all reversed (brought up; down entry) N (I GE LLA)< |
| 4 | Survives very boring falsehoods (5)
LIVES (survives) V (very) contained in (boring) LIES (falsehoods) LI (V) ES |
| 5 | Oscar then interrupts wild driving manoeuvres (5-5,5)
THREE-POINT TURNS (driving manoeuvres) Anagram of (wild) O (Oscar is the international radio communication codeword for the letter O) and THEN INTERRUPTS THREE-POINT TURNS* |
| 6 | Save a piece for eccentric male (5,4)
APART FROM (except; save) A + PART (piece) + an anagram of (eccentric) FOR + M (male) A PART FRO* M |
| 7 | Exercises with group running in pack (7)
PELOTON (the main body of riders in a cycle race; the pack) PE (physical exercise) + LOT (group) + ON (working; running) PE LOT ON |
| 8 | Old tin cans ultimately pollute large body of water (5)
OCEAN (large body of water) O (old) + (CAN [tin] containing [cans] E [last letter of {ultimately} pollutE]) O C (E) AN |
| 14 | Past master’s second attempt (3)
AGO (past) A (second letter [‘s second] of mAster) + GO (attempt) A GO |
| 15 | European ignored by pescetarian probing suitable candidate (9)
APPLICANT (candidate) PeLICAN (fish-eating [pescatarian] bird) excluding (ignoring) E (European) contained in (probing) APT (suitable) AP (PLICAN) T |
| 17 | Stop loan, wasting pound (3)
END (stop) lEND (loan) excluding (wasting) L (symbol sometimes used for pound sterling) END |
| 19 | Dictator getting a Parisian to replace American in hot spot (7)
SUNTRAP (hot spot) SaTRAP (despotic subordinate ruler; dictator) with UN (French [parisian] for ‘a’) replacing (to replace) A (American) S UN TRAP |
| 21 | Left alone dangerous bears with hooked claws (7)
TALONED (with hooked claws) TALONED (hidden word in [bears] lefT ALONE Dangerous) TALONED |
| 23 | British eggs on the up? Excellent! (5)
BRAVO (well done!; excellent) BR (British) + OVA (eggs) reversed (on the up; down entry) BR AVO< |
| 25 | Church official’s European articles (5)
ELDER (church official) EL (Spanish word for the definite article ‘the’) + DER (one of the German forms of ‘the’) giving European articles EL DER |
| 26 | Fuss over nasty smell in Filipino dish (5)
ADOBO (Filipino dish of meat cooked in soy sauce and vinegar) ADO (fuss) + BO (body odour; nasty smell) – this being a down entry, the letters ADO are positioned ‘over’ the letters BO in the grid ADO BO |
A DNF for me today courtesy of 13a, which I would never have got in a month of Sundays. For me, it’s a completely obscure answer which has been complexly clued and the checking letters are of no help whatsoever.
This is unlike 26a, which I’ve also never heard of but this one was sympathetically clued so easy enough to arrive at the answer.
The rest of the puzzle was as enjoyable as ever from this setter. Thanks to Eccles and to Duncan.
BRAVO Eccles and thanks duncan.
MAR-A-LAGO
I thought
‘as prepared in’=A LA
Thanks Eccles and duncan.
MAR-A-LAGO got from enumeration and crossers and then twigging the ALA element. Margot Robbie unknown to me but that is clearly my bad. I agree with our blogger that OCEAN is particularly nice.
Thanks both
I was another to come a cropper at MAR-A-LAGO. Even though I spotted the “a la” bit, I failed to think of Robbie as a surname and Keane and Williams didn’t fit. I enjoyed the rest though and was familiar with NEMATODE from pest control.
Another lovely puzzle from Eccles. I failed on 13a although I have no complaints about the clue. I’m fascinated by Eccles’s thought processes to spot the satrap/suntrap connection. Thanks both
Great puzzle. Accessible for me and entertaining. MAR-A-LAGO popped into my head from the crossers with no idea about the parsing. Having once lived near Weaver’s Winnel, that was a wrong guess, having NHO GINNEL.
Thanks both. Good fare for a hot afternoon in front of the fan
Thanks both. At least I am not alone in not previously knowing MAR-A-LAGO though it may become useful GK. NEMATODE I am sure I’ve seen before, but that didn’t greatly help, as I didn’t see repellent as a reversal indicator, where I reasoned repelled is something being driven back, and repellent relates to that which is doing so.
Well, we got it all but MAR A LAGO was a guess as it couldn’t be much else; no idea how to parse it though as we’ve never heard of Ms Robbie (or if we have we’ve immediately forgotten about her). 26dn was similarly a NHO but clearly indicated by the clue. A few other answers we didn’t bother to parse fully as they were obvious from definition and crossing letters. 1ac brought back memories from many years ago living in a Midlands village which had such an alley; the locals called it jitty or something similar, but with a Northern background we called it a GINNEL although . We’ve not encountered the word for a long time. Favourites were PELOTON and SUNTRAP.
Thanks, Eccles and Duncan.
Thanks Eccles, excellent as usual with LING, ADOLESCENT, and OBAN making my podium. Thanks duncanshiell for explaining the bits I couldn’t parse.
I didn’t finish but I read enough popular science articles to know NEMATODE. Finally thought of Magot Robbie to get MAR-A-LAGO. Nobody here saw Barbie?