As is customary, Eccles is occupying the compiling slot this Wednesday.
I found this to be a perfect puzzle for the mid-week slot: medium difficulty with crystal-clear wordplay, so nothing that required too much head-scratching and which contained a good dose of humour/smut for solvers to enjoy along the way (at 6, 10, 17, …). The entry at 9 was not a word that I was familiar with, but it could easily be worked out from the wordplay and then verified in Chambers.
My favourite clues today were 12 and 19, both for their more unusual hidden answer devices (boxes, checks); 13 and 27, for their surface reading; and 30, for the ingenious use of “Jocelyn Brown” in the wordplay.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are underlined; a break in underlining separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| ACROSS
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||
| 1 | PHLEGM |
Pub on Merseyside initially provides humour (6)
|
| PH (=pub, i.e. public house) + LEG (=on, i.e. a cricket side) + M<erseyside> (“initially” means first letter only is used); in ancient Greek and Roman medicine, phlegm was one of four humours, i.e. bodily fluids | ||
| 5 | PROMPTED |
Instigated raunchy frolic in private with Duke (8)
|
| ROMP (=raunchy frolic) in [PTE (=private, in the military) + D (=duke)] | ||
| 9 | EDDO |
Moved head up and down, right to left, and peeled vegetable (4)
|
| <n>ODDE<d> (=moved head up and down; “right to left” indicates reversal; “peeled” means first and last letters are dropped; an eddo is the tuber of various plants, especially taro | ||
| 10 | EASY DOES IT |
Sex seen on simple browsers? Take care (4,4,2)
|
| EASY (=simple) + DOES (=browsers, i.e. animals feeding on rough shoots of plants, such as deer) + IT (=sex, as in to do it) | ||
| 11 | ASPIDISTRA |
After reflecting, one declines to go into Vauxhall plant (10)
|
| SPIDI (I (=one) + DIPS (=declines, drops); “after reflecting” indicates reversal) in ASTRA (=Vauxhall, i.e. model) | ||
| 12 | TREK |
Tramp and care worker taking back boxes (4)
|
| Hidden (“boxes”) and reversed (“back’) in “worKER Taking”; used as a verb, to tramp is to trek, trudge | ||
| 13 | DO BATTLE |
Party leader in Brighton meeting Prime Minister, briefly, for fight (2,6)
|
| DO (=party, function) + B<righton> (“leader in” means first letter only) + ATTLE<e> (Prime Minister, i.e. Clement Attlee; “briefly” means last letter is dropped) | ||
| 16 | GENTOO |
Man loves penguin (6)
|
| GENT (=man) + O O (=loves, i.e. 2 x 0 (=love, i.e. zero score in tennis)) | ||
| 18 | WOEFUL |
Without fuel supply? It’s terrible (6)
|
| W/O (=without) + *(FUEL); “supply (=flexibly)” is anagram indicator | ||
| 20 | AUTOPSIA |
Gold top is returned by American getting stiff examination (8)
|
| AU (=gold, i.e. chemical symbol) + TOP + SI (IS; “returned” indicates reversal) + A (=American); cryptically, a “stiff (=dead body) examination” is an autopsy/autopsia, post mortem! | ||
| 22 | OMAN |
Perhaps Polanski’s first to flee country (4)
|
| <r>OMAN (=perhaps Polanski, i.e. Franco-Polish film-maker; “first to flee” means first letter is dropped) | ||
| 24 | VERSAILLES |
Palace revises all manoeuvres (10)
|
| *(REVISES ALL); “manoeuvres” is anagram indicator | ||
| 27 | UNDERSTUDY |
Substitute duty nurse working around Germany (10)
|
| D (=Germany, i.e. Deutschland) in *(DUTY NURSE); “working (=shaping)” is anagram indicator | ||
| 28 | IRON |
Charged particle installing resistance in metal (4)
|
| R (=resistance, in electricity) in ION (=charged particle) | ||
| 29 | TRINIDAD |
Type of jazz covers popular with brides, essentially, in Caribbean island (8)
|
| [IN (=popular) + <br>ID<es> (“essentially” means middle letters only)] in TRAD (=type of jazz) | ||
| 30 | NUMBER |
Piece of music, the last from Jocelyn Brown (6)
|
| <jocely>N (“the last from” means last letter only) + UMBER (=(shade of) brown) | ||
| DOWN
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||
| 2 | HADES |
God took drugs (5)
|
| HAD (=took, consumed) + Es (=drugs, i.e. Ecstasy tablets); Hades was the Greek god of the Underworld | ||
| 3 | EXOTICA |
Old books, I see, are unusual objects (7)
|
| EX (=old, former) + OT (=books, i.e. Old Testament) + I + C (=see, in textspeak) + A (=are, i.e. land measure) | ||
| 4 | MBEKI |
Honour royal, ignoring no good President (5)
|
| MBE (=honour, i.e. Member of the British Empire) + KI<ng> (=royal; “ignoring no good (=NG)” means letters “ng” are dropped); the reference is to South African President Thabo Mbeki (1942-), who held office from 1999-2008 | ||
| 5 | PASS THE HAT ROUND |
Crook headhunts pastor to solicit donations (4,3,3,5)
|
| *(HEADHUNTS PASTOR); “crook (=dubious, wrong)” is anagram indicator | ||
| 6 | ON DRAUGHT |
Like some beer, as gonad hurt badly (2,7)
|
| *(GONAD HURT); “badly” is anagram indicator | ||
| 7 | PRESTON |
President Trump primarily working in northern city (7)
|
| PRES (=president) + T<rump> (“primarily” means first letter only) + ON (=working, not off) | ||
| 8 | ELITE |
Periodically sell Littler as the crème de la crème (5)
|
| <s>E<l>L <l>I<t>T<l>E<r>; “periodically” indicates that alternate letters only are used | ||
| 14 | OXO |
Manufacturer of stock line of game that’s inconclusive (3)
|
| In a game of noughts and crosses, a line reading O-X-O would be inconclusive; the reference is to OXO, the manufacturer of Oxo cubes, i.e. stock cubes | ||
| 15 | TELEVISED |
Permit revolutionary to come up with cycling broadcast (9)
|
| TEL (LET=permit, allow; “revolutionary” indicates vertical reversal) + EVISED (DEVISE=to come up with, invent; “cycling” means first letter moves to the end of the word) | ||
| 17 | OBI |
I smell from the bottom, a fetish (3)
|
| I + BO (=smell, i.e. body odour); “from the bottom” indicates vertical reversal; an obi is a fetish or charm | ||
| 19 | FONTEYN |
Dancer lying about conviction, yet no further checks? (7)
|
| Hidden (“checks”) and reversed (“about”) in “convictioN YET NO Further”; the reference is to British prima ballerina Margot Fonteyn (1919-91) | ||
| 21 | PALLIUM |
Phosphorus and toxic heavy metal (not thorium) found in ancient garment (7)
|
| P (=phosphorous) + <th>ALLIUM (=toxic heavy metal; “not thorium (=Th)” means letters “th” are dropped); a pallium was a large, square mantle worn in ancient Rome | ||
| 23 | MINOR |
Child about to leave Spanish island (5)
|
| MINOR<ca> (=Spanish island, in the Balearics; “about (=ca, circa) to leave” means letters “ca” are dropped) | ||
| 25 | ARYAN |
Indo-European fairly regularly meeting Asian on vacation (5)
|
| <f>A<i>R<l>Y (“regularly” means alternate letters are used) + A<sia>N (“on vacation”, i.e. all letters emptied out apart from first and last) | ||
| 26 | ERODE |
Wear down staff in telecommunications company (5)
|
| ROD (=staff, stick) in EE (=telecommunications company, in the UK) |
Usual Eccles – great fun and some new words to look up. Today’s unknowns for me were EDDO, AUTOPSIA, MBEKI & PALLIUM but all were very fairly clued.
I really don’t like the use of “see” to clue C, even though it can be found in the main dictionaries.
My top picks were PHLEGM, EASY DOES IT, GENTOO and PASS THE HAT ROUND.
Many thanks to Eccles and to RR.
Good fun from the ever-reliable Eccles. I’d never heard of the synonym for autopsy. It took a while for the penny to drop re PHLEGM; even with the three crossers in place I found it hard to visualise the answer.
Here’s an idle thought: I wonder who gets mentioned more often in cryptics these days, Trump or Spooner?
Couldn’t see the point of including ‘care’ in the clue for TREK.
Care was odd, it has to be part of the definition or the clue doesn’t work. Chambers defines trek as ‘tramp and camp’, so maybe that turned into care somewhere along the way?
Lovely clues as ever, eg that for FONTEYN
Hovis @3. I wondered that too. One, probably wrong, explanation is that careworker is given as one word in Chambers which would be fine in terms of a lurker. Perhaps Eccles submitted it as one word and the editor changed it to line up with Collins two words?
Solid stuff as ever from Eccles – my only faux pas was putting in OBEKI instead of MBEKI as I’d never heard of the President (though having read the blog the name rings a bell) and the O looked most likely
I also got stuck on PHLEGM as I didn’t think of PH for pub(lic house) and ‘leg’ for ‘on’
Favourite clue was OXO for its cleverness in the wordplay – it always makes me smile when I see something done that I’ve never seen before
@1 Rabbit Dave – Those were also my NHOs along with ARYAN, and I also didn’t know the fetish meaning of OBI (I only know it as a sash or Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars)
@2 Quizzy Bob – I think Trump is mentioned more often. Sometimes it can be a couple of weeks between seeing references to Spooner, whereas Trump I see on average 2-3 times a week, though I’ll admit I only do the Indy (for now – if they do decide to end the cryptic there then I’ll jump over to the Guardian)
@3 Hovis – I also agree that ‘care’ seems unnecessary, and unusual for Eccles to include something superfluous
Thanks Eccles and RR
Delighted to see Jocelyn Brown – one of the greats, who spanned two eras and styles of music.
QB @2, it’s clearly the one famous for mangling words and speaking nonsense.
Sorry about careworker, I think it must have autocorrected at some point, it was submitted as one word but I didn’t notice on the edited version it was two, and the edit wasn’t marked so I guess it was an accident.
Thanks RR
Congratulations to Rabbit Dave on the care worker diagnosis, to Eccles for another great crossword.’ and to RR for the blog.