I always enjoy blogging an Eccles puzzle.
This was good fun with lots of smooth clues as always. My favourite was the one for ENTERITIS at 3 down where the clue could be read as an & Lit.
I am not sure about the wordplay for at ESSEN at 6 down and wonder if I am missing something. Obviously ESSEN is an expansion of the letters SSN and it uses E which is also a geographical abbreviation, but there are many towns in Germany that have the letters SSN in order within their full titles. There may only be one 5 letter one, I haven’t checked that. ESSEN isn’t anywhere near the German border with Poland which would have added something to the clue.
I first came across FORCE, in 1 across, as a synonym for waterfall when walking in the Lake District a few years ago, but it is not a meaning I see very often.
I thought the reference to FAIR isle in 1 down was very well disguised. The clues involving the London RED BUS icon and the use of Mama CASS to clue a small item were very clever.
I will look forward to the next Eccles puzzle.
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| Across | |||
| 1 |
Once currency of Germany (and of France) falls, these control the economy? (6,6) |
MARK (the DeutschMARK was the currency of Germany before the Euro) + ET (French for ‘and’) + FORCES (waterfalls) MARK ET FORCES |
MARKET FORCES (the combined influences of supply and demand which determine the price and quantity of a product traded and have similar knock-on effects to the wider economy) |
| 9 | Fantastic mosaic – but very small (9) |
Anagram of (fantastic) MOSAIC BUT SUBATOMIC* |
SUBATOMIC (relating to particles constituting the ATOM or processes that occur within the ATOM or at less than ATOMIC level; relating to very small items) |
| 10 | School building for students to live in is going to … |
S (school, abbreviation in Collins) + HALL (reference HALL of Residence, where students live) S HALL |
SHALL (is going to) |
| 11 | … guarantee principal is free from blame (6) |
ENSURE |
ENSURE (guarantee) |
| 12 | Poet sort of saw New York society forced inside (8) |
(NY [New York] + S [society]) contained in (forced inside) TENON (type of saw) TEN (NY S) ON |
TENNYSON (reference Alfred, Lord TENNYSON [1809 – 1892], British poet) |
| 13 | Afraid to return last piece of faulty fabric (6) |
TIMID (afraid) reversed (to return) + Y (final letter of [last piece of] FAULTY) DIMIT< Y |
DIMITY (stout white cotton; fabric) |
| 15 | Braggart is trying to show flair (8) |
ARTISTRY (hidden word in [to show] BRAGGART IS TRYING) ARTISTRY |
ARTISTRY (flair) |
| 18 | Better to do this in tennis than golf (4,4) |
DROP SHOT (a delicate return in tennis which just clears the net and frequently wins the point) DROP SHOT |
DROP SHOT (something a golfer doesn’t want to do as DROPping a SHOT signifies a score one more than par for the hole) |
| 19 | Confirm most obese female is to leave (6) |
ATTEST |
ATTEST (confirm) |
| 21 | Male advanced women’s complaints (8) |
M (male) + A (advanced) + LADIES (women) M A LADIES |
MALADIES (complaints) |
| 23 | Mark, when cycling, gets a crusty dish (6) |
RATING (assessment; mark) cycling to the right with the last letter moving to the front to form GRATIN GRATIN |
GRATIN (the golden brown crust covering a dish topped with breadcrumbs / and or cheese to crisp) |
| 26 | Getting emotional – it’s showing, just a bit (5) |
TINGE (hidden word in [it’s showing] GETTING EMOTIONAL) TINGE |
TINGE (slight trace of; just a bit) |
| 27 | Stop colonial worker crossing North America (9) |
TERMITE (an insect like an ant that lives in a colony; colonial worker) containing (crossing) NA (North America) TERMI (NA) TE |
TERMINATE (stop) |
| 28 | They rent out tenements in unconnected capitals? (5,7) |
BLOCK (tower BLOCK; tenement) + LETTERS (people who rent pout properties) BLOCK LETTERS |
BLOCK LETTERS (capital letters that are written without being joined-up [unconnected]) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Fair for one to charge crazy fool? (7) |
ISLE (reference Fair ISLE, an island in Shetland at the far north of Scotland) contained in (to charge; to fill) MAD (crazy) M (ISLE) AD |
MISLEAD (delude; fool) |
| 2 | London icon close to Shard omitted in pictorial representation (5) |
RE REBUS |
REBUS (an enigmatical representation of a word or name by pictures representing the component parts of the word) |
| 3 | Disorder of intestine, involving runs – not initially notifiable (9) |
Anagram of I ENTE (R) ITIS* |
ENTERITIS (inflammation of the intestine, often leading to diarrhoea [runs]) |
| 4 | Iron clothes in the morning for celebrity (4) |
FE (chemical symbol for iron) containing (clothes) AM (ante meridiem; before noon; morning) F (AM) E |
FAME (celebrity) |
| 5 | Scientific study of pile of stones in Thailand? Quite the opposite (8) |
T (International Vehicle Registration for Thailand) contained in (in) ROCKERY (pile of stones) – i.e. contrary to the initial part of the clue [quite the opposite] ROCKE (T) RY |
ROCKETRY (scientific study) |
| 6 | Poles expanded into German city (5) |
SSN (South, South, North – all geographic poles) expanded to be preceded by and contain a couple of Es to form ESSEN ESSEN |
ESSEN (town in Germany) |
| 7 | Tape small member of The Mamas and The Papas? (8) |
CASS (one of the members of The Mamas and The Papas musical group was CASS Elliot, often known as Mama CASS) + –ETTE (suffix signifying small) CASS ETTE |
CASSETTE (plastic case containing a reel of magnetic tape, often with pre-recorded material on it – often providing hours of ‘fun’ to unravel after they got jammed in the player) |
| 8 | Stylish houses left for footman (6) |
FUNKY (of the latest fashion; stylish) containing (houses) L (left) F (L) UNKY |
FLUNKY (uniformed servant) I have usually spelled this with an E between the K and the Y but dictionaries list both. Collins leads with FLUNKY while Chambers has FLUNKEY first) |
| 14 | Second city in Florida mostly rugged countryside (8) |
MO (moment; second) + ORLAND MO ORLAND |
MOORLAND (rugged countryside) |
| 16 | Physician of Italian football team is into books (9) |
INTER (reference the Italian football team INTER Milan) + IS contained in (into) NT (New Testament; books) INTER N (IS) T |
INTERNIST (specialist in internal diseases; a physician rather than a surgeon) |
| 17 | State head’s involuntary response (8) |
DOME’S (head’s) + TIC (involuntary response) DOMES TIC |
DOMESTIC (relating to the home Country or State; not foreign) |
| 18 | Downgrade protest by the discontented (6) |
DEMO (DEMOnstration; protest) + T DEMO TE |
DEMOTE (downgrade) |
| 20 | Offers carers vehicles to carry supplies (7) |
TENDERS (offers) TENDERS (people who care; carers) |
TENDERS (carriages attached to a locomotive to carry fuel and water; vehicles to carry supplies) triple definition |
| 22 | Return obscene material at last, and think about it a lot (5) |
LEWD (obscene) reversed (return) + L (final letter of [at last] MATERIAL) DWEL< L |
DWELL (rest attention on; think about a lot) |
| 24 | Chas and Dave’s ultimate wind up (5) |
TEAS (chas) + E (final letter of [ultimate] DAVE) TEAS E |
TEASE (wind up) |
| 25 | Range of hearing aids originally despatched (4) |
URAL |
URAL (mountain range in Western Russia) |
I took 6d to be just “S N” (poles) when spoken aloud: ESS EN
passerby @ 1
Thanks – that seems very obvious now you say it.
There’s often one clue in crosswords that I blog where I have a complete blind-spot. ESSEN was the one today!
All the usual fun from Eccles with great cluing and super-smooth surfaces.
I needed to phone a friend to find out that FORCE could mean WATERFALL. The fabric in 13a was new to me, as was the (American!) answer to 16a. I agree with passerby @1 about the parsing of 6d.
The top clues for me were 1d, 3d, 6d & 20d but many others came into consideration.
Many thanks to Eccles and to Duncan.
I wouldn’t say “spoken aloud” for 6d so much as “written out in full”.
DIMITY & INTERNIST were new to me. Lots of lovely surfaces such as those for TERMINATE & FAME. Liked the SUBATOMIC anagram.
Found this hard in places and failed to get SHALL & FLUNKY. Also failed on GRATIN & TEASE but really shouldn’t have. TEASE was particularly nice.
Thanks to Eccles and Duncan.
I struggled in the SE corner but got there eventually. Essen nowhere near Polish border (it’s in the Ruhr district near Dusseldorf). I originally put Yellow at 13A (Y + Wolle reversed = an archaic spelling of wool) before realising it didn’t work. Didn’t care for State = Domestic, or Ural for range, since one usually refers to the Urals; when singular it’s usually the river in crosswordland. But apart from those minor quibbles much enjoyed, so thanks Eccles and Duncan.
A very enjoyable crossword – ( do like Eccles Wednesdays. My favourites were 7d and the multi-definition 20d
Thanks to Eccles and Duncan
Cassette. Chortle; absolutely brilliant. Thanks to E & DS
Thanks for the blog, Duncan, especially for the parsing of MISLEAD, which totally misled me.
Another super puzzle from Eccles. I really look forward to his Wednesdays.
I’ve known FORCE for waterfall ever since I was a small child, when my aunt sent me a postcard of High Force in Teesdale, which I’d never heard of, but I was really thrilled, because my surname then was Teasdale.
Favourites today were ENSURE, ATTEST, REBUS, ENTERITIS, CASSETTE and TEASE – but there wasn’t a dud clue to be seen.
Many thanks, as ever, Eccles.
A really enjoyable solve.
I did not know that FORCES could refer to waterfalls but, having got market as the first word and 4 and 5 down, MARKET FORCES had to be the solution.
I thought the clues for ENTERITIS, REBUS and DEMOTE were all excellent and CASSETTE was inspired!
Thanks to Eccles and to Duncan
Great blog and add me to fans of CASSETTE. I liked RE(D)BUS too and thanks passerby@1 for ESSEN.
And thanks Eccles,
A real challenge for me, but a very enjoyable one. Eventually all in correctly, but with GRATIN, ENTERITIS and DOMESTIC unparsed, so thanks for the explanations. Another fan of CASSETTE and I also liked the triple def TENDERS, the surface for DWELL and the ‘Fair for one’ in MISLEAD, among others.
Thanks to Eccles and Duncan
We struggled with a few in the bottom half of the grid. Failed to spot the hidden TINGE and all we could think of was ‘tense’ for ‘getting emotional’ – a bit of a stretch but not as much of a stretch as DOMESTIC for ‘state’ which was the only one of three words suggested by our wordfinder which was anything like the answer. And we failed to see ‘chas’ as the plural of ‘cha’ so we needed help fot TEASE and GRATIN.
DIMITY and INTERNIST were new to us but clearly clued; as was FLUNKY, which was just as well since we would normally spell it ‘flunkey’ and had to check in Chambers for the alternative spelling.
No other problems, though. SUBATOMIC, REBUS and ROCKETRY were among our favourites.
Thanks, Eccles and Duncan
Was it just me, thinking that this was an Eccles crossword that was harder than usual?
I think this puzzle had some exceptionally well disguised definitions (like the one in 1d, as mentioned in the blog).
A superb crossword, even superior to Brendan’s in The Guardian (which, for me, was very fine but also somewhat repetitive).
Eccles hardly ever comes up with – so-called – clever gimmicks, not even with pangrams.
The clueing itself, however, is majestic – Ximenean and adventurous, at the same time.
And that’s how I like them!
Many thanks to duncanshiell & Eccles for the fun.
Very late in today but I did enjoy this one despite several of the clues taking a long time to yield. I was OK with ‘force’ having possibly been to visit the same one as Duncan – Aira Force in Ullswater – but I didn’t know the fabric and spent a long while debating London icons and being haunted by my bęte noire – a ‘cycling’ clue.
I did have to phone a friend over 1d which is ridiculous when I think of the years I spent listening with my Dad to the radio shipping forecast………
My favourite was BLOCK LETTERS with a mention for FAME.
Thanks to Eccles for the challenge and thanks to Duncan for the review.
Many thanks to Duncan and all commenters. I think this was tougher than a few of my recent ones, although I am never the greatest judge.
It most definitely was. Two thirds (top half mainly) in and then over to fifteensquared.