Independent 9016 by Hoskins

by
  • * = anagram
  • [] = removed
  • A(mpere) = abbreviation

Hoskins is a completely new setter and that always makes things a little tricky, as you don’t quite know what to expect. I found this surprisingly difficult, particularly the left hand side, but that might be down to my lack of familiarity with the setter’s style. The clues were a mixed bag with some that I quite liked such as 2 down and some that definitely weren’t my cup of tea such as 11 across. I’ve had a go at parsing everything but I’m fairly sure there are a couple I haven’t quite understood.

Across
1. Take down my ruddy trousers! (6)
Record Cor (=my) in Red(=ruddy). Trouser (used as a verb) is the containment indicator.
4. She hates bleeding cricket matches (3,5)
The Ashes (She hates)* – would myself have preferred something like blasted as the anagram indicator.
10. One causing suffering of valley people! (9)
Tormentor A tor is a mountain peak, so men living between two tors might be called valley people.
11. Number at liberty to take an elocution lesson (5)
Three Free pronounced (very badly) might sound like three.
12. Gladly set about Hoskins and pound (7)
Readily Ready(=set) around I(=Hoskins, the compiler) + l.
13. Theatre next to river one books for second run (7)
Reprint Rep + R(iver) + I + NT.
14. Game lord receives fine after dropping first pill (5)
Poker P[e]er around OK – first pill being the first E(cstasy) pill rather than the first letter of pill.
15. Galleries located in Dover and Ashford (8)
Verandas Hidden in DoVER AND AShford
18. Tutor working on radius plus ten is one? (8)
Torturer It’s clearly Tutor* but I’m a bit lost on the second part – the only vague stab I can have is that it’s r(adius) + er, the er being a comparative as in bigger, smaller etc.
20. One up for a rock star’s backstage perk? (5)
Rider Unless rider is a slang term for a groupie who sleeps with the band members, I’m a bit lost on this one as well.
22. Man in uniform: firm, single and large (7)
Colonel Co + lone + l(arge).
24. Holy initiates and what one hopes they’d have? (7)
Novices It would be hoped they would have no vices.
25. Rumour involving duke’s drunk sex (2-3)
On dit Seems to be on(=involving) + d(uke) + it(=sex) but I’m not sure where the drunk fits in.
26. Knocking over pint, guest must be smashed (9)
Upsetting (Pint guest)*
27. How some churches are? Expensive to light! (8)
Steepled Steep + LED.
28. Clipped diction primarily associated with plummy type? (6)
Pruned Prune + d[iction]

Down
1. Upset celeb downs gin in difficult situations (3,5)
Rat traps Star* around trap, gin being a type thereof.
2. It can end with legal work, unfortunately (6,9)
Carnal knowledge (Can end legal work)*
3. More eager to lose a little weight and get thinner (7)
Reedier [G]reedier
5. One taking on soldiers in sleeveless shirt (5)
Hirer RE in [s]hir[t]
6. Behave badly on discharge (3,4)
Act upon Act up + on
7. Problem faced by one unable to get off horse? (6,9)
Heroin addiction CD – horse is slang for heroin
18. Johnny Vegas’ last round before hospital (6)
Sheath [Vega]s + heat + h(ospital)
9. Spend the night by small river with maiden? (4,4)
Stay over S(mall) + Tay + over (cricket)
16. Scarcity of jobs ultimately behind poor earners (8)
Rareness Earners* + [job]s
17. Papers releasing latest advanced forecast (8)
Presaged Pres[s] + aged
19. VAT cap for item of clothing (4,3)
Tank top Tank(=vat) + top(=cap)
20. One joining Amazon, perhaps to purchase Alien (7)
Riveter River around ET
21. Put out after a clue such as the first found here? (6)
Across Cross after a.
23. Parasite picked up somewhere in South-east Asia (5)
Louse Hom of Laos

35 comments on “Independent 9016 by Hoskins”

  1. I found this quite tricky too, my hold-ups being in the SE corner.

    20a I think a rider is a clauses in a rock star’s contract to perform where they say they won’t appear unless they have special things like water from a mountain stream, grapes picked from a particular slope of a particular vineyard etc.

    Thanks to Hoskins and Neal.

  2. Thanks to NealH, and a warm welcome to Hoskins! He’s not a new setter to me though, because Alchemi provided a link somewhere to http://www.hoskinscrosswords.com.

    1a was certainly a bold statement of style, and I really like the inventiveness in clues like 10a. I’m sure we’ve got lots of fireworks to come. I thought 2d was absolutely brilliant – a simple construction with seven words, but it manages to work on two levels.

    I’m also stuck on parsing 18a and 25a, so I hope someone can enlighten me.

  5. Thanks for blogging, Neal.

    Always good to see the Ed bringing in new setters for the Indy, so welcome to Hoskins (although the online version I solved didn’t have his name at the top, so I was a bit stymied to understand READILY).

    Very much a mixed bag for me. Clues like STEEPLED, CARNAL KNOWLEDGE and HIRER are very good. But THREE didn’t float my boat either; I’d never use a hyphen in ON-DIT (our blogger hasn’t either) and I thought the clue was very convoluted; if the ‘plus’ in 18ac was meant to mislead, it certainly misled me; and I still don’t understand how we get E from ‘first pill’. And crypticsue’s explanation of RIDER is surely right, but I didn’t much like that one either.

    Shall remain on the fence until we’ve had a couple more from this setter, but welcome again.

  7. @K’s dad

    I solved the puzzle interactively too (I use Firefox) and it has 9016 by Hoskins plastered across the top; I don’t know if this has been added after your comment.
    I’m finding the new tool very reliable now and I’ve got the hang of it, I think. Thicker lines for word breaks could be enhanced, it’s true.

  8. I did in in Crossword Solver, baerchen. I know some other folk have also had a lack of the setter’s name in their set-up. But otherwise we’re back to normal being able to access the Indy crossword on the day it’s published, deo gratias …

  9. The on-line puzzle still seems weak on clues which span more than one grid entry (not that there were any in this particular puzzle). It doesn’t automatically jump to the second grid entry after you’ve filled in the first and often doesn’t even seem to know that the other grid entries are part of the puzzle i.e. it sometimes doesn’t automatically move to the next square after you’ve typed a letter, so have to fill in the answer by a laborious process of clicking on each square.

  11. Good debut for Hoskins with some super clues.

    Thanks NealH for a good blog. I have heard some saying “Number free;” just listen to some of the footballers!

    I liked RECORD, TORMENTOR, HEROIN ADDICTION & CARNAL KNOWLEDGE.

  12. I’m very pleased to see Hoskins making it to the big leagues. As Cyborg has intimated already, I’ve had cause to approve of his puzzles before. A couple of these clues are a bit weak, but that’s far outweighed by some of the really elegant and imaginative others.

    I loved RECORD and LOUSE.

  14. In crosswords ‘my’ often yields ‘cor’. A well-accepted device.
    Recently when this was used in an Indian crossword, a solver opined that only ‘my!’ (with the EM) is an exclamation and just ‘my’ (without the EM in the middle of a clue) cannot be expected to get ‘cor’.
    What would you say?

  15. Perfectly acceptable without the EM, Rishi – in part through logic as it doesn’t appear in the answer.
    A very warm welcome to ‘Harry’, another clue-writing forum graduate and a jolly nice chap.

  17. I found some of this a bit compileritic, some indicators not really doing their jobs properly, but they cannot be called mistakes. The technique is largely okay. A good compiler in the making perhaps.

  18. I quite liked THREE: I thought the idea was that some people would say it as ‘free’ and then would need to take elocution lessons to make the ‘th’ sound.

  19. @HH@17
    I am afraid vague comments don’t help.
    If you say what is compileritc, which indicator you think is not doing its job, we can agree or disagree.

  20. Agree with rf3435 (in fact, one could use our old Cockney friend who always drops his aitches in Crosswordland to also pronounce “th” as “f”).

    Excellent debut, I thought TORMENTOR outstanding and CARNAL KNOWLEDGE very good.

    Thanks to Hoskins and NealH.

  21. Well done Hoskins! Congratulations! I felt very pleased to see this debut in the independent. A very enjoyable solve, though homophones are risky, am I alone in using two syllables for Laos? And I don’t want to tell you how much of my childhood was spent in front of a mirror trying to perfect the English “th”, elocution lesson indeed.

    Puzzle on the tough side I think, I needed some help here and there. Brilliant anagram in 2d that seems to have won people over, I also liked 26a, 24a, 20d, 13a, and many more, and some good laughs.

    Great stuff!
    Thanks also to NealH for the review

  24. A lot of new setters lately, so many that Knut has almost become a household name.
    I mention Knut because I think his surfaces are generally more exciting (kind of Tramp-like) than Hoskins’.

    That said, I am with the mighty Jim T @10 who appreciates a good clue when he sees one.
    Like him (and others) I thought TORMENTOR (10ac) was marvellous, even a kind of novelty clue.
    Clues like 1ac (RECORD), 2d (long one #1), 8d (SHEATH) or long one #2 at 7d make clear that we have here a setter whose work can be – what I use to call – ‘one level up’.

    Lots to enjoy, so many thanks for that, Hoskins!

    And thanks to NealH for a fine blog.
    Some clues were indeed slightly under par (13d, 14ac, 20ac, 25ac) but there were many to outshine these.

  27. Bravo, a terrific debut. Beautifully paced and inventive. Too many ticks to list but 10 and 14 across were genius. Up with this sort of thing.

    Shame that some of the Guardian trolls are polluting Independent threads now.

    Many thanks to Hoskins and of course NealH.

  30. Did you want, @25, to explain a bit more about why you found this like dental work? I wasn’t that keen on it, but at least I tried to say why.

  31. My kind of puzzle! I thought it very neat. Well composed and fun to solve; what not to like? Unlike others, I didn’t consider any clueing weak. (Though I am confused by definition for 1dn – my Chambers has it as a “toothed bicycle pedal” but why “difficult situations” – can anyone explain?)
    That apart – terrific!
    I ticked RECORD and FREE (both quite delicious) and two ticks for TORMENTOR and CARNAL KNOWLEDGE! Most dailies receive no ticks……
    So big thanks to Hoskins – and welcome. Come back soon!
    Thanks to Neal (don’t think you enjoyed it as much as I; agree completely that LHS the trickier but I found it yielded by starting in NE and travelling clockwise; the need of a good but accessible route, rather than easy write-ins, another indication of this compiler’s ability methinks)

  32. Rat trap can be defined as “a difficult, involved, or entangling situation”, at least according to on-line dictionaries – haven’t got a copy of Chambers to hand. It seems to be acceptable as a single word, which would have made the clue a little harder.

  33. Many thanks to Neal for the blog, Mike Hutchinson for having me, and to the solvers and setters who’ve taken the time out of the damnable real life to post thoughts on this puzzle.

    All comments are much appreciated and I’ve enjoyed reading what was made of the clues. Thank you also for the welcome which has made me feel very warmly welcomed indeed. Looking forward to meeting those of you going to the York S&B in October.

    Now, where’s the bar!

  34. Neal – Thank you for taking the trouble to reply – very decent of you. Well it’s not in Chambers and it’s not in my biceps-busting Oxford and it’s not a use I have come across, so I guess it would have to be on the internet! Online reference ‘books’ – pah! Whatever next – I should have known it would to come to this…..? 🙂

  35. William F P @34, the Online Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press, gives “rat trap, informal, an unpleasant situation that offers no prospect of improvement”. I am surprised that you have Chambers, I consider this reference along with my COED, much more reliable – you must start moving with the times.

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