Independent 9,255 by Hoskins

by

Relative new boy Hoskins returns with a bit of sauce…

Not as rude as Paul/Punk can be though. There’s a lot of remove /replace the first letter clues here. Can’t see a theme but it won’t be the first or last time I missed one.

Thanks Harry.

 

completed grid

Across

1 Jesus saves over one in twenty! (7)
CHORIST
20 = CHORUS, O(ver) inside CHRIST

5 Local government advice for auditors? (7)
COUNCIL
Sounds like COUNSEL

9 Copper‘s out of order, making female tense (9)
DETECTIVE
T(ense) replacing F(email) in DEFECTIVE

10 Capital way to take a spin around Oxford? (5)
TUNIS
ST(reet) reversed over (oxford say) UNI(versity)

11 One slow to comprehend old dialect (5)
IDIOM
O(ld) inside 1 & DIM

12 Barking dog ridden with the shakes? (9)
DODDERING
[DOG RIDDEN]* barking

14 Somehow she’d stay over with us for 48 flipping hours! (6,8)
SHROVE TUESDAYS
Cryptic definition, not totally convinced by the 48 bit – it could be many more. [SHE’D STAY OVER US]* somehow

17 Poor bishop with terribly dear parts at risk? (2,3,9)
ON THE BREADLINE
B(ishop) & DEAR* terribly inside – parting ON THE LINE (at risk)

21 50% off dope, crack and grass with a pure line (9)
PEDIGREED
half of (do)PE & DIG (crack, tease) & REED (grass)

23 Fish smell, but you won’t find sulphur in there (5)
TENCH
S(ulphur) removed from (S)TENCH

24 Be in need of no introduction, like some 70s ‘comedians’? (5)
EXIST
(S)EXIST with no introduction

25 Fighter happy he had that woman picked up in Bow? (9)
GLADIATOR
GLAD & a cockeyish I ATE HER

26 Prepare to fence broken garden walls (2,5)
EN GARDE
Hidden (walled by) answer

27 Men at work? Men with sons? Men abroad? (7)
SIGNORS
SIGN – for example the “Men at Work” roadworks one & O.R. (men, soldiers) & S(ons)

Down

1 If boy switches lead to clubs, one follows with clubs (6)
CADDIE
LADDIE with the first letter replaced by C(lubs)

2 Escapist fantasy, essentially nothing’s deep about it (7)
OSTRICH

(fan)T(asy) essentially inside O (nothing)’S & RICH (deep)

3 Put out hip on chair with a hole in the middle? (9)
INCOMMODE
IN (hip, with it) & COMMODE (a chair with well a hole in it….)

4 Tough examination that could describe a PHD? (5,6)
THIRD DEGREE
Double def cum def & cryptic def

5 Something to get one going regularly: cucumbers! (3)
CUE
It’s your cue to leave. it’s regularly C(uc)U(mb)E(rs)

6 Arena’s last instalment pulled from BBC release (5)
UNTIE
(aren)A removed from (a)UNTIE

7 Bar area supporting couple with beer in them? (7)
CANTINA
CAN & TIN could both hold beer & A(rea)

8 Tap glass jars at The Eleventh Hour? (4-4)
LAST-GASP
[TAP GLASS]* jarred

13 Rap singer crossing over with dance music (4,3,4)
DRUM AND BASS
DRUM (rap) & AND (with) & BASS (singer)

15 Hawking over the top of ledges and legging it? (9)
SPLITTING
top of L(edges) in SPITTING (hawking)

16 Container for meat and two veg or bit of fish? (8)
CODPIECE
Cheeky chappie Hoskins. If you need me to explain this…

18 Mist occasionally rising, then fading and clearing up (7)
TIDYING
(m)I(s)T reversed & DYING (fading)

19 Not very religious books about a certain Balls? (4,3)
NONE TOO
ONE (a certain) in N(ew) T(estament) & O & O (balls)

20 Refrain from nude act with husband or American (6)
CHORUS
a denuded (a)C(t) & H(usband) & OR & US (american)

22 Everglades resident chasing game up Ohio river (5)
GATOR
TAG (a game reversed) & O(hio) & R(iver)

25 Osborne lacking in organisation? Good grief! (3)
GEE
ORG(anisation) removed from GE(org)E (osbourne)

21 comments on “Independent 9,255 by Hoskins”

  1. Hoskins needs to brush up on arithmetic- how often do you see 20 on a choir (apart from it being a crap clue)
    And youre right about 24 hours. And in my day, a PhD followed a BSc or the like making it second degree.

    I thought detective was about the best but it seemed to me like he was trying to chalk one up rather than entertain-particularly inexcusable on a Monday.

    Whereas the Telegraph Toughie was a masterpiece.

  2. Thanks for blogging, flashling.

    Unlike copmus, I was entertained by this. Inexcusable on a Monday is a bit ott: the Monday Indy stopped being the ‘easy one’ some time ago. CHORIST is fine: O in CHRIST and it refers to someone who sings in 20dn. Nothing to do with arithmetic. These days, a PhD (sic) is often a ‘third degree’: ask Kathryn’s brother, who won’t thank me for mentioning that he has a BA, an MA and is now studying for a PhD.

    SHROVE TUESDAYS wasn’t my favourite, but the ‘flipping days’ made me smile; not sure that IDIOM and ‘dialect’ are synonymous; but CODPIECE and GLADIATOR were light-hearted clues and SIGNORS was cleverly put together.

    Good puzzle. Bravo, Hoskins.

  3. Just about to post and saw K’sD beat me to it

    I too, took the ’20’ in 1a as ‘Chorus’ (20d)

    25a I parsed as “glad ‘e ate ‘er”

    Thanks Hoskins and flashing

    (Copmus is correct re toughie)

  4. OK I stand corrected on the use of 20 but it doesnt change my opinion of the clue, especially as I am used to Chorister, having attended an Anglican church with a male choir.

    i have no objection to a tough Monday puzzle-nay I welcome it- Punk 2 weeks ago was one of the toughest I have tackled form John Halpern and it was superb.Such setters WANT you to get the clues but make you work hard to unravel them which adds to the enjoyment when the penny finally drops.

    I felt no such thing today- and as I said- i embarked on a PhD course many moons ago with GSEs and a BSc behind me.so second degree.

    Chacun etc…

  5. Re 1a: Isn’t there a convention that any number such as 20 in a clue may refer to the number itself (for ‘score’, say) or to the answer in the relevant slot (here, CHORUS), but any numeral in words (such as ‘twenty’) does not look at the answer in the slot?

  6. Sorry copmus @1 and morphiamonet @3, but which Toughie are you referring to? There isn’t one on a Monday, and Hoskins isn’t on my list of Toughie setters in any guise that I can see. Hoping for enlightenment.

  8. Thanks BH. I agree about the Elgar (when did John Henderson produce anything that is not a masterpiece?) but what is the relevance in this discussion?

  9. Enjoyed this, with 21 as my fave – thought the surface, construction and def were excellent.

    Cheers Harry and Flashling.

  10. Many thanks to Phil for the excellent blog and to all who solved and commented – always appreciated here in sunny York.

    With regard to John Henderson and his excellent Toughie popping up in today’s thread, I believe that to be because of the longstanding rumours, which I can now confirm to be true, that I have been John Henderson for the past three months after he set off on an extensive – and due to the far-flung nature of the places, out of internet reach – quiz tour of the southern tip of Patagonia and the northern tip of Cleethorpes.

    It’s been a difficult three months for me what with working around the clock to try and keep up John’s excellent standards, but I must admit it is good to have had my Toughie of last Friday recognised here as I thought I’d really excelled his self with that one.

    For those who want to know (Jane, perhaps, being first on the list), John is due back tomorrow when all normal service will resume and I shall head back from York to the warmer climes of Norwich. Of course, it won’t be plain sailing for me on my return as I will start preparations for my next stand-in work: becoming Boatman when he starts his dangerous three and a half year circumnavigation of the M25 on stilts whilst wearing a specially commissioned Spiderman onesie.

    Thanks to all, especially KD for his kind words. Now where’s that drinks trolley?

    Harry

  11. I think you’ve been too close to that trolley all day Harry and now you’re completely off it! ?

  14. Hoskins @10 – thanks for that – almost as entertaining as the elbow tax you were trying to confuse Sil with at Derby (could have sworn I saw both of you in the same room that day, but maybe I was seeing double!)

  15. @ beery – I set myself a high bar in Derby with that one, and when you are as talentless, short and thirsty as me a high bar can be somewhat problematical.

    As for myself being in the same room as myself at said excellent event, I can now reveal that after consulting my illusionist guru (The Great Misdirecto) I went up to Derby three days early with a van load of mirrors and, having forgotten the dry ice machine, had to puff on three jumbo packs of woodbines whilst concealing the cleverly angled mirrors to supply the required smoke before the ‘doppelganger in the same room’ effect was perfected.

    Even if I do say so myself, it all worked pretty well: though I do declare I almost arrived at the pub with a stack load of tabloids due to some false capitalisation by The Great Misdirecto, which is just typical of him as you might expect.

  16. I really liked this; I thought the clues were super. The 48 hours is a little unusual but I think it’s a valid definition and a good clue (although perhaps it does need a question mark). The question mark after PHD (PhD) justifies it as a possible third degree: I don’t see the problem. copmus: PhD was my second degree too but what’s that got to do with owt?

  17. Nice puzzle – I’m at a loss to understand the gratuitous attacks by Copmus – although on average it was certainly a fairly tough Monday across most of the papers. The Elgar puzzle referred to (last Friday’s Telegraph Toughie) was certainly a remarkable achievement as far as the gridfill went but hardly likely to induce much solving peasure for the average punter (which seems to be the complaint here – ie re a Monday puzzle) even if hardcore solvers welcomed a Toughie “like-what-it-says-on-the tin” for a pleasant change.

    48 in 14a jars – but what’s the alternative – I can’t think of one – and “flipping” is much too good to thow away.

    16d was my LOI – I could see that COMPLETE fitted the crossing letters – then I thought (it pays to do this) “Who’s the setter. Ah yes. Harry Hoskins. there’s something of the night about that chap – just judging by his puzzles.” Bingo – CODPIECE it had to be.

    Nice stuff Harry. I pretty well always do the ST puzzles. Your first one there was brilliant – an act you’re unlikely to ever top. All fine since then – but nothing as good as that one.

    Oh yes. Just do me one favour willl you. Drop that ridiculous term “xim-leaning”.

    Thanks for the blog flashling – a few there I didn’t fully understand. I lead a sheltered life and am completely out of touch with pop music (they hate it to be called that) from about 1985 onwards.

  18. @ JS – many thanks for the kind words.

    I must admit that after seeing I’ll never top my first ST I almost thought about retiring to The Isle of Mull to become a part-time hermit and occasional clown-crier in the style of Smokey Robinson: however – and I think long-time readers of this thread may know where this is going – I can now reveal my first ST puzzle was in fact written by John Henderson who, at that time, was standing in for me while I was standing in for Arachne who was, at that time, circumnavigating Hugh Stevenson whilst dressed as a bottle for charity, and so I do feel my (and when I say my I mean me) best is yet to come.

    Many thanks also to Jambazi for taking the time to comment – much appreciated.

  19. Blimey – do you all know each other and meet up in Derby? The lack of secure access to read and comment made me think this was a blog for just anyone (signed: Just Anyone)

  21. Another waste of time & ink for a National paper to print on a Monday, the general readership would not have a (CLUE) to what Hoskins is on about , I love cryptic crosswords but the this so called level of difficulty is beyond me and a lot of other solvers.

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