Independent 9477/Hoskins

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Body parts, body functions, bodily fluids exchange, beer and a bird.  Harry Hoskins is in town.  I was engaged by the puzzle, so have wittered on a bit.

 

 

 

Abbreviations
cd  cryptic definition
dd  double definition
(xxxx)*  anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x]  letter(s) removed

definitions are underlined

Across

1  US police sure love the ultimate in donuts
OURSELVES
Nice misdirection.  (SURE LOVE)* followed by the last letter of ‘donuts’.  Not sure that ‘police’ is a good anagrind, but I might have misunderstood this.

6  Car close to kaput, having got stuck in heath
MOTOR
The last letter of ‘kaput’ in MOOR.

9  Ruddy duck withdrawing from pink bird
FLAMING
FLAMING[O]  It could be that the setter just intended the surface to mean that the Ruddy Duck was turning away from the Flamingo, but why have I got an image of  post-coital bird sex in my head?  Could just be the setter’s predilections that pushed me in that direction.

10  Shove old females?  Get out of here!
PUSH OFF
A charade of PUSH and O FF.

11  Old group of stars swear God saves
ARGO
God saves, and Ian Rush buries the rebound into the back of the net, as the old joke goes.  Hidden in sweAR GOd.  I’m not sure what ‘old’ is doing here, but a brief furtle on the internet suggests that this constellation has ‘precessed’, which means that fewer of its stars are visible now than in ancient times.  Where are Phi and Dormouse when you need them?

12  What one might do if chucked?  Leg it!
TAKE FLIGHT
A dd cum cd.

14  Doctor instructed to ignore first bit of wind?
DRAUGHT
A charade of DR and [T]AUGHT.  Which is why English is so annoying to those trying to learn it as a second language.  We pronounce these as DRAFT and TORT.

15  Country nurse and a thing he might check?
ENGLAND
A charade of EN for ‘enrolled nurse’ and GLAND.

17  Communist leader?  Queen Elizabeth was one!
REDHEAD
A charade of RED and HEAD.  According to the portraits, Queen Elizabeth I was indeed a REDHEAD.

19  Coming together is satisfying
MEETING
I know it is.  A dd.

21  Cook these with water, babes
SWEETHEART
I was going to have a whinge about this, because I wanted it to be SWEETHEARTS to make the cryptic grammar work.  But apparently BABES is a synonym for SWEETHEART among people who are a third of my age.  (THESE WATER)* with ‘cook’ as the anagrind.

23  Heroin and beer will make you fit and healthy
HALE
They won’t, but it’s a charade of H and ALE.

25  Liberal ‘superiors’ initially dismissed N.W.A?
LETTERS
A charade of L and [B]ETTERS.  N.W.A are an American hip-hop band, but that’s got nothing to do with the answer.

26  Pains in gaucho’s behind easing with new treatment
AGONIES
(O EASING)*

27  Some flipping popular urinals in the country
RURAL
Hidden reversed in popuLAR URinals.

28  Poor country folk eating hard, gamey birds
PHEASANTS
Might have seen this before, but it’s H in PEASANTS.  I will forgive Hoskins for this old chestnut because it gives me the opportunity for the obligatory Pierre bird link.  Pheasants are the most stupid birds I have ever come across.  Where I live they just stand in the middle of the country lanes as you drive towards them and stare at you, going ‘come on, if you’re big enough’.  These days, I often am.

Down

1  Where palmist takes reading without warning
OFFHAND
A dd cum cd.

2  Type of action soldiers might get in buttock-padded pants?
REARGUARD
Well, if you had your buttocks padded with pants, you’d have a REAR GUARD, wouldn’t you?

3  It’s not good to dwell on revolution
EVIL
Since it’s a down clue, it’s LIVE reversed.

4  Very royal soldier possessing a good bum
VAGRANT
A charade of V and R ANT with A and G inserted.

5  Drink most of wine with yours truly and Diana Ross?
SUPREME
A charade of SUP for ‘drink’, RE[D] and ME.  Diana Ross was one of the SUPREMES.

6  Start to spray Glade Mini about, but not flush?
MISALIGNED
(S GLADE MINI)*  Glade is a toilet freshener, apparently, but I’m no domestic goddess, so someone may have a better explanation of the surface.

7  Object one pulls out of constricting old pants
THONG
Hoskins is asking you to take I out of TH[I]NG and replace it with O.

8  Denied drunk duty-free with no end of alacrity
REFUTED
I stymied myself in the NE corner by carelessly entering REFUSED, which of course doesn’t parse.  Note to self: follow the instructions.  It’s (DUT[Y]FREE)*

13  Very much what a fireplace outlet might offer on the radio?
A GREAT DEAL
A homophone of A GRATE DEAL, which is what you might get at a ‘fireplace outlet’ were you to be shopping for a grate.

16  Hoskins is into people pursuing a life
ANIMATION
I’m sure he is.  I’M in NATION following A.

17  Bad result beginning to rock one taking stock
RUSTLER
(RESULT)* plus R for the first letter of ‘rock’.

18  Beautify Ed. mixed up with Spurs
DRESS UP
(ED SPURS)*  As a piece of inside information, the Ed of the Indy crossword is in fact a Spurs supporter, as far as I recall.

19  In China, there’s a right good seaside resort
MARGATE
An insertion of A, R and G in MATE for ‘china’, the cockney rhyming slang for ‘mate’.

20  Oils fat bottom for ex-Chippendales
GREASES
A charade of GREASE for ‘fat’ and S for the last letter of ‘ex-Chippendales’.

22  Go into middle of America, but not the top part
ENTER
[C]ENTER, relying on the fact that Americans spell it CENTER and not CENTRE.

24  Liverpool’s excellent manager
BOSS
I think, but only think, that this is referring to the fact that BOSS is a Scouse word for ‘excellent’; so it’s a dd.  Someone from Liverpool can confirm or deny, no doubt.

Many thanks to Hoskins for an entertaining but accessible puzzle for the Monday slot.

18 comments on “Independent 9477/Hoskins”

  1. Thanks Pierre (nice bird link) and morning Harry.

    I too was going to baulk at sweetheart but I am reliably told by She Who Knows All that it has a current singular usage.

    As for boss, it is 40 years since I lived in Liverpool, and I never encountered that usage then.

    OTOH a lorra lorra laughs to start the week. Well done that man.

  2. Chucklesome surfaces and enjoyable word-manipulation to make a kitty purr.

    I too am confused by the police …

    Thanks to Pierre for the blog and cheers to Harry (thanks, babes!) for bringing an improbable ray of sunshine to a sopping wet Monday.

  3. Kitty (& Pierre), police has been used as an anagrind quite recently, but I can’t remember where. Beery Hiker would probably know.

  4. Chambers has got ‘excellent’ for boss (adj), but no Scouse connection.
    I liked REARGUARD. Sets the flavour of the whole thing really, as expected after all those helpings from the 225 drinks trolley. Nice start to the week

  5. Really enjoyable puzzle coming on the back of* Hoskins’ Sunday Times one. I thought at first Pierre’s introductory comment was “I was enraged by the puzzle”, but no such luck.

    ‘Boss’ for excellent is indeed a common Liverpool usage – slightly better than ‘sound’, and the opposite of ‘last’.
    No problem with 21 – my neighbours seem incapable of speaking to each other without adding “babes” at the end.
    Police is in the Chambers list of anagrinds, probably in the sense of ‘regulate’.
    Fave clue of a great bunch, Glade Mini versus flush!

    Thanks to Hoskins and to Pierre for the blog.

    * probably only a matter of time before that phrase appears in a Hoskins clue.

  6. Thanks, Pierre for a great blog of another great puzzle from Hoskins. I didn’t get BOSS, so special thanks for that.

    Collins has ‘to keep in order’ for ‘police’, which is not quite the same thing – but Chambers has ‘to PUT or keep in order’, which works for me.

    Many thanks to Hoskins for the fun – I really enjoyed it.

  7. Echo above comments, amusing surfaces and anagrinds, REARGUARD was pretty funny.

    Thanks to Hoskins and Pierre, though dismayed to learn that Pierre pronounces taught (as well as tort, presumably) as “tort”

  8. I hope this is not too pedantic, but I think P.Q.R. or X.Y.Z. would have made a better definition than N.W.A. in 25a, which might have saved me the wild goose chase of going through all the National etc., Non-etc. acronyms once I already had LETTERS.
    My only quibble with a great funny puzzle, a real Monday morning tonic. Thanks to Pierre and Hoskins.

  9. Maysie@8 – I can’t see how P.Q.R. or X.Y.Z. would have improved the surface of 25a, given that N.W.A were a band mired in controversy for their pro-gun and anti-police lyrics. (‘ABC’ obviously wouldn’t have worked, although shooting poison arrows is definitely out of order.)

  10. Some rather risqué surfaces that led to solid no-nonsense answers. Solved in two sessions (as I had to go out) but without help except for OURSELVES – a real face-palm moment when I saw the answer. I guess Maysie@8, like me, had never heard of NWA. Nor had I heard ‘boss’ as Scouse for ‘excellent’ despite a year’s residence in Liverpool. But that was longer ago than I care to remember so it might have been adopted since then.

    Thanks, Hoskins and Pierre.

  12. Very fine puzzle from one of the stand-out Indy setters.
    Hoskins is a real natural, writing clues as if he’s already in the business for decades.
    [he’s just about on earth for only a few decades]

    The first (1ac) and the last (24d) were my favourites today.
    I thought straightaway of ‘police’ as the anagram indicator, one that I’ve seen many times before.
    No problem with that, endorsed by Eileen’s comment.
    As to 24d, not sure whether many Liverpudlians will agree tonight. 🙂

    After Pan another thank you to Pierre.

  13. Many thanks to Pierre for the always amusing blog and obligatory bird link. Thanks too to all who solved and especially those who took the time to comment, plug me puzzle elsewhere and offer great ideas for future clueage.

    I’m very pleased to have brought some smiles today and it was also great to see some new folk posting on an Indy puzzle so welcome one and all. Having said that, I think it only fair to warn the new folksters of the long-standing Indy induction ceremony which involves – amongst other things – a long-handled plastic spork, the fabled Fifteen Squared drinks trolley, a dash of Conrad’s favourite whisky, a shadowy midnight locale, and the backward recital of every 14a answer word ever to appear in an Indy crossword since 1985 (yes, a year before the Indy even started – that’s how super-secret this ceremony thing is).

    Of course, with this induction being all clandestine and stuff I cannot say too much more for fear of the Grauniad scoop*, but suffice to say I shall be around the back of the Fifteen Squared bike sheds at midnight and will be expecting all new inductees to be there promptly dressed in clothing suitable for a short walk or a long crawl. Note: In the interests of hygiene, please bring your own long-handled plastic spork as well as a pen that is able to write well on giraffes for the disclaimer form.

    Right, looks like I gots two hours to kill so I might as well get cracking (so as not to destock the drinks trolley) on the famous Fifteen Squared mini-bar whilst I wait. Look forward to catching you all later or next time around and cheers and chin-chin to all. 🙂

    *A torture device used on loose-lipped Indy setters, and not, as is widely believed, a journalistic first in another paper whose name escapes me.

  15. Where I’ve been was the first night of a new opera, so I’ve only just finished this puzzle. As to ARGO, I used to be good at identifying constellations 50 years ago when I lived up north, but since moving down to the south-east, there’s too much light pollution to actually see enough stars to see many of the constellations (although Orion was quite clear in the west tonight).

    So I looked up Argo to see why it’s old. I think Pierre has conflated two separate points. The precession of the equinoxes means that the constellation has moved south and you can’t see it so well from the northern hemisphere compared to when the Greeks named it a couple of millennia ago – I was much better at identifying northern constellations. But the reason why it’s an old constellation is that it was too big to be useful as a constellation, so when the IAU formalised the definitions of the constellations last century, they split it up into three more usefully sized constellations.

  16. Thanks dirky @14 – good to see you around these parts and you’re a real 21a, too.

    Thanks also to dormouse @15 for explaining the Argo point in a suitably brilliant way.

    And now, in other news, an important update for those hoping to attend the new Indy solver induction this evening: unfortunately, I accidently tripped over and snarfed the entire Fifteen Squared mini-bar, then (just to test it was of the proper quality) went on to empty the fabled Fifteen Squared drinks trolley and, in what some might call a tired and emotional state, finally rode off on a giraffe with long-handled plastic spork in hand chanting “they’ll never take us alive, Gerald!”. Apparently I was last seen dishevelled in the fields behind Fifteen Squared’s head office and I’m hoping Gaufrid has very kindly called me a taxi.

    Because of the above, tonight’s induction has been cancelled but luckily there’s a good Radian in the Indy awaiting us in the morning and plenty more great Indy puzzles to come after that so hopefully you’ll join us there at some point in the future instead (sporks optional). 🙂

  18. Yup – mea culpa, Michael (but it’s nice to know that ringing sensation I dimly recall wasn’t booze related). I think it was the two-hour delay that did for me as, whilst I can resist the charms of the mini-bar for a while, I can’t resist them for long.

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