The middle of May and, if my ageing memory is right, I think my first blog of a puzzle by Hob.
And quite a tricky one it proved to be. Some tough clues. I don’t think it was my inability to tune in to Hob’s wavelength, but caused by Hob’s use of many different clue-ing techniques.
Nice to see, my favourite band mentioned in 1dn and bizarrely it took me some time to see the answer – which did require some knowledge of the band. 16ac another musical clue also took a while to parse!
I really liked the originality of 10ac – hadn’t seen that trick before but it was a good one.
Certainly an advanced cryptic in my opinion. Many thanks Hob. I really did enjoy that!
Key
Anagram *; DD Double definition; underline definition; Rev. reverse
Across
7 LP the writer regularly plays at her raves (7)
(ly + at her)* = HARTLEY as in L.P Hartley (writer)
8 Depression of key characters in extremely tricky first half of game (6)
Ty (extremely tricky) + ping-pong – pong (first half of game) = TYPING
9 Tax too much, taking off a third initially (4)
Excess (too much) – a third initially = CESS
10 Clean out pond, accompanied by sound of Overture to William Tell (10)
(pond + tell + u+ u)* = UNPOLLUTED
12 Chess player with defence partially involving Latvian opening (5)
Back (defence) around l (Latvian opening) = BLACK
13 Trump at last becoming confused, rowing when little pressure is applied (8)
P (Trump at last) + addling (becoming confused) = PADDLING
15 Kitty curls round lecturer in bed (4)
Pot (kitty) around l (lecturer) = PLOT
16 Perhaps John B Turner could bet on these ones appearing today (5)
Rev. Sloop as in Sloop John B (Beach Boy’s song) = POOLS
17 Bathing beach you’d love, if topless (4)
Lid (top) removed from answer gives o (love) = LIDO
18 Solicitor General seduces females, according to some feminists’ spinning (8)
Sg (Solicitor General) around wimmin (Homonym of women) = SWIMMING
20 Organ intro missing from musical (5)
Oliver (musical) – intro = LIVER
21 Transcribed essential part of Nina Simone’s ultimate Strange Fruit (10)
(in + e + strange)* = TANGERINES
23 Studies disheartened Labour party members? (4)
Reads (studies) – a (disheartened) = REDS
25 Day important for primate (6)
Mon (day) + key (important) = MONKEY
26 Which clothes might be put on in hotel close to city in Western France? (7)
H (hotel) + Angers (city in Western France) = HANGERS
Down
1 ELP’s essential content, in full colour (4)
L – ELP’s essential (as in Emerson Lake and Palmer) – the late great Greg Lake = LAKE
2 Lion seen in a Times listing (2,1,5)
Aslan (lion) in a + tt (Times) = AT A SLANT
3 Get out of bed, perhaps, to drive a coach and horses through … (6)
DD DEBUNK
4 … a day taking rides around Greek islands (8)
A + d (day) in cycles (rides) = CYCLADES
5 Ceremonial observance of union in Iranian capital (6)
TU (union) in Rial (Iranian capital) = RITUAL
6 Look at part of golf course that’s out of bounds (4)
Dogleg (part of golf course) – bounds = OGLE
11 Playing grand piano briefly in opera, or another instrument (4,5)
(gp + opera or)* = PIPE ORGAN
12 Half-heartedly shout down (5)
Bellow (shout) half heart-edly = BELOW
14 Lowest point of floor I dance around (5)
Hidden Rev. flooR I DANce = NADIR
16 Monasteries? First concerns, no sex! (8)
priorities (first concerns) – it (sex) = PRIORIES
17 Purchase gravel spread with ease, say (8)
(gravel + e + e)* = LEVERAGE
19 Welsh woman with English car (6)
Megan (Welsh woman) + e (English) = MEGANE
20 Sailor seen in Carla’s caring embrace (6)
Hidden carLAS CARing = LASCAR
22 Host that’s daft, but not soft in the head (4)
barmy (daft) – b (soft as in pencils) = ARMY
24 Spring flower (4)
DD DART (river)
I much preferred The Nice.
Still can’t get on this setter’s wavelength. Got about halfway then ground to a halt. Sound of overture to William = u + u, brilliant! No quibbles to the clueing, I just need to improve. In the dim and distant past, I remember listening to ‘five bridges’ by The Nice – that must have been nearly 50 years ago.
A most enjoyable puzzle from Hob, as usual. The “pool” theme became apparent before I actually saw it spelled out in the clue for 16 due to the somewhat haphazard way I went about the clues.
The homophone for HARTLEY POOL is pleasantly excruciating!
Thanks to S&B
I didn’t spot the POOL theme. So obvious now. Thanks Baerchen.
The theme went over my head, but now it’s pointed out it would have so helpful! All the ‘Pools’ and the nicknames of their football teams- brilliant.
I also struggled at the halfway mark, the four mostly separate corners not a helpful grid layout. No real complaints though, all gettable really, apart from CESS of course- never heard of it.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
@GeordyGordy
The HARTLEY POOL MONKEY HANGERS shtick is incredibly funny
Hob’s an ace setter, I think – but by God he can be hard for me to solve. I got beat by half this time out, though I didn’t do too well yesterday so perhaps I’m just having a solving off-patch (not that I’m a great solver to start with, of course). Honours today go to the clever stuff, well-hidden and nice defs, and the amusing clues of which there were many. Thanks to The Goblin for the spanking and the fun as well as to twencelas for the enlightenment.
Got stuck in nw – missed Hartley, chess (though I knew the word), at a slant ( was trying to make on a slant work) and debunk.
Enjoyed, some lovely clues eg 15a, 4d, 11a and 20d. 10a was definitely a working backwards clue for me
Many thanks hob and twencelas
Now that was indeed another great puzzle by this puckish setter.
I saw quite a few ‘pools’, Black/pool but not Liver/pool.
Doh!
I did see ‘swimming pool’ and ‘paddling pool’, though.
Missed the clubs’ nicknames completely.
It would be nice if someone would fully unravel what is going on in this puzzle.
The only thing I really didn’t like was the nounal reversal indicator ‘turner’ in 16ac.
As to the surface of 15ac, how does Hob know? 🙂
I made very slow progress to get about half the puzzle before giving up, so not an enjoyable experience for me.
I grew up in the north-east so I understand the monkey hangers reference, now it’s pointed out, but as I only got two of the four words, I didn’t see it.
Well – what can we say?
We finished the puzzle, spotted all the POOLS but missed the football connections – why were we not surprised?
Some inventive clueing especially 10ac which we failed to parse. We also missed the John B connection in 16ac unfortunately.
Thanks to Hob and twencelas.