A nice start-the-week sort of crossword with lots of well written clues.
It was mostly on the easy side with no shortage of gettable starter clues like 9 and 17. A few were trickier to parse, 11 probably being the toughest. Some amusing images were conjured up by one or two of the clues such as 19 across and 21.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BOG OFF | Trader’s offer and female’s dismissive reply? (3,3) |
| BOGOF (acronym for Buy One Get One Free) + F(emale) | ||
| 4 | FLESHIER | I back that woman to down one more stout (8) |
| Self< + her around I | ||
| 10 | TEAR GAS | Heard rank wind that’ll make your eyes water (4,3) |
| Hom of tier + gas | ||
| 11 | NIGHTIE | I’m turning in topless lace item worn by some retired (7) |
| Night(=as a shortened form of goodnight, used to indicate one is going to bed) + [t]ie (as in a shoelace). | ||
| 12 | HUSH | Shut up hard American leader for hatefulness (4) |
| H(ard) + US + h[atefulness] | ||
| 13 | LICENTIOUS | Loose Independent clue is not to be beaten (10) |
| (I(ndependent) clue is not)* | ||
| 15 | PROMINENT | Chucked me pint on Republican (well-known) (9) |
| (Me Pint on R(epublican))* | ||
| 16 | EXTRA | Old flame rejected cunning chap with tiny part? (5) |
| Ex + tra<. The question mark is needed because an extra might also be a woman. | ||
| 18 | AVERT | Turn away if vicar gyrates in centre of Bath (5) |
| Rev< in [B]at[h] | ||
| 19 | REVERENCE | Clergyman scratching bottom before church worship (9) |
| Reveren[d] + CE | ||
| 21 | TAWDRINESS | Break wind and assert flamboyant vulgarity (10) |
| (Wind assert)* | ||
| 23 | MERE | Her Maj turned on yours truly, pure and simple (4) |
| ER< on Me | ||
| 26 | RETEACH | School again? Gag! Regularly delay going in! (7) |
| Retch around even letters of dElAy. | ||
| 27 | ANYTIME | Whenever City put on a bit of talent, I’m close to rapture (7) |
| NY put on a + t[alent] + I’m + [raptur]e | ||
| 28 | DERIDERS | Those mocking vacuous dame and Hell’s Angels? (8) |
| D[am]e + riders. Actually, I think Hoskins is being a bit too correct there – the organisation is properly called Hells Angels (the niceties of apostrophes were beyond the originators, although they claim now that it was deliberate). | ||
| 29 | INSECT | Insignificant type involved in Shaolin sects (6) |
| Hidden in shaolIN SECTs | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BITCH | Bishop having sex atop church? Complain! (5) |
| B(ishop) + it + ch. | ||
| 2 | GLADSTONE | Prime Minister who used to be happy with weight? (9) |
| Glad + stone (imperial measure of weight) | ||
| 3 | FAGS | Nothing good comes on beginning to smoke them (4) |
| FA (sweet FA) + g(ood) + s[moke] – I suppose this has to be an &lit because them on its own wouldn’t work as a def. | ||
| 5 | LENIENT | Merciful nurse in story not without a heart (7) |
| EN (enrolled nurse) in lie + n[o]t | ||
| 6 | SIGHTSEERS | Tourists express disappointment with Tango? Wise men (10) |
| Sigh + T (Tango is phonetic for T) + seers | ||
| 7 | INTRO | Opening time halves popular with retired men (5) |
| T(ime) in the middle of (halving) in + OR< | ||
| 8 | RE-ENSLAVE | Learn Eve’s about to get folk back into bondage? (2-7) |
| (Learn Eve’s)* | ||
| 9 | ASPIRE | Hope: a church’s loftiest attribute? (6) |
| A + spire | ||
| 14 | HINTERLAND | Train held up around noon in remote areas (10) |
| (Train held)* around n(oon) | ||
| 15 | PLASTERED | Very drunk, but training to drink final Barolo? (9) |
| PE around last + red, Barolo being a red wine. | ||
| 17 | TANGERINE | Argentine bananas or another sort of fruit (9) |
| Argentine* | ||
| 19 | RANCHER | US farmer cutting ends off boughs above river (7) |
| [B]ranche[s] + r(iver) | ||
| 20 | VESTAL | Underwear on a large nun of a certain sort (6) |
| Vest + a l(arge). Vestal virgins is the only reference I can find for this, although they are usually described as priestesses rather than nuns. | ||
| 22 | WATER | Drink Hoskins must get out of chap bringing food? (5) |
| Wa[i]ter | ||
| 24 | EXERT | Apply to be specialist? No pressure! (5) |
| Ex[p]ert | ||
| 25 | HYMN | Praise song that man delivered for audience (4) |
| Hom of him(=that man) | ||
*anagram
Got myself into the right zone for one of your Indy offerings, Harry, so you fooled me with 21a – I was convinced that you’d come up with yet another word to describe ‘breaking wind’!
Enjoyed this one with 9&15d taking the honours.
Thanks to Hoskins and to Neal for the blog.
Lots of clues that would make Cyclops blush (probably not). Great fun. Pretty easy apart from FLESHIER and NIGHTIE, my last ones in. I also wondered about VESTAL as a nun. Thanks to Hoskins for the fun and to Neal for the blog and the education on the apostrophe, or not, in 28a.
Wasnt familiar with the acronym in 1a so couldnt decide between A or O for second letter.
But otherwise it was usual pleasure sitting in a bar with Hoskins.
The usual 19a-free fun from His Hoskiness – many thanks to him and to NealH.
In 1A I did a google and came upon the expression (of UK origin?) “bag off”, a euphemism for f**k off, so thought a trader could offer a “bag of” something; so bag off certainly qualifies as a dismissive reply. Rather ingenious, I thought, but apparently wrong.
16A I’m not sure that’s the reason for the ?, rather it needs to be a chap to enable the arch double meaning of that “part” to which Hoskins was alluding, that a chap has and a lady hasn’t.
Thanks to Hoskins and NealH.
A pleasant enough solve, though the NE corner proved a bit slow till I twigged what ‘I back’ indicated in 4ac. Candidates for CoD were REVERENCE, ANYTIME and DERIDERS for their surfaces.
Thanks, Hoskins and NealH
Good Monday morning fun from Hoskins. Light-hearted and smile-inducing as usual. Favourites BITCH and REVERENCE: I’m a sucker for clues that conjure up men of the cloth getting up to naughtiness.
Thanks to Neal for the blog and to Harry for the puzzle.
[By the way, Harry and Kitty, after the invitation the other day, have you two got it on yet? I think we should be told.]
Great stuff! Hoskins is one of those rare setters who manage to combine a reasonable dose of near the knuckle humour with pithy surfaces and Ximenean standards of fairness.
Thanks to both setter and blogger for this one.
Thanks Harry, a half pint ish crossword although I didn’t get the parsing of nightie so thanks Neil for that. As k’sd says the mixture and positioning of church and naughtiness was a delight. More please. So where’s Harry and the trolley pt. 163? ?
Many thanks to Harry for the fun today.
We couldn’t figure out the parsing for 11ac, so thanks to Neal for the elucidation – we’re obviously still in holiday mood!
Well, Mr Hoskins, only one night ago you told me that you weren’t that surprised I couldn’t parse 11ac.
[‘which uses slang English so not surprised you had problems parsing‘, your words!]
But look at others, @9 and @10 in particular!
Pleasant and easy solve, this crossword.
I fully endorse gofirstmate‘s characterisation of Hoskins.
[K’sD, please don’t] 🙂
Many thanks Neal for the blog.
Gofirstmate has it right. This is very good.
Kathryn’s Dad, you will be hearing from my lawyers …
Many thanks to Neal for a great blog and to everyone who solved and especially those who commented on a day so hot that typing alone has brought a Martin Sheen of sweat to the Hoskinsian brow.
As always, very happy the crossword provided some fun and laughs and was around right – though perhaps a half-pint too quick on the patented Flash beer scale – for a Monday. As for bishops and sex, I always adhere to the Charlie Chaplin school of thought that its not funny unless someone respected or in authority is the one getting it … however, I haven’t been in the Church Times for a while so I might have to rethink my policy on that one.
Cheers also to Neal for the info on The Hells Angels – I didn’t know that despite having read Hunter Thompson’s excellent book on them (worth a read if you like that sort of thing) and just went from the dictionaries who have obviously establishmentised the shaggy-haired reprobate’s punctuation.
With regard 3d, yup, this was intended as a semi&lit. For anyone not super familiar with the &lit and the semi&lit I provide a bit of further explanationism below.
The full &lit is a clue which defines the answer word in its surface and also gives, in its cryptic reading, a further indication of the answer in the form of wordplay where every word forms part of said wordplay to construct the answer word.
For an example I offer this down clue:
One with hand up in champion ruminiant’s bottom? (7)
I + R< in HERO + [ruminan]t = HERRIOT
In the above clue the surface defines James Herriot as he was forever and famously having his hand up a farmer's prize-winning bull's fundament. What makes it a full &lit is that every word in the clue’s cryptic reading has a specific function in making up the answer via wordplay as we can see by breaking things down further:
One – I
with – link to second bit of fodder for reversal
hand – R.
up – reversal indicator
in – insertion indicator
champion – HERO
ruminant – last letter fodder
bottom – last letter indicator
? – showing an example
In summary, a full &lit has a surface which defines the answer, and then every word in that surface reading is a part of the wordplay in the cryptic reading to construct the answer word.
If we compare the above to 3d:
Nothing good comes on beginning to smoke them (4)
FA. + G. on S[moke]
We can see that although the whole of the surface gives a definition for fags, only the first 7 words are part of the wordplay in the form of two abbreviations, a two-word positional indicator, first letter indicator and fodder. Because the 'them' is just a simple final defining part and has no part in the wordplay this is only a semi&lit.
The tricky bit in distinguishing a full &lit from a semi&lit is when the extra defining part seems to give an essential instruction to the formulation of the wordplay, but is not actually a part of the wordplay itself. For example:
What's made by one piercing hooter? (5)
I in NOSE (NOISE)
This semi&lit has the initial defining and non-wordplay part 'what's made by' and the wordplay 'one piercing hooter' (I in NOSE). The tough thing is that 'what's made by' seems like an important part of the wordplay as in 'the answer that is made by this bit of fodder going into this other bit of fodder', but there is no wordplay in the first 3 words here and so it is only a semi&lit clue.
Hope that helps and there is more on my (written in 2014 so not too hot on cryptic grammar and some clues a bit loose as I only grasped the former in 2015) solving guide at http://www.hoskinscrosswords.com/introduction.html [please note there are better guides available] if anyone is interested.
Gwep @5 – I'm liking your 1a parse, but yup, twas as Neal has it. With regard 16a the QM was a bit of both.
GFM & FSH @8 and @12 – thanks you for the kind words, although I set out to learn the Xim rules when I started studying crosswords full-time in mid-2013, I had sort of moved on by 2015 and now see myself as a Xim-leaning setter. In other words, I know the rules, but occasional disagree with them and occasionally break them as I see fit (though admittedly sometimes I just fluff things!). So, with that said – I look forward to letting you down (but not too much) in the future 🙂
KD @7 – I refer you to Kitty's lawyer, Mr Kitty's lawyer and the fact I am already in a long-term relationship with a Mr Corona, Mrs Coors and Ms Carling and the proprietor of my local off-license would be most upset should I divorce them.
Phew! I'm not 100% sure, but I seem to have got away without rambling this time around. Pretty concise altogether, I thought, and so, in celebration of my brevity and the fact that's it still feels like 110 in the shade here, there's only one thing to be done …
… that's right folks – it's time for some drinks from the much-fabled FifteenSqaured drinks trolley and the continuing story (part 163) of its keeper, Mrs Jalopy.
I don't think it too much of a stretch to say poor Mrs Jalopy has been working overtime what with the heat wave making every Indy setter more thirsty than usual. You'll be pleased to know she has kept up with demand by fashioning a water pump and hose attached to an urn of Babysham on her trolley. With this contraption all one has to do is ask for a squirt and she aims a hose in one's general direction and gets her son, James Jalopy Jnr, to work the pump and there be libations for all in a radius of 30m (strong pumping arm has that kid).
Of course, the above isn't without its drawbacks. Only yesterday I'd called for a long-distance shot, James Jalopy Jnr pumped away and just at the crucial moment when Mrs Jalopy was to open the hose's valve to deliver my drink what should happen but Phi walked into the office and in front of the nozzle!
Well, it was too late to warn him and the gush of Babysham caught our esteemed down-under setter right in the antipodes requiring seventeen stitches and a helluva explanation from me to Mrs Phi and the cats (though I'm pleased to say there was no lasting damage and everyone eventually saw the funny side in the end).
Anyhoo, I think that's enough news for now as anymore might push The Right-Reverend Gaufrid to breaking point (apologies, mate). And so I'll wish everyone a fond farewell and a squirt of the goodstuff on me.
I'll be back again with a more sensible and again easyish puzzle (though perhaps with a bit of bonus content for a notoriously entertaining and grumpy Indyite on July third), though more likely I'll see you tomorrow when Kairos continues our week with a lovely and challenging puzzle on the morrow.
Cheers and chin chin to all. 🙂