Hoskins hasn’t yet really decided how difficult he wants to be: some of his offerings, as in The Sunday Times, and also here, take (me at any rate) a very long time, while others are comparatively gentle. But that is no criticism: there were many good clues here, with convincing and misleading surfaces.
Goodness knows if something is happening.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PANTHEIST | One cutting the pants off religious sort (9) |
| (the pants)* with 1 cutting this, ie inside it | ||
| 6 | CUT IT | Shorten The X-Factor to meet requirements (3,2) |
| cut [= shorten] it [= the X-factor] | ||
| 9 | TITANIC | Film retired Conservative at home in flagrante delicto (7) |
| (C in at it)rev. | ||
| 10 | LEARNER | One student or another one making bread? (7) |
| L earner — ‘another’ is L, the learner driver, and ‘one making bread?’ is an earner | ||
| 11 | HEATS | Police in New York beginning to shoot rounds (5) |
| Heat s{hoot} — The Heat is US slang for the police | ||
| 13 | NAILS DOWN | Reform in southern law don defines exactly (5,4) |
| (in S law don)* | ||
| 14 | REVOLVING | Turning nasty around five, time to leave! (9) |
| revol{t}(V)ing | ||
| 16 | EYED | Looked at king-dismissing clue with my boss? (4) |
| {k}ey ed. — Hoskins’s boss is the editor | ||
| 18 | SONG | Stomach-turning Kiss tune (4) |
| snog with its stomach — ‘no’ — turned round — nothing thank goodness about the group | ||
| 19 | SENSELESS | Foolish way to repress one’s feelings? (9) |
| sense less — if you repress your feelings you sense less | ||
| 22 | CHECKLIST | One likely ticked off by co-pilots? (9) |
| Cryptic definition, although I’m not absolutely sure about the co-pilots | ||
| 24 | LILAC | A shade poorly, head falling back with a cold (5) |
| ill with its head moved back (forward?) one place to make lil, a c — I’m always a bit vague about which direction is back and which is forward, but I should have thought that back was to the left and forward to the right; maybe I’ve always had it wrong | ||
| 25 | ICEBERG | Something in the salad that sent nine to bed? (7) |
| Nine being TITANIC, an iceberg sent it to the sea bed | ||
| 26 | BRIANNA | Woman seen amongst Cumbrian Nationalists (7) |
| Hidden in CumBRIAN NAtionalists — had never heard the name, although it does seem to exist, so was a bit reluctant to put it in even though it was fairly obvious | ||
| 28 | NOTUS | Wind from 100 backfiring Independent setters? (5) |
| (ton)rev. us — another word (Notus) that was new to me; how this crossword is exposing my ignorance | ||
| 29 | RE-EMERGES | Put out Seeger and REM reissues (2-7) |
| (Seeger REM)* | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PITCHER | One giving a talk in the hope of selling vessel (7) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 2 | NET | Take home upset nurse that date’s stood up? (3) |
| (ten{d})rev. | ||
| 3 | HONESTLY | Really religious nursing home (8) |
| ho(nest)ly — nursing in the sense of going round | ||
| 4 | INCAN | Old Peruvian beer packaged thus? (5) |
| The beer might be in a can | ||
| 5 | TELLING ON | Old jazz pianist sending tenor up to get shopping (7,2) |
| Ellington with its t moved up to the top | ||
| 6 | CLASSY | Sophisticated and stylish girl wearing jacket of corduroy (6) |
| c(lass)y, the cy being c{orduro}y | ||
| 7 | TANTONY BELL | One rung by Brown, Blair and ex-MP for Tatton? (7,4) |
| tan [= Brown] Tony [Blair] Bell [Martin Bell] — I’d never heard of a tantony bell but apparently it’s a small bell | ||
| 8 | THRONED | Crowded sheds close to building with toilets? (7) |
| thron{g}ed, the g being {buildin}g — a throne is another word for a toilet | ||
| 12 | ADVANCEMENT | Very involved in new canned meat promotion (11) |
| v in (canned meat)* | ||
| 15 | INSWINGER | Fashionable footballer hosting society ball (9) |
| in (s) winger — both football and cricket in one clue: the footballer is a winger and an inswinger is a type of ball, the sort of thing that James Anderson perpetrates in England but which I’m not so sure that he is going to in Australia | ||
| 17 | MEALTIME | Period set aside for oneself to neck a large one? (8) |
| (a l) in me-time — some sort of &lit.? | ||
| 18 | SECTION | Department notices in need of correction (7) |
| (notices)* | ||
| 20 | SOCIALS | Lecturer cracking convoluted Casio’s functions (7) |
| l in (Casio’s)* | ||
| 21 | SKIERS | Penniless captains – they can go downhill fast (6) |
| ski{p}{p}ers — good that Hoskins has removed p each time when he says ‘penniless’: you so often see something like ‘penniless’ and a word containing p twice, but only one p removed while the other one stays | ||
| 23 | TABLE | Board and lodging for twenty-seven (but no tip) (5) |
| twenty-seven being 27dn, NAG, board and lodging for a nag is a stable, and the first letter is removed | ||
| 27 | NAG | One who rides one that’s ridden (3) |
| 2 defs — I had to check that one meaning of ‘ride’ was ‘nag’ | ||
*anagram
Found quite a few clues a bit tricky with TITANIC my favourite. I’m also unsure about 22a but somebody is bound to clarify. Must have met NOTUS before but didn’t remember it and 7d was also new to me. Can’t stand cricket, which seems to be a major setback to solving cryptics, but at least INSWINGER wasn’t too difficult to guess. The clue for MEALTIME wasn’t the best imho – perhaps ending with ‘to consume a large starter’ would work better? Thanks to Harry for the education and workout and to John for the blog.
22a checklist was my last too, still not really convinced, OK your co-pilot runs through a checklist but still. Mealtime only seems to work if you live on a liquid diet perhaps.
Thanks Harry & John, that was quite tricky.
Thanks to Hoskins for an enjoyable crossword and John for an enjoyable blog! This definitely felt a little trickier than previous Hoskins’s, but it didn’t actually seem to take any longer so perhaps I just tackled the harder clues first.
For MEALTIME I have no problem with “One” (o’clock) cluing a time when people often eat although in most offices I’ve worked lunch seems to be taken anywhere between 11:30 and 15:00.
I particularly liked the clues for 7d and 4d and 28a got an raised eyebrow because I wasn’t expecting to see the name of the North wind as the answer 🙂
Not my favourite from Hoskins whom I usually like.I thought SONG and INSWINGER really good.
But Ellington? Jazz great, band-leader, composer-and yeah he did play piano but so did Tatum, Hines etc
I didnt like heat and New York- I first heard that expression in a Trudeau strip (by Duke aka Hunter S Thompson).
Tantony Bell was odd too but the wordplay was good.
No offence, Harry, just a nudge!
And thanks John.
Postmortes@3. I must admit, I never thought of one (o’clock) as mealtime, though given the question mark at the end, I really should have. Personally, I eat much earlier. My attempt at changing it more to an &lit @1 is therefore not required, for which my apologies.
Once I’d abandoned Chrome which was playing musical adverts that I couln’t turn off, and switched to Firefox, I rattled through this despite a couple of unknowns, NOTUS and TANTONY BELL, which I assembled from wordplay. Took me a while to spot the parsing of SONG, which I put in and took out again whilst trying to make something from gut tum and x. Very good! THRONED and TITANIC raised smiles too. Nice one Harry, and thanks for the blog John.
Thought this was a complete mix of Harry’s styles – some of the ‘pushing the boundaries of acceptability’ variety that we are familiar with in his Indy puzzles – 9a for example – and others such as 7d which would be quite at home in his Church Times slots.
I enjoyed it but certainly had to work to get some of the answers. I didn’t know either 28a or 7d and 26a was something of a leap of faith.
Top marks went to 6a (I wish!)plus 3&17d with the latter taking the laurels.
Thanks to Hoskins and to John for the blog.
FYI Harry. I can now report that intense exfoliation in the manner of the washing of ten tides in the Menai Strait has now reduced the moustache to a mere five o’clock shadow and the current icy blasts from the hills of Snowdonia are forecast to remove the last traces. However, the whole debacle of the recent court case has come to the attention of the head Druid on Anglesey and he has issued a proclamation to the effect that should there be any further attack by Mrs Jalopy upon the personage, property or freedom of choice of one of his followers, he will invoke the power that he shares with the leader of another well-known religious sect and turn the drinking water in the Indy offices and other watering holes frequented by the crossword elite into perpetual fountains of the golden nectar, thereby negating any reason for the continuation of her present employment. He trusts that the lady in question will mend both her ways and her trolley along with seeking medical help for her various problems.
Amusing that CHECKLIST turns up both here and in The Guardian today. Could it be that the setters are passing hidden messages in the grids?
Many thanks to John for a super blog and to all who solved and especially those who commented.
I’ve just got in from playing an inter-club chess match in the Norfolk league (yup, it’s all live fast die young here alright) so will be brief as I can be [ahem] and just make a couple of quick replies, if I may.
@ John – With respect, I have to disagree with your saying I haven’t decided how difficult I want to be yet. In the TLS, Sunday Herald and Sunday Times were I appear in a set rotation I have a specific difficulty ranges that I’m to write within. With barred puzzles I mostly write easy as I am a terrible barred solver so want to make it easy for non-barred solvers to try. With the Indy, I have a little more freedom as I can appear on any day and so write all levels of difficulty: in other words, in the Indy you have to go by the day to see what level of puzzle of mine one is going to get (though I have appeared more often in the easier slots).
Of course, Wednesday has been traditionally easier-end, but perhaps since Dac has taken things easier and gone down to one outing a month the boss is mixing things up on for the midweek slot difficulty-wise. Double of course, sometimes a puzzle is just plain harder or easier than a test-solver finds it – though this one was medium and so I fancy people found it about the same level as test-solver did.
With regard ‘mealtime’, postmortes @3 has my intended definition.
Copmus @4 – glad you like my stuff usually, and no worries that you weren’t keen on this one. Can’t win ’em all and would be boring if one did anyways, though I hope you like the next one, of course.
John @6 – apologies for the problems with the Indy app and glad you got it sorted. I find printing on paper is favourite and most trouble free – though it does require printing and paper!
Jane @7 – very astute in your reading of mix of styles as this was written in early 2016 when everything was still coming together for me Indy style-wise. As for the report of lawyers – absolutely classic!! I have passed the information on to Mrs Jalopy and she has gone to ground for the moment in suitably chastened state (though I should think she’ll be back next time as one can’t keep a good Jalopy down, not matter how naughty she’s been).
Well, with all that said and it being tomorrow already, I best be off as all these beers won’t drink themselves. Many thanks to all who visited today and I hope to see you next time around: that should be on the 30th November with a proper hard puzzle that is jalfrezi in spice levels, but more likely it’ll be on the morrow where my man Serpent continues the Indy week with a stonking good crossie that I fancy you’ll fancy is fancy.
Cheers and chin chin to all. 🙂