A super puzzle and not an easy one. Thanks Hoskins.
| Across | ||
| 1 | AGASSI | I played tennis like one with trapped wind (6) |
| AS I (one) containing (having trapped) GAS (wind) | ||
| 4 | SPITTING | Talking aggressively, Trump finally enters meeting (8) |
| trumP (final letter of) in SITTING (meeting) | ||
| 10 | ON THE TURN | Where a house’s spotlights might be going off (2,3,4) |
| double definition – lights in a cabaret and going rotten | ||
| 11 | INAPT | I go out for a bit and sweat, ultimately unfit? (5) |
| I then NAP (short sleep, go out for a bit) and sweaT (ultimately, last letter) | ||
| 12 | EXCEL | Old bit of ceremony the Spanish do very well (5) |
| EX (old) Ceremony (first letter, a bit of) then EL (the, Spanish) | ||
| 14 | TRAGEDIES | Sadly it’s agreed they’re awfully sad (9) |
| anagram (sadly) of ITS AGREED | ||
| 15 | ERRANT | Rambling tirade against one who wears the crown? (6) |
| RANT (tirade) following (against, next to) ER (Elizabeth Regina, one who wears the crown) | ||
| 16 | LEAVE BE | Refrain from annoying short worker on holiday (5,2) |
| BEe (worker bee perhaps, short) following (on) LEAVE (holiday) | ||
| 19 | GUILDER | I show a bit of bum to make first grand (in old money) (7) |
| bUILDER (one who shows a bit of bum, see builder’s bum) with first letter replaced by G (grand) | ||
| 21 | ALIGHT | Flaming city backing out-of-head Tory? (6) |
| LA (city) reversed (backing) then rIGHT (Tory) missing first letter (head out of) | ||
| 23 | GERIATRIC | Old criteria to be reworked by head of government (9) |
| anagram (reworked) of CRITERIA following (by) Government (first letter, head of) | ||
| 25 | AITCH | What leads Hoskins astray is the cold ham starters (5) |
| first letters (starters) of Astray Is The Cold Ham – H is the first letter (what leads) of Hoskins | ||
| 26 | OMAHA | Nebraskan city has a bloody coastal beach?! (5) |
| double definition – city and codename of D-Day landing beach | ||
| 27 | BASTINADO | It’s bad on a bust and torture on the soles of the feet (9) |
| anagram (bust) if IT’S BAD ON A | ||
| 29 | POSTDATE | Possibly mark payment for next month in office appointment (8) |
| POST (office) DATE (appointment) | ||
| 30 | SNAPPY | Lively back to harass crap keeper? (6) |
| harraS (last letter, back to) then NAPPY (something to keep the crap in) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | APOGEE | High point of copy that Self must turn in (6) |
| APE (copy) contains (having…in) EGO (self) reversed (must turn) | ||
| 2 | ART | Tax rate is to be cut periodically with skill (3) |
| tAx RaTe (every other letter, cut periodically) | ||
| 3 | STEEL BAND | A group of West Indians making various bongs? (5,4) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 5 | PINTAIL | Dog stealthily getting leg over duck (7) |
| TAIL (dog stealthily) underneath (getting …over) PIN (leg) | ||
| 6 | TRIPE | Rubbish hallucinogenic experience on MDMA (5) |
| TRIP (hallucinogenic experience) on E (ecstasy, MDMA) | ||
| 7 | IMAGINE THAT | Fancy Hoskins is eating hat, being wrong (7,4) |
| I’M (Hoskins is) then anagram (being wrong) of EATING HAT | ||
| 8 | GO TO SEED | Visit Bill, but not a degenerate (2,2,4) |
| GO TO SEE (visit) then aD (advertisement, bill) missing (but not) A | ||
| 9 | TUT-TUT | Tenor splits ballet dress over time, that’s bad (3-3) |
| T (tenor) inside (splits) TUTU (ballet dress) on T (time) | ||
| 13 | CARRIER BAGS | Vessels full of beer and groceries primarily (7,4) |
| CARRIERS (vessels) containing first letters (primarily) of Beer And Groceries – definition is &lit. I’m not sure I would call a carrier bag a vessel, but I get the idea. | ||
| 17 | ANIMATION | I am not in Barking to save a life (9) |
| anagram (barking mad) of I AM NOT IN contains (to save) A | ||
| 18 | AGE GROUP | A half-cut geek linked to Club 18-30? (3,5) |
| A GEek (half cut) with (linked to) GROUP (club) | ||
| 20 | RAREBIT | Bloody bishop will have sex with Welsh rabbit! (7) |
| RARE (bloody) B (bishop) with IT (sex) | ||
| 21 | ACCOST | Speak to first-class brief (because commonly in court) (6) |
| A (first class) then COS (because, commonly) in CT (court) | ||
| 22 | THEORY | Idea for less capital divides people in general (6) |
| fOR missing first letter (les capital) then THEY (people in general) | ||
| 24 | AWARD | In a way, one who jokes lacks good judgement (5) |
| A RD (road, way) contains (in…you will find) WAg (one who jokes) missing (lacks) G (good) | ||
| 28 | ASP | To some extent, ideas perplex Serpent (3) |
| found inside (to some extent) ideAS Perplexed | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
I agree this was not the easiest Sunday puzzle but, as usual with Hoskins, an entertaining one with satisfying surfaces and misdirections aplenty.
The owner of the bum in 19ac only revealed himself once I had all the the money down.
20 has just taught me (or rather Wikipedia has) that ‘Welsh rabbit’ was in fact the original name of the dish and ‘Welsh rarebit’ was a later corruption (which, according to H.W. Fowler, “is stupid and wrong”) and not the other way around. I’m now going to have to correct my incorrect correction and revert to my childhood name for it. Or perhaps I’ll just call it ‘cheese on toast’.
I’m afraid I wasnt impressed with RAREBIT-or BUILDER/GUILDER.
AND he used Serpent’s name again.Omaha’s the only city I know in Nebraska, I forgot about the beach.
It just didnt sparkle for me like yesterday’s puzzles.Sorry.Like your early work.
I enjoyed this very much and was pleased to see Harry tweak the knob slightly towards the harder end of his IoS range. I thought the CD for STEEL BAND was fantastic, and the BUILDER/GUILDER idea also v good.
Thanks to H & PeeDee
Thanks to Harry for another enjoyable romp and to PeeDee for the blog.
Going off at a tangent, the word BASTINADO always brings to my mind the actress Alexandra Bastedo from the Champions tv series. Wonder how many of us older solvers remember that – probably been repeated on itv4 or suchlike.
Fun as ever from the hat-eating Hosk.
I didn’t properly understand 10a (didn’t get to the theatre) and re-sorted to an anagram solver to get BASTINADO.
Thanks Hoskins and PeeDee.
P.S. I look forward to the Serpent’s revenge!
Very good crossword, perhaps somewhat less sparkling than usual. It seems Hoskins is not capable of writing a bad one.
Although I had everything right, I could not (fully) explain 10ac and 26ac [so, thanks for that PeeDee].
I share the slight reservations about 13d (CARRIER BAGS) for the same reasons as given in the blog but – like PeeDee – I see the idea [and accept it].
Only thing that still ‘puzzles’ me is the use of ‘brief’ in 21d. COS doesn’t need it (‘cos of ‘commonly’), so what does?
@Sil
I think brief is included because first class is usually AI (A1) rather than just A, though of course it can be A.
I think brief is squashed in just in there to make the surface work, it didn’t really belong. I thought so at the time but politely glossed over it while writing up the blog.
Unlike some of you, this sparkled sufficiently for me! Plenty of ticks on the page including both references to today’s setter. It’s to be hoped that he’s bought a few drinks for Serpent recently.
27a was new to me but yes, Hovis, I well remember Alexandra Bastedo – she was my idol back in the 60s.
How strange that cold ham has that effect on you, Harry – I always thought it was the booze!
Peedee @8, I really don’t think this setter is in the “just to make the surface work” category. Kitty is, as usual, correct.
There is certainly a way to make brief fit in, as Kitty @7 points out. I did spot this myself too.
The point I was making, and possibly Sil too, is that the word “brief” is redundant (the clue still works fine without it). Why put it in there then? The reason it is there is to make the surface work.
The clue in not unparseable by any means, but the constrution feels a little forced compared to the other clues in this excellent puzzle. Not a big deal, just an observation.
While Kitty may be right – she probably is – A for “A1 brief” does feel a bit oddish, not only for the reason she gives @7 but also because it is already so very short.
Dutch, I agree though with your remark that Hoskins is one who keeps far from improving a surface at the expense of etc.
We’d agree that this was tougher than many an IoS puzzle; in fact we needed help to finish with 30ac/22dn. We thought 30ac had to be SNAPPY but couldn’t parse it but assuming it was we then used a wordfinder to get THEORY from -H-O-Y. We weren’t too happy with STEEL BAND or OMAHA – didn’t think the clues were particularly cryptic. But we didn’t have any problem with ‘Serpent’ this time as it wasn’t really necessary to know that it’s a setter’s pseudonym.
Some great clues, though. We particularly liked AGASSI, APOGEE and CARRIER BAGS.
Thanks, Hoskins and PeeDee.
Definitely at the tougher end of the spectrum for me. Got there without help although it took over 45 mins. Some fun stuff. ART and AGASSI were my first entries and PINTAL and SPITTING brought up the rear. BASTINADO went straight in from a glance at the anagrist. While I only had ASP in the SE I was trying to make BEDPAN fit 30a. Liked GUILDER and CARRIER BAGS. Thanks Harry and PeeDee.
Interesting to see the various comments on ‘brief’ in 21d. I simply read ‘brief because commonly’ to mean ‘because’ is commonly abbreviated to COS.
Yes, it is interesting, isn’t it?
It is actually not a big issue for me, it’s just that I would like to understand everything that’s going on in a crossword. While your explanation has something to go for, it is perhaps the punctuation that stands rather inelegantly in the way [I say inelegantly because I am not against ignoring punctuation as such, however my name’s not Boatman]. Therefore I’ll stick with Kitty. Surely The Man himself will explain it all later tonight, perhaps with a little help from Mrs Jalopy.
Hovis @15, I’d be surprised if “brief” had any connection with “because”. I agree with others that it refers to A1 minus the 1 (even though A on its own can mean first-class), and that it happily feeds the surface reading.
Like Copmus @2, I didn’t like RAREBIT, but this was otherwise another excellent Hoskins puzzle. I can’t think of any other current setters, apart from John Halpern, who are so prolific and consistently skilful.