Classic Sunday Hoskins stuff with plenty to enjoy, as always. Perhaps a little tougher than usual, or was it just me?
I certainly had to work for a few, perhaps due to some very inventive wordplay, and a couple of double-take moments such as “police” in 16dn, being an anagram indicator I don’t think I’ve seen before.
Plenty of trademark cheeky moments and chuckles such as 2 down, with 17 down being a particular favourite.
I also enjoyed the well-hidden definition in 19 down. Well, it took me a while to spot, at least. There were countless other clues I could single out but rather than list them all I’ll just crack on with the blog.
One thing—and it really isn’t that important—that puzzled me a little was the unusually frequent use of question marks in clues. Not the end of the world, but it would be interesting to hear how readers feel about the device in general.
Anyway, that didn’t spoil a very enjoyable puzzle, so many thanks to Hoskins once again.
| Across | ||
| 1 | COUNCIL | A Parisian caught breaking wind in congress? (7) |
| (UN + C) in COIL. | ||
| 5 | BOTCHED | Nick loses head in the sack – that’s messed up (7) |
| [n]OTCH in BED. | ||
| 9 | ABDICATOR | Edward the VIII? A British tyrant half the time! (9) |
| A + B + DIC[t]ATOR. I rather liked “half the time” once I got it. A device I’m fairly certain I haven’t seen before. | ||
| 10 | SYRIA | Country stronghold you raid in anger at the front (5) |
| Acrostic of S[tronghold] Y[ou] R[aid] I[n] A[nger]. | ||
| 11 | PARMA | Parents to tour Rome at first, then here? (5) |
| (PA + MA) touring R[ome]. | ||
| 12 | ICE MAIDEN | Nice dame I put out is a really cool woman (3,6) |
| Anagram of (NICE DAME I). | ||
| 13 | GLUCOSE | Posh firm near Kent after good tip from Lord Sugar (7) |
| G + L[ord] + U + CO + SE. | ||
| 15 | LAPPING | Drinking like a setter? Don’t start panicking! (7) |
| [f]LAPPING. | ||
| 18 | EXAMPLE | In Spain, the PM turned on old American model (7) |
| (EL + PM)< after (EX + A). | ||
| 20 | BONKERS | Crazy couple of people getting jiggy with it? (7) |
| Two definitions. | ||
| 21 | EGOTISTIC | Rubbish old git cites is all about me? (9) |
| Anagram of (O + GIT CITES). | ||
| 23 | AIOLI | I love almost everything about that one’s sauce (5) |
| ((I + 0) in AL[l]) + 1. | ||
| 25 | DINES | Eats and drinks after ditching wife for date (5) |
| [w]INES after ditching W for D. | ||
| 26 | IMMEDIATE | I made time up without delay (9) |
| Anagram of (I MADE TIME). | ||
| 27 | REDNESS | Half-cut Barnes punches left-wingers? Ruddy quality! (7) |
| [bar]NES in REDS. | ||
| 28 | SPECIES | Variety of glasses that browser should try on (7) |
| IE in SPECS. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CHAMPAGNE | Bubbly chap game to get blotto around noon (9) |
| (CHAP GAME)* around N. | ||
| 2 | UDDER | One steering ship should avoid leading Republican tit (5) |
| [r]UDDER. | ||
| 3 | COCK-A-HOOP | Bird and a bear going round in very high spirits (4-1-4) |
| COCK + A + POOH<. | ||
| 4 | LATRINE | Tenor getting into row about a right crappy place? (7) |
| T. in ((A + R) in LINE. | ||
| 5 | BARBELL | Weightlifter’s companion and I might ring last orders (7) |
| This initially seemed like two definitions, but I’d guess BAR BELL needs a space, making that the wordplay. | ||
| 6 | TESLA | Unit of beer model-type upset over head of studio (5) |
| S[tudio] in (ALE + Model T Ford).<. | ||
| 7 | HARD DRIVE | Bit of computer kit in the Paris-Dakar rally? (4,5) |
| The rally being an example of a DRIVE that is particularly HARD. | ||
| 8 | DRAWN | Charge written up (Queen’s bottom pinched) (5) |
| WARD< + [quee]N. | ||
| 14 | UNADORNED | Plain rude to mess around with a northern don (9) |
| Anagram of (RUDE + A + N + DON). | ||
| 16 | PANHANDLE | Police head new plan to ask for change in America (9) |
| Anagram of (HEAD + N + PLAN). | ||
| 17 | GASSINESS | Doctor assessing condition of long-winded patient? (9) |
| Anagram of ASSESSING. | ||
| 19 | ENTRIES | Shaven-headed folk who might who guard The Doors? (7) |
| [s]ENTRIES. | ||
| 20 | BECOMES | Suits initially criticised medal won by those with the best knees? (7) |
| (C[riticised] + OM) in BEES. Reference to particularly good things being “the bee’s knees”. | ||
| 21 | EIDER | Ecstasy Hoskins had with Her Maj and a flapper (5) |
| E + I‘D + ER. | ||
| 22 | ISSUE | One’s certain to do away with royal children (5) |
| IS + SU[r]E. | ||
| 24 | OMANI | Foreigner is no gent, having sat on one (5) |
| (0 + MAN) sat on 1. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations; BOLD = letters forming part of entries.
I found this hard as well, taking me 3 times as long as Saturday’s Quaiteux, which is the wrong way round for the weekend solves. Possibly if I’d kept in mind that this was a Harry some clues, e.g. 20a and 17d, would have jumped out quicker, and 4 ingredients in a 5-word answer (AIOLI) threw me completely but great fun as always and good to have the boy back. Thanks to S&B.
If by some chance you hadn’t noticed the setter’s name before starting, 1a gave a pretty good idea of who it might be!
There were a few I found hard including PANHANDLE, for which I also didn’t spot ‘Police’ as the anagram indicator, and which I took (unparsed) to refer to the Texas panhandle. Also missed how IE worked as a ‘browser’ in SPECIES.
I’m afraid question marks usually go through to the keeper with me apart from sometimes leaving me with a vague feeling I’ve missed something, but I didn’t feel too unsettled today.
I liked the ‘bee’s knees’ clue and the GASSINESS anagram.
Thanks to Hoskins and Simon
Also had a struggle with PANHANDLE as I didn’t know its meaning as a verb
This took me just over half an hour, a bit longer than usual for an IoS, but not bad for the end of a busy day.
I usually take a ? to indicate either an example of something or a CD, so I find them useful, but misleading in the case of 1ac, which doesn’t seem to need it.
The ‘that’ in 23ac also threw me for a moment. It seems to be there purely for the surface.
All in all, a fun ride, with plenty of chuckles, as you say.
Thanks HH and SH.
The surface of AIOLI pretty much describes my feelings about HH’s crosswords. More to them than just the sauce though – it’s covering plenty of quality cryptic meat.
I laughed at LAPPING. Also enjoyed BONKERS SPECIES, UDDER, COCK-A-HOOP EIDER, OMANI and more.
I wasn’t sure about police as an anagram indicator and was interested to see what you folk thought about it.
Re the question marks, I agree with swatty above. I can see good reason for most of them here. It’s true that there are a fair few (13!), but lots of punctuation is all part of this setter’s style, a style which I find full of light-hearted fun.
Many thanks Hoskins and Simon.
Ditto to Kitty’s comments about Harry’s puzzles and I never worry overly about question marks – or exclamation marks come to that. Probably because I use them so much myself!
I didn’t know the browser abb. in 28a and had to dig deep for the required definition of PANHANDLE.
Tops for me were 1a plus 3&19d although the random second instance of ‘who’ in the clue for the latter threw me for a while.
Many thanks to Harry (hope matters are settling down a bit now) and to Simon for the blog.
Species held me up for the parsing but grand to see the boy back in town.
Yes, we found this a little tougher than usual, maybe more than a little, the right hand side particularly, where the SE corner was the last to fall (with some wordfinder help and checking in Chambers). Plenty to like, though: GLUCOSE, DINES, COCK-A-HOOP and BARBELL among our favourites.
Thanks, Hoskins and Simon.
swatty@4 – 23ac you can read “about that” as the containment indicator. Actually I’m not sure it works as well without the “that”.
I enjoyed this puzzle but became becalmed in the SE for quite a while with 16d 20a and 28a causing the hold up. Eventually I had to reveal the E at the end of PANHANDLE, which immediately gave me SPECIES and then PANHANDLE which I just didn’t see the parsing of. I still can’t see police as an anagram indicator. BONKERS was my LOI. The whole thing took just under 40 minutes. UDDER was my FOI and first giggle. Thanks Harry and Simon.
JD @ 10
Hope this works as there isn’t a preview function
Chambers ‘transitive verb’ definition 3
transitive verb
3. To guard or to put or keep in order – “put in order’ seems a fair anagrind to me
hth
Simon S @11
Thanks Simon, that makes sense