It’s been a while since we’ve had the pleasure of blogging a Hoskins – and here he is again with his signature mix of sex and drugs (but no rock and roll this time)
However, we’re getting a bit worried about his fascination with getting it on with the queen (see 1ac and 9d) – does he not realise that the queen thinks that sex is what coal is delivered in?
As usual there are some inventive definitions and a fair bit of street slang.
We do however have some slight doubts about 6d – can a caddie really be described as an ‘ace of clubs’? Even though we’re not golfers, we realise that the caddie advises on which club the player should use, but does he or she really warrant this description? Perhaps golfers out there will offer their views.
It’s Joyce’s birthday today and we are out of the country with limited times when we have access to the internet, so may not be able to respond very quickly to any comments.
| Across | ||
| 1 | Got to love The Queen in the sack (8) | |
| BOTHERED | O (love) THE R (queen) in BED (‘the sack’) | |
| 5 | Say yes to a cold pint after church (6) | |
| ACCEPT | A C (cold) PT (pint) after CE (church) | |
| 10 | Do not sit on top of surly dentists (9) | |
| ODONTISTS | An anagram of DO NOT SIT – anagrind is ‘surly’ + S (first letter or ‘top of’ surly) – ‘surly’ doing double duty here | |
| 11 | Party working with energy on your bike (2,3) | |
| DO ONE | DO (party) ON (working) E (energy) | |
| 12 | Some cannot amend a memo for a pilot (5) | |
| NOTAM | Hidden in (‘some’) canNOT AMend – we had to look this one up as it’s not in Chambers | |
| 13 | Ignite row, having had fill of flak? (3,4,2) | |
| SET FIRE TO | SET-TO (row) round or ‘filled by’ FIRE (flak) | |
| 14 | Get rate, say, to realign barn door? (4,6) | |
| EASY TARGET | An anagram of GET RATE SAY – anagrind is ‘realign’ | |
| 17 | Shortly cuddle, but not with Penny (4) | |
| SOON | S |
|
| 19 | Painter shot by half-cut American (4) | |
| GOYA | GO (shot) YA |
|
| 20 | Two favourites? Speed and heroin, son (10) | |
| RACEHORSES | RACE (speed) HORSE (heroin) S (son) | |
| 23 | Folk are to put in new order, mind (4,5) | |
| LOOK AFTER | An anagram of FOLK ARE TO – anagrind is ‘put in new order’ | |
| 25 | Put off by cleaning product, chap leaves (5) | |
| DETER | DETER |
|
| 27 | Pound to be put on Bud? Grrrrrrrr! (5) | |
| GROWL | L (pound) ‘put on’ GROW (bud) | |
| 28 | £100 returns on the cards – fat chance (3,6) | |
| NOT LIKELY | TON (£100) reversed or ‘returning’ LIKELY (on the cards) | |
| 29 | Having pinched bottom, go now (6) | |
| TRENDY | END (bottom) in or ‘pinched’ by TRY (go) | |
| 30 | Warning: outspoken nude is … gran? (8) | |
| FOREBEAR | FORE (warning, as apparently used in golf) + a homophone (‘outspoken’) of BARE (nude) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Have got to open cheese and cake (7) | |
| BROWNIE | OWN (have got) in or ‘opening’ BRIE (cheese) | |
| 2 | Swimmer red? Second bit of suit’s split! (5) | |
| TROUT | TROT (red – Trotskyite) ‘split’ by U (second letter or ‘bit’ of ‘suit’) | |
| 3 | Cracking defaced finest china, I guess (8) | |
| ESTIMATE | We think this must be: finEST (without the first three letters or ‘defaced’ – but we would normally expect this to indicate the loss of only the first letter) MATE (china) round or ‘cracking’ I | |
| 4 | Stops going topless and relaxes (5) | |
| EASES | ||
| 6 | Rascal that’s withholding key ace of clubs? (6) | |
| CADDIE | CAD (rascal) IE (that is) round or ‘withholding’ D (key – in music) | |
| 7 | Sure, go out with one sensitive to sexual stimulation! (9) | |
| EROGENOUS | An anagram of SURE GO and ONE – anagrind is ‘out’ | |
| 8 | Spiky sort seen with diplomat in a cape (3,4) | |
| THE HORN | THORN (‘spiky sort’) round HE (diplomat – his or her excellency) | |
| 9 | Like sex with Her Maj on E? In a way (2,2,4) | |
| AS IT WERE | AS (like) IT (sex) W (with) ER (‘Her Maj’) E | |
| 15 | Terribly sore on my a— ’nuff said! (3,2,4) | |
| SAY NO MORE | An anagram of SORE ON MY A – anagrind is ‘terribly’ | |
| 16 | Very hot broad, but not outwardly smart (8) | |
| ROASTING | ||
| 18 | What one might have with a large G&T? (4,4) | |
| GOOD TIME | A cryptic definition – GOOD (g) TIME (t) | |
| 19 | Give up the criminal life or turn and run? (2,5) | |
| GO LEGIT | GO (turn) LEG IT (run) | |
| 21 | After going all over the place, spy rare Banksy? (7) | |
| SPRAYER | An anagram of SPY RARE – anagrind is ‘going all over the place’ – Banksy being renowned for his sprayed grafitti art | |
| 22 | Whitish lines yours truly snorted by notebook (6) | |
| PALLID | LL (lines) I (yours truly) in or ‘snorted by’ PAD (notebook) | |
| 24 | Port that shuts up at five to one? (5) | |
| RATIO | RIO (port) round or ‘shutting up’ AT | |
| 26 | A recurrent idea? Tense man sat on Hoskins (5) | |
| THEME | T (tense) HE (man) ME (Hoskins) | |
The danger with Harry is reading too much into it – I convinced myself that The Horn must be a superhero (don’t ask), but ultimately not too hard for a Thursday and fun as usual. I even spotted the THEME at the end…. Also a worrying development – caddie, fore, G&T. Has the boy aged prematurely? Thanks to H & B & J and happy birthday.
I think it could be [B]EST that is defaced in 3d, though if so it’s unfortunate that [FIN]EST has the same ending.
Happy birthday to Joyce, and thanks to all three.
Thanks B&J
I parsed 3dn as [b]EST I MATE which avoids the need to remove more than one letter from the front of a word
NOTAM was new to me, and I managed to miss the anagram indicator in ODONTISTS, which left me scratching my head.
I was also a little unsure about the “ace of clubs” and am Grateful to Andrew and Gaufrid for the [b]EST MATE.
For some reason THE HORN made me laugh when I got it. An innocent clue with innocent wordplay and an innocent definition. No idea … maybe the thought of a diplomat in a cape is funny.
Back to the usual Hoskins THEME there were many chuckles, including the clues where our poor monarch has to suffer yet more indignity at the hands of our Harry. All so well constructed though.
GOOD TIME (another clever one)? Most definitely. Thanks Hoskins, and thanks B&J – Many Happy Returns Joyce.
Re 10 across I took the anagrind to be ON, thus avoiding SURLY doing double duty. Usual good fun solving a Hoskins puzzle, thanks B&J and happy birthday!
Yes, jmac @5 – you’re right.
I normally do the Guardian but thought I’d try the Indy today, and very much enjoyed it. Several smile-inducing clues, and I particularly liked GO LEGIT.
I too wondered about 10a. I don’t think I’ve come across “on” as an anagram indicator before. “On” can of course mean “working”, and “working” can mean “(of eg features) to be agitated, move convulsively” (Chambers). Is this the idea? Seems a bit of a stretch to me.
Lord Jim @7
One of the definitions for ‘on’ in Chambers is “on the way to getting drunk”, in other words ‘tipsy’ which is a valid anagram indicator.
Gosh, you live and learn. Many thanks Gaufrid.
Not long ago, I meant that Hoskins has been known to use ON as an anagrind in the sense given by Gaufrid @8, so this was not a surprise this time around. Also had bEST in 3d. Spent longer than usual in solving this, but got there in the end and enjoyed the journey. Had to google NOTAM as it wasn’t in any of my dictionaries. Thanks to Harry and BJ.
Should say ‘mentioned’ not ‘meant’. Never see these errors until after I post.
Great to see another brilliant Hoskins crossword. How does he do it?
Ace of clubs is a whimsical definition with a question mark. I thought it was fine, and pretty clever.
Enjoyed everything, but probably smiled most at the ‘large’ g&t.
Many thank Harry and B&J, and best wishes Joyce
Which is not a cd, but an expansion of the letters g & t.
Sorry, guess that was altrady clear.
Thanks for the birthday wishes. We have just returned from our second day exploring Petra.
The comments for 3d make much more sense and we do rememember Harry using ‘on’ as an ‘anagrind’ before because of the commmments people have made. We should have spotted that but we were no distracted because it was in a down clue.
I agree with Dutch. If you can’t define caddie as “ace of clubs?” in a playful cryptic crossword of all places then it’s a poor show.
NOTAM is in Oxford online, but I didn’t know it. I guess Hoskins made it an easy hidden for a reason. My favourite was SAY NO MORE. Nudge, nudge.
Thanks, Hoskins & Bertandjoyce.
Plenty of evidence of our ‘arry in this one and some good fun although I was somewhat dubious about the synonym in 1a and struggled with the parsing of 10a & 3d. I did have to look up the pilot’s memo.
19d takes the laurels from me.
Thanks to Harry and to B&J for the blog – hope the birthday girl is enjoying her day.
Not our favourite solve – we didn’t think of BOTHERED and ‘got to’ as particularly synonymous – nor TRENDY and ‘now’. We worked out DO ONE but couldn’t understand it – it’s not in Chambers or Collins (eventually found by googling) and we also had to look up NOTAM. Couldn’t parse NOT LIKELY – we associate ‘ton’ with 100 mph or maybe 100 runs in cricket but not £100 – or ROASTING (the clue seemed to be telling us to remove the first and last letters of ‘smart’ whereas the answer has those letters in!).
Thanks, though, to Hoskins and to Bert and the birthday girl.