Another great puzzle from Harry to brighten up our day!
How does he keep coming up with these great clues while maintaining the sex and drugs references for which he is renowned, as well as a rather saucy reference to the Queen? And this time we have a Nina too!
We’ve tried to check on the relevance of ‘fifty’, thinking that maybe this is his fiftieth Indy puzzle – but he’s actually set more than that and we’re absolutely certain that it’s not a special birthday for him.
As usual there are some excellent clues here – our favourites being 10a, 19a, 27a, 3d and 14d.
| Across | ||
| 1 | I err on the extreme side of filth over sauce (6) | |
| HOISIN | I SIN (err) after or ‘on’ H (last letter or ‘extreme side’ of ‘filth’) O (over) | |
| 4 | Choose no pints or gulping first of fifteen? (3,3) | |
| OPT FOR | O (no) PT (pints) OR round or ‘gulping’ F (first letter of ‘fifteen’) | |
| 9 | Complimentary brief? Time to worry! (4) | |
| FRET | FRE |
|
| 10 | This could make you up in arms about sex (10) | |
| PURITANISM | A Clue-as-definition – An anagram of UP IN ARMS (anagrind is ‘this could make’) round IT (sex) | |
| 11 | Repeated furious squeezing drained tense duke (8) | |
| ITERATED | IRATE (furious) round or ‘squeezing’ T |
|
| 12 | Stiff carriage? Try some exercise at the front (6) | |
| HEARSE | HEAR (try – as in a court case) + S E (first or ‘front’ letters of ‘Some Exercise’) | |
| 13 | Left round about nine, nude and fortified by shot? (10) | |
| VACCINATED | VACATED (left) round C (about) IN (‘nine’ without the outer letters or ‘nude’) | |
| 16 | Times The Queen has to appear without a top (4) | |
| ERAS | ER (The Queen) |
|
| 17 | Setters making G look like E? Slippery folk! (4) | |
| EELS | ||
| 19 | Very costly Brexit not wrong, claims article (10) | |
| EXORBITANT | An anagram of BREXIT NOT (anagrind is ‘wrong’) round or ‘claiming’ A (article) – great clue! | |
| 22 | To annoy aristocrat, feed the aforementioned drugs (3,3) | |
| TEE OFF | TOFF (aristocrat) round or ‘fed by’ E E (drugs – ecstasy) | |
| 24 | Popular escort traversing a French flood (8) | |
| INUNDATE | IN (popular) DATE (escort) round or ‘traversing’ UN (French for ‘a’) | |
| 26 | Find a habit excited, knowing it was illegal? (2,3,5) | |
| IN BAD FAITH | An anagram of FIND A HABIT – anagrind is ‘excited’ – we weren’t convinced that ‘illegal’ is a synonym for ‘in bad faith’ – but it can mean ‘treacherous’, and we suppose that ‘treachery’ is strictly speaking ‘illegal’. Thanks to Wordplodder @2 for the improved parsing. | |
| 27 | A private area to pass a little gas and smile (4) | |
| GRIN | GR |
|
| 28 | Places to pull in secular times: back of cinemas? (3-3) | |
| LAY-BYS | LAY (secular) BY (times) S (last letter or ‘back’ of ‘cinemas’) | |
| 29 | Cases of good Andalusian sack and port (6) | |
| GDANSK | First and last letters or ‘cases’ of GooD AndalusiaN SacK. When we had ?D????, we kept trying to parse ODESSA. That was a waste of time! | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Drink that girl’s to flog after promoting Tango (4,3) | |
| HERB TEA | HER (that girl) BEAT (flog) with the T (tango in the phonetic alphabet) moved forward or ‘promoted’ | |
| 2 | Unpaid trainee contracts put in a vault (5) | |
| INTER | INTER |
|
| 3 | Men cope with it, having got inebriated (9) | |
| IMPOTENCE | Another Clue-as-definition – an anagram of MEN COPE and IT – anagrind is ‘inebriated’ | |
| 5 | Husband caught extremity climbing market stall (5) | |
| PITCH | H (husband) C (caught) TIP (extremity) all reversed or ‘climbing’ | |
| 6 | ‘Amusing’ conservationists pinching lady’s bum (9) | |
| FUNDAMENT | FUN (amusing) NT (National Trust – ‘conservationists’) round or ‘pinching’ DAME (lady) | |
| 7 | Son on ship tucking into fish eggs and a drink (4,3) | |
| ROSS SEA | S (Son) SS (ship) ‘tucking into’ ROE (fish eggs) + A | |
| 8 | Catholic communist on X-Factor? That’ll usually create interest! (6) | |
| CREDIT | C (Catholic) RED (communist) IT (‘X-factor’ – sex appeal) | |
| 14 | Tory scum mad about anarchist leader as usual (9) | |
| CUSTOMARY | An anagram of TORY SCUM (anagrind is ‘mad’) round A (first letter or ‘leader’ of ‘anarchist’) | |
| 15 | Smashed beach dude steeped in drink and drugs? (9) | |
| DEBAUCHED | An anagram of BEACH DUDE – anagrind is ‘smashed’ | |
| 18 | Independent setter wanting kiss without end (7) | |
| ETERNAL | E |
|
| 20 | Gold liquor that Hoskins will have around dawn (6) | |
| ORIGIN | OR (gold) GIN (liquor) round I (Hoskins, the setter) | |
| 21 | Find tiny holes in prison of mine for Spooner (7) | |
| NITPICK | A Spoonerism of PIT (mine) NICK (prison) | |
| 23 | Some huff if typing Nina’s number? (5) | |
| FIFTY | Hidden in or ‘some’ of ‘hufF IF TYping’ – a reference to the nina in the left and right hand columns of the grid | |
| 25 | Go on and scoff, but understand I start on naysayers (3,2) | |
| DIG IN | DIG (understand) I N (first letter or ‘start’ of ‘naysayers’) | |
Thanks, both.
Agree with you – good fun and some 27 acrosses (which was my favourite clue today).
I did spot the FIFTY theme and assumed it was something to do with a fiftieth Indy puzzle, but perhaps it’s just random. Harry has been known to do random before.
Thanks to him to for this morning’s diversion.
The usual good fun from Hoskins, and with a bonus Nina which I don’t recall having come across in a Hoskins puzzle before.
Loved DEBAUCHED and my favourite PURITANISM, both typically naughty Hoskins clues.
I’m probably wrong, but I had the def. for IN BAD FAITH as ‘knowing it was illegal’ rather than just ‘illegal’ by itself.
Thanks to Hoskins and B&J
Brilliant! So much better than his FT debut this week imho. GRIN was also my favourite. Liked the usual HM clue at 16a and the two clue-as-definitions. Thanks to Harry and BJ (your intro was spot on).
I love the FIVE TIMES TEN followed by Nina’s number in 23d.
Still cant believe that was Harry in the FT last week.
Great stuff.
IMPOTENCE and PURITANISM two at the end, very good. Didn’t work out what GRIN was about. Isn’t having Nina and External in clues a bit clubby?
thanks Hoskins, B&J
Thanks Wordplodder – your parsing of 26ac makes much more sense.
The odd ones that didn’t float my boat – 17&26a plus 2d – but otherwise all the usual fun of the fair from Harry.
Favourite for me was PURITANISM.
Thanks to Harry – lovely to see you at the London S&B – and to B&J for the blog.
Several 27s along the way, for instance at 3, 6 and 10. There were others, though, that didn’t quite work for us, such as ‘making G look like E’ in17. And we know Hoskins doesn’t agree, but we think referring to other setters’ pseudonyms (eXternal in 18) is unfair to novice solvers. But we liked HOISIN and GDANSK.
Thanks, Hoskins and B&J.
Enjoyed this puzzle a lot. I laughed out loud at “stiff carriage.” FOI INTER, LOI, PURITANISM. Thanks Harry and B&J.
Yes, a really excellent puzzle.
A long long time ago, I wrote about John Halpern that he doesn’t seem to be capable of writing a bad crossword. Well, the same can be said of Hoskins! [Although, I am with Allan @8 (and his apprentice, what or whoever that is) that using eXternal here is slightly odd]. When Hovis @3 writes “So much better than his FT debut this week“, I cannot agree while I usually do agree with this commenter’s verdicts. He probably points at the content of the surfaces but, imho, there was nothing wrong with both the clueing (far from! – impeccable, actually) and the surfaces in that crossword. Compare Slormgorm’s puzzle to the next day’s FT offering and taste the difference! [Yes, they pay me for it every time I mention it 🙂 ]
And the nina? No idea.
While the rain (!) is coming down here in the East of the country, many thanks to S&Bs.
Probably a bit late to post this. In answer to Sil@10, the reason I much preferred this to the FT debut was due to both the humour (not so much in FT) and the difficulty level (found the FT too easy). Shouldn’t have made this sound like a criticism – just my preference.