Having missed blogging the most recent weekday Hoskins while we were walking Hadrian’s Wall last month, we’ve hit lucky today!
Another fun puzzle from Harry with a few trademark sex, drugs and royalty references scattered around the clues.
28ac brought a smile to our faces, especially when followed by 1d!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Smashing contest dukes are involved in? (9) | |
| FISTFIGHT | A play on the fact that ‘dukes’ is an alternative word for ‘fists’ | |
| 6 | Old “House Party” run to be put on Tuesday (5) | |
| TUDOR | DO (party) R (run) after or ‘put on’ TU (Tuesday) | |
| 9 | Take big steps? No way! Head for some lifts (5) | |
| RIDES | ||
| 10 | That woman will become casual wear (5,4) | |
| SHELL SUIT | SHE’LL (that woman will) SUIT (become) | |
| 11 | Lake boards U-turning to exploit water table (7) | |
| PLATEAU | L (lake) in or ‘boarding’ TAP (exploit) reversed or ‘U-turning’ + EAU (water) | |
| 12 | I’m against work – it’s taxing on the brain! (7) | |
| OPPOSER | OP (work) POSER (something that is ‘taxing on the brain’) | |
| 13 | Crimean War poet shot in display of hostility? (1,4,9) | |
| A WARM RECEPTION | An anagram of CRIMEAN WAR POET – anagrind is ‘shot’ – a sarcastic definition | |
| 17 | Finish last article in “Ways to Raise Kids”? (5,2,3,4) | |
| BRING UP THE REAR | THE (article) in BRING UP and REAR (two ‘Ways to Raise Kids’) | |
| 21 | Old model (one who reveals everything) (7) | |
| EXPOSER | EX (old) POSER (model) | |
| 23 | Social worker visiting home of fighting and shouting (7) | |
| RANTING | ANT (‘social worker’) in or ‘visiting’ RING (‘home of fighting’) | |
| 25 | Draftee I upset about old soldiers fighting for Rome? (9) | |
| FOEDERATI | An anagram of DRAFTEE I (anagrind is ‘upset’) round O (old) – a new word for us, which we had to look up | |
| 26 | Love letter #3 from soft female with a large heart? (5) | |
| OFFAL | O (love) F (3rdletter of ‘soft’) F (female) A L (large) | |
| 27 | Admission: there’s no good in people of high birth (5) | |
| ENTRY | ||
| 28 | For men it could be Viagra or a whisky (9) | |
| STIFFENER | We’d heard of whisky as a STIFF drink, so were not too surprised to find that STIFFENER can refer to a strong drink – as for the Viagra bit………it is a Hoskins (was he tempted to refer to 1d instead?) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Warning: drama is something that happens before Congress (8) | |
| FOREPLAY | FORE (warning, as in golf) PLAY (drama) | |
| 2 | Working-class Hindu seen in South of France with artist (5) | |
| SUDRA | SUD (French for ‘south’) RA (Royal Academy – artist) | |
| 3 | Rod is to stop following that woman’s boyfriend (9) | |
| FISHERMAN | IS in or ‘stopping’ F (following) HER MAN (that woman’s boyfriend) | |
| 4 | New guest Her Maj upset, giving the fingers? (7) | |
| GESTURE | An anagram of GUEST (anagrind is ‘new’) + ER (‘Her Maj’) reversed or ‘upset’ | |
| 5 | Hanging out at the base with champion and training (3,4) | |
| THE ROPE | T (last letter or ‘base’ of ‘out’) HERO (champion) PE (‘training’) | |
| 6 | Bloomer left United spinning in upset (5) | |
| TULIP | L (left) U (united) reversed or ‘spinning’ in TIP (upset) | |
| 7 | Syrup stockist south of Delaware’s capital? (9) | |
| DRUGSTORE | This one had us baffled for a while, until we found that as well as being a drug (as in cough medicine) ‘syrup’ can refer to a wig (from Cockney rhyming slang – ‘syrup of figs – wigs’) – thus a RUG (wig) STORE could be a ‘syrup stockist’, after or ‘south of’ D (first letter or ‘capital’ of Delaware), and a DRUGSTORE would be an American stockist of the medicinal type of ‘syrup’ | |
| 8 | Go to bed with short old age pensioner? (6) | |
| RETIRE | RETIRE |
|
| 14 | Most brusque brutes at wild gathering in park (9) | |
| ABRUPTEST | An anagram of BRUTES AT (anagrind is ‘wild’) round or ‘gathering in’ P (park) | |
| 15 | Annoying sort of driving one sees at first? (6,3) | |
| TEEING OFF | Double definition | |
| 16 | Caught fish, perhaps, with one fixing to bring in line (8) | |
| WRIGGLER | W (with) RIGGER (one fixing) round or ‘bringing in’ L (line) | |
| 18 | Anarchist’s leader to disrupt or spur on loud protests? (7) | |
| UPROARS | ||
| 19 | Perhaps Hilary in Iowa needs answer to split ends (7) | |
| TERMINI | TERM (Hilary is the Spring term at the High Court,and at Oxford and Dublin universities) IN I |
|
| 20 | Files about European shot by an egotistical loner? (6) | |
| SELFIE | An anagram of FILES (anagrind is ‘about’) + E (European) | |
| 22 | Dirty recording that you must listen to! (5) | |
| SEEDY | A homophone (‘you must listen to’) of CD (recording) | |
| 24 | Independent female punching sister for a laugh (2,3) | |
| IN FUN | I (independent) + F (female) in or ‘punching’ NUN (sister) | |
Yes, Hoskins does use ‘on’ as an anagram indicator. One of its many meanings is ‘tipsy’.
Was confused with Rod for Fisherman and thought fisherman may be a type of rod. However, a quick look in Chambers revealed that ‘rod’ can refer to an angler.
FOEDERATI was also new to me and needed a word fit rather than try the various anagrams. Wasn’t aware that THE ROPE was a term for ‘hanging’ but it seems reasonable. SUDRA was also new to me but easy to guess.
Thanks to Hoskins and Bertandjoyce.
Guessed the vowels incorrectly in the ‘soldiers fighting for Rome’ so also missed SEEDY. Typical Hoskins fare at 28a and 1d. I also liked the SELFIE and WRIGGLER definitions and IN FUN was a good way of finishing.
Thanks to Hoskins and B&J
About two days ago the Indy disappeared from the offerings on the ipad “Crossword” app. Anyone know what happened, and whether there is an alternative way to download and solve the puzzle? Their web app is not as good an experience. Thanks all!
We have had the same experience. This is the reply we received this morning when we contacted them –
Unfortunately the Telegraph Media Group has requested that we remove access to their puzzles from our apps, so our apps no longer download any Telegraph or Independent crosswords.
We’ve reached out to them to try to resolve this issue and restore access but, for now, we suggest complaining directly to them.
28a makes up for any weak clues!
Thanks for the reply – who should we reach out to? And is there anywhere else to download the puzzles in jpz or puz format that anyone knows?
Oren@6 – Despite a rapid reply this morning about not being able to load the puzzle, we have not heard back from them about where to complain. We think we may have to search on the internet.
From what I can make out, the Crossword app never had the rights to the Independent crossword, so I’m afraid this is just the fixing of an anomaly, and although it may be regretted by some, it’s really just the same as record companies clamping down on illegal MP3 sharing sites.
The puzzles are available for free on the Indy web site, from where they can also be printed – and they are done very well on the Indy app, which can render italics now. I’m afraid complaining to the Indy that they should be giving away crosswords for nothing is unlikely to be successful when they have made them available to those prepared to watch an advert, or pay for the app, thus bringing revenue to the ‘paper’ and hopefully ensuring the crossword’s survival.
Well, we almost got there unaided. We decided 7dn could only be DRUGSTORE though we couldn’t parse the ‘rug’ bit, but we only got WRIGGLER from a wordfinder, though having got it we did manage to parse it. And we think we must have heard of FOEDERATI in the past because we simply needed to check it in Chambers.
We parsed SELFIE slightly differently, taking ‘about’ to indicate the inclusion of E in an anagram of ‘files’ with ‘shot’ as the anagram indicator as well as part of the definition – hence the question mark in the clue to flag up double duty. But we guess your version is correct.
28ac and 1dn elicited smiles, and there was more to enjoy as well.
Thanks, Hoskins and B&J
Very enjoyable. I thought hostility was used as a whimsical word for hospitality, it confused me anyway. I love things like “female with a large heart” and “European shot by an egotistical loner”.
Thanks B&J for reminding me of the wig – I had forgotten.
Also loved termini and seedy, and many more. 28a is great.
Many thanks Harry
Today’s second for me, and a jump up in quality from my first, in The Guardian. I enjoyed this, with, of course, STIFFENER eliciting a bit of a groan. As it might.
Re use of things like ON and UP for anagrinds, I confess I’m not a fan. When we have to scrape around for meanings well down the lists in Chambers or Collins it’s a little bit of a thankless task, and there are loads out there that really do a good job.
Thanks both.
I didn’t know either the draftee or the Hindu and struggled with the parsing of DRUGSTORE.
STIFFENER was my favourite – typically Harry!
Thanks to Hoskins and to B&J for the blog.