Independent 9,989 by Hoskins

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Enjoyable crossword from Hoskins, with some good clues. There seemed to be quite a lot of anagrams, some of them fairly obviously signposted as such, but this impression was created by their being largely at the beginning.

Definitions in maroon, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.

In some book I read once (I think an early edition of Don Manley’s Crossword Manual) there was the statement to the effect that the language etc should be that which is suitable for the drawing-room or some such. Forgive me Don if I’m misquoting you, but the point anyway was that there shouldn’t be ‘bad’ language in a crossword. Hoskins has clearly thrown that out of the window.

Whether his jaunty laddishness counts as an actual theme I’m not sure. Perhaps there is one there after all, and I’ve missed it.

Across
1 SHAGTASTIC Sexy act’s a sight in need of reviewing (10)
(act’s a sight)* — the word is in Collins but not Chambers
6 FAST Quick and easy? (4)
2 defs, the second one as in ‘fast and loose’
10 GAUDI His erections shocked some in grand German car (5)
G Audi
11 CREAM SODA Drink a comrade’s sent flying (5,4)
(a comrade’s sent)*
12 CLASSIC Outstanding horse race (7)
2 defs
13 LUNATIC Nut one Italian jerk on head for leering (7)
l{eering} una tic
14 TRIPE Tense statement by grave earl is nonsense (5)
T R.I.P. e
15 OPTIMIST Some pop Tim is trilling: Mr Brightside, perhaps (8)
Hidden in pOP TIM IS Trilling — not just the obvious ‘look on the bright side of life’ idea, but apparently there is a song by various people, including The Killers, called ‘Mr Brightside’
19 SNAPSHOT Picture of impetuous strike on goal? (8)
snap shot — a spur-of-the-moment shot at goal
21 ADAGE Proverb: all disbelievers are generally evangelic at the front (5)
First letters
23 RETURNS Profits concerning performers (7)
re turns — turns a noun
26 OBSCENE Disgusting social life of ex-Bullingdon members’ set? (7)
OB-scene — someone will have to help me here, as I only know OB as an abbreviation for ‘old boy’; what OB has to do with the Bullingdon club is a mystery to me
27 SIGNORINI Mussolini’s young men reassign or initiate guards (9)
Hidden in reasSIGN OR INItiate — guards (verb) the hidden indicator — I was a bit careful here since at the back of my mind was the word ‘assignori’, but that doesn’t in fact seem to be a real word
28 AMAZE Kill a setter of Indy crosswords, but not Hoskins (5)
a Ma{I}ze — I’m not sure about amaze = kill, but no doubt somehow there is an equivalent pair of sentences — and it seems to me to be rather too much required of the casual solver to know that Maize (for all his/her merits, a comparatively recent addition to the Indy setters’ stable, and not yet all that well-known) is a setter of Indy crosswords
29 YETI Fantastic being 25 and heading for Ibiza (4)
Fantastic a noun — 25 being STILL this is yet I{biza}
30 ALL THE BEST Tops must be put on everyone? Good luck with that! (3,3,4)
all [= everyone] the best [tops]
Down
1 SAGACITY Story about X-Factor unknown shows wisdom (8)
saga c it y
2 ADULATION Great love a lout and I buggered up (9)
(a lout and I)*
3 TRIESTE Before first samples of Tempranillo, samples port (7)
tries Te{mpranillo}
4 SACKCLOTH Wine, dope and heroin? There’s coarse material in there! (9)
sack clot h
5 IDEAL Perfect offer on an Apple product? (5)
i-deal — as in iMac, iPod, iPhone, etc
7 ABOUT A fight is concerning (5)
a bout
8 THATCH Thick Barnet politician that Her Maj avoids (6)
Thatch(ER) — and Mrs Thatcher was MP for Finchley, so was in fact a Barnet politician, but this is of no relevance to the clue beyond maybe providing a bit of extra elegance to it
9 EMINEM Spitter upset me twice outside of empty inn (6)
(me)rev. i{n}n (me)rev. — people who know about these things will be able to explain how Eminem the rapper is a spitter — why ‘of”? — surely ‘outside empty inn’ is both correct and OK for the wordplay
16 TATTOOIST Needle-worker I toast with tot in drunken state (9)
(I toast tot)*
17 STALEMATE Old partner in deadlock on the board? (9)
stale [= old] mate [= partner]
18 REREPEAT Soldiers and agent on MDMA at do again (8)
RE rep E at — isn’t to repeat to do again and to rerepeat to repeat again? — I suppose it’s hard to find a suitable definition for ‘rerepeat’, one that doesn’t contain ‘repeat’
20 PARDON Forgive academic scoring well on a golf course! (6)
The don is under par
21 AT STAKE Where Joan of Arc ended up in danger (2,5)
Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake
22 FRISKY Perilous to be sat on by fellow in the mood for it (6)
f risky
24 TIGHT Strained time immediately following leader’s ousting (5)
t {r}ight
25 STILL Always drink heartily if wife leaves for model-type (5)
swill [= drink heartily] with T (as in Model T Ford) replacing w

*anagram

16 comments on “Independent 9,989 by Hoskins”

  1. Agree that 28ac feels unfair where checking letters were vowels, and the definition unorthodox at best – I entered abate which is a listed synonym for kill. I read 29ac that yeti is a ‘fantastic being’

  4. A fairly quick workout with nothing too difficult but we had to check Chambers for the definition in 28ac as quoted by Tom_I @3, and we had to work out 1ac from the anagram fodder and crossing letters.

    GAUDI was our first one in and our CoD.

    But as already noted in the blog and comments, clueing by reference to other setters’ pseudonyms is unfair, particularly to novice solvers.  Even we as Indy regulars had to look up the list of setters on this site before we realised it was Maize.  And particularly as Maize is a new setter with few puzzles to his name as yet we think the clue was doubly unfair.  The Indy crossword is refreshingly free of the restrictions imposed by some crossword editors, particularly those for publications not blogged here, but in this case a prohibition would be fully justified.  We’ve no objection, though, to actual setters’ names appearing in clues – in 28ac, for instance, ‘Hoskins’ is OK but ‘setter of Indy crosswords’ is not.

    Thanks, though, to setter and blogger

  5. A couple of points. When Eminem first came to prominence the Daily Mail et al told us he actually spat during his act. Shock, horror. I immediately locked up my daughter. I think I should probably let her out now. Spitting is of course a disgusting habit, unless you are cleaning your teeth.
    On 26A I think we are invited to see EX-Bullingdon Club members as Old Boys. Certainly the ones that I’ve seen fit the latter part of that description.
    Anyway good puzzle and my clue of the day is 1A. Wonderful.
    Thanks to setter and excellent blogger.

  6. Lovely stuff as always from Harry.

    Re: 28a – Playing devil’s advocate here as the clue got the better of me too, but isn’t solvers with a limited knowledge of Indy setters having to look up pseudonyms the same as them maybe having to look up the name of a port, or a Spanish architect, or whathaveyou?

  7. @6: We take your point, Gila, but we think that the Spanish architect and the Italian port (the ones in this crossword, anyway) are sufficiently well-known in the public domain to be classed as General Knowledge, whereas Indy/Guardian/FT setters’ names are specialist knowledge.  If we apply the Mastermind test, questions in the GK round might well refer to Gaudi or Trieste, but crossword setters would have to be someone’s specialist subject – if of course it wasn’t too specialist even for that programme!

  8. I spent probably half an hour on 28a before entering what proved to be the correct answer as a half guess. Otherwise I didn’t find this too difficult, except for 1a which I hadn’t heard of. Sounds as though it’s from Austin Powers. Regarding 18d, I wonder when ‘three-peat’ will get a guernsey in a cryptic – maybe it has already.

    I liked the clever THATCH. Mrs. T. had quite a ‘Thick Barnet’ herself and was also said not to be HM’s favourite Prime Minister.

    Thanks to Hoskins and John.

  9. A generally fun crossword, although I don’t suppose many people would know that the Spitter was Eminem – the wordplay was tight though and there are browsers to check out the facts.

    I liked GAUDI’s erections, the Italian jerk and the Barnet politician.

    Thanks Hoskins and John.

  10. I don’t know which made me more annoyed – the fact that Collins have opted to include 1a in their dictionary or the fact that Harry chose to use it.   Either way it got a definite thumbs down from me.

    Smug smile here over the Indy setter as he was one of our BD Rookies!

    I did have to check with Mr Google about the spitter although he was fairly clued.

     

    Favourite was the simple IDEAL.

    Thanks to Hoskins and to John for the blog.

  12. I have not found REREPEAT in Chambers, Collins, or the ODE, so why was it included?  Collins has REDEFEAT, which almost fits the clue.

    I agree with other commentators that the clue for 28 across should have been jettisoned well before the crossword reached its final form.

    Perhaps the answer to 1 across and the other references to sex in this crossword might have raised a few sniggers amongst teenage male solvers?

  14. Thanks for putting me right Gaufrid: I was using an online edition that doesn’t feature it.  Objection duly removed.

  16. 28ac certainly defeated me.  I even tried looking back through the blogs here for Indie crosswords to find a name that might fit and didn’t find one.  Turns out Maize last had a puzzle here in June.

    18dn,  I prefer the American sports term for when a team winds something for the third time in a row – threepeat.

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