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Not the easiest puzzle for a Monday; most of the answers were clear enough with hindsight, but took a bit of work to get there. Thanks to Hoskins for the challenge.
Several very neat clues here, with clever misdirection: 1a, 9a, 23a, 7d. 12a is a truly awful pun but it works. Perhaps these are let down by one or two weaker ones: 19d has two meanings too closely related, and 24d seems a slightly clumsy clue for a rather contrived word. As for 2d, I really can’t see what it’s getting at – am I missing something obvious?
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| Across | ||
| 1 | INNKEEPER | Popular goalie welcomes new local manager (9) |
| IN (popular) + KEEPER (in football = goalie), containing (welcoming) N (new). Local is slang for a pub, so local manager = innkeeper. | ||
| 6 | BASES | Bottoms music producers often slapped half-heartedly (5) |
| BASSES (double basses or bass guitars; slapping is a technique for playing them), with half of the heart (one of the middle two letters) missing. | ||
| 9 | SANDSTORM | Smart don’s novel that’s gritty and violent (9) |
| Anagram (novel) of SMART DONS. | ||
| 10 | DUNNO | Search me flipping naked, but find no drugs? Not likely! (5) |
| NUDE (naked), reversed (flipped), without E (ecstasy = drugs), + NO (not likely). Dunno = search me = slang for “I don’t know”. | ||
| 11 | SPAWN | Product man on board has son put on head (5) |
| PAWN (man on board = chess piece), with S (son) at the head of it. | ||
| 12 | ON THE WANE | State where one can see Rooney’s tattoos fading (2,3,4) |
| Homophone (state = say) of ON THE WAYNE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Rooney. | ||
| 13 | ELATION | Sex without boundaries? It’s a great feeling! (7) |
| [r]ELATION[s], without the end (boundary) letters. | ||
| 15 | HOSTILE | Enemy army priest delivered back to front (7) |
| HOST (army) + ELI (Old Testament priest) back to front. Enemy as an adjective, as in “enemy action”. | ||
| 18 | TIDDLER | One small row about theologian heading for Lourdes (7) |
| TIER (row) around DD (Doctor of Divinity) + L[ourdes]. Tiddler = a small fish, or generally slang for someone / something small. | ||
| 20 | MOVE OUT | Perhaps leave one’s castle forever exposed after rook to b4? (4,3) |
| OUT (exposed = out in the open) after MOVE (“rook to b4” is an example of a move in chess notation). An Englishman’s home is his castle, as they say. | ||
| 21 | COME CLEAN | Admit Hoskins into company with Conservative slant (4,5) |
| ME (Hoskins, the setter of this crossword) inserted into CO (company) + C (Conservative) + LEAN (slant). Come clean = confess. | ||
| 23 | ROWER | Might one argue with one pulling a blade? (5) |
| Double definition: one having a row (argument), or one rowing a boat (blade = oar). | ||
| 25 | PANDA | Briefly sleep around with lawyer (a cuddly-looking bear) (5) |
| NAP (briefly sleep) reversed (around), with DA (District Attorney = US lawyer). | ||
| 26 | OUT WITH IT | Go on strike after unacceptable humour (3,4,2) |
| HIT (strike), after OUT (unacceptable) + WIT (humour). Out with it = go on = a command to say what needs to be said. | ||
| 27 | TALLY | List everything involved in case for theocracy (5) |
| ALL (everything) in T[heocrac]Y. | ||
| 28 | STRENUOUS | Sadly almost used to runs requiring much effort (9) |
| Anagram (sadly) of USE[d] (almost used) TO RUNS. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | INSISTENT | Camping without sibling can be demanding (9) |
| IN TENT (camping), containing SIS (short for sister). “Without” in its older sense of “outside”. | ||
| 2 | NANNA | Woman who forced my mum out of her first home (5) |
| I’m really not sure about this one. The definition seems to be a rather ugly way of saying “woman who gave birth to my mum”, hence Nanna (grandmother), but I can’t see what the rest of the clue is supposed to tell us. | ||
| 3 | ESSENTIAL | Vitally important I must stop awful lateness (9) |
| Anagram (awful) of LATENESS, with I inserted (stopping it, as a stopper in a bottle). | ||
| 4 | PRONOUN | He is one for love, religious type holds (7) |
| PRO (for = in favour of) + NUN (religious type) holding O (love = zero in tennis scoring). “He” is an example of a pronoun. | ||
| 5 | REMATCH | Another game rascal with no wife hugs old lady (7) |
| [w]RETCH (rascal without W) containing MA (old lady = slang for mother). | ||
| 6 | BADGE | Harry ultimately won’t take part in The Shield (5) |
| BADGER (harry, as a verb = annoy or distress) with the last letter missing (ultimately won’t take part). | ||
| 7 | SAN MARINO | When to go around wandering in Roman republic (3,6) |
| AS (when), reversed (around), and an anagram (wandering) of IN ROMAN. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino | ||
| 8 | STONE | On drugs to shed last bit of unwanted weight (5) |
| STONED (on drugs) without the D, the last bit of [unwante]D. Stone = imperial measure of weight = 14 pounds. | ||
| 14 | ABDOMINAL | Bad loan I’m to readjust from a corporation? (9) |
| Anagram (to readjust) of BAD LOAN IM. Corporation = slang for a large belly. | ||
| 16 | SOVEREIGN | Funny bit of ribbing one gives Her Maj? (9) |
| Anagram (funny) of R[ibbing] ONE GIVES. | ||
| 17 | ENTERITIS | Complaint I take up following tenant going topless (9) |
| [r]ENTER (tenant going topless) + I + SIT (take, as in sit an exam) reversed (upwards in a down clue). Complaint = illness. | ||
| 19 | REEBOKS | Circus finally gives support to animal trainers (7) |
| S (final letter of circuS) below (supporting, in a down clue) REEBOK (a South African antelope). Reebok is also a brand name for sports shoes (trainers), presumably named after the animal because it’s a fast runner; perhaps that makes it a slightly lazy clue because these aren’t really two separate meanings. | ||
| 20 | MINSTER | Clergyman missing his fourth cathedral? (7) |
| MIN[i]STER, missing the fourth letter. For example York Minster or Westminster Abbey. | ||
| 21 | COP IT | Short quote about work: “get in loads of trouble!” (3,2) |
| CIT[e] (quote, shortened) about OP (opus = work). | ||
| 22 | CHARY | Careful, brew leads to riotous yelling (5) |
| CHA (slang for tea = brew) + the leading letters of Riotous Yelling. | ||
| 24 | WAHOO | Doctor injecting a bit opium in America, yeah baby! (5) |
| WHO (Doctor Who) injecting A + O (slang for opium). I’m not sure whether “in America” refers to the slang term O or to “yeah baby”; the clue probably works either way, but would also work without it. |
I parsed 2d as a cryptic definition, as you did, with “her first home” being a reference to the womb. I don’t normally like cryptic definitions but thought this was quite neat.
Couldn’t parse 20a. Assuming blog is correct, this seems a bit weak to me. Had to check that meaning of ‘slapping’ in 6a.
Thanks to Hoskins and Quirister.
Thanks for blogging, Quirister.
I thought this was Harry on very good form, with some smiley moments and inventive clueing. The Wayne Rooney gag is truly dreadful, and all the better for that – it made me laugh.
NANNA is just a whimsical definition, since her womb would be your mother’s ‘first home’, for nine months at least. I though REEBOKS was more subtle than you suggest – it was fine by me. I especially liked the chess clue once I’d worked it out.
And to cap it all, Her Maj makes her usual appearance. God bless her in these troubled times.
Well done, Hoskins – keep them coming like this.
I’m starting to warm to 20a. For me, it would be a better clue if “forever” were removed. Perhaps I am missing something?
Sorry, it’s me again. I guess the “forever” is there so as to distinguish it from leaving your house to, for example, go to work. My feeling was that one can move back – unlikely as that may be. I now remove my criticism of 20a @1.
Thanks for the blog, Quirister.
I agree largely with Kathryn’s Dad – THE spoilt 12ac for me and I’ve never seen NANNA with 2Ns but Chambers has.
Nice to see Harry back, with a mention for himself at 6dn as well as 21ac. It took me a few minutes to parse SOVEREIGN – doh!
My favourites were OUT WITH IT and SAN MARINO.
Many thanks for the fun, Harry – come back soon!
I liked this a lot with two reservations.
I’m struggling to equate “unacceptable” and “out” in 26a as exact synonyms. Can anyone suggest a sentence in which you can replace one with the other?
20a verges on brilliancy as there is potentially another level to the clue in addition to the surface reading explained in the review. Depending on the position, moving your “rook to b4” when playing chess, “perhaps” could “leave” your “castle … exposed”. This interpretation however fails because of the erroneous notion that a “castle” is an alternative name for a “rook”. In chess, the piece is called a rook (although “to castle” is a verb used to describe a specific move involving the rook and the king).
On my podium are 1a, 6a & 20d, with 20a nearly getting there despite my reservation.
Thanks for the review, Quirister. For 24a, I assume the omission of “of” is a typo and I took “bit of opium” to mean O. Full marks to Hoskins for indicating that “yeah baby” is an American expression. Thanks too to Hoskins.
Hovis @1, Kathryn’s Dad @2: yes, you’re right, it’s just one long cryptic definition. I think this is an example of why I don’t always like this type of clue. Sometimes they can be just a little too wordy, so you’re left wondering whether you’ve missed something in the extra words: and of course unlike any other cryptic clue there’s no alternative route to the answer. But I wouldn’t want to lose them altogether: a good cryptic definition can be brilliant.
Rabbit Dave @6: I agree they’re not exact synonyms, but I thought they were close enough. Perhaps an example (admittedly a bit tenuous) could be filtering candidates for a Cabinet position in government: “he’s made one gaffe too many so he’s out”, in the sense of “out of contention”.
And perhaps I should say: despite the reservations on a few clues, this was a lot of fun. Sadly, writing the blog can mean spending too much time trying to rationalise a few awkward clues, and forgetting how much amusement the rest of the puzzle provided. Thanks again to Hoskins.
Quirister @7. Nice try, but making gaffes seems to be the norm for Cabinet Ministers and has no effect whatsoever on whether they are in or out! 🙂
Enjoyed this very much. Particularly BASES, ON THE WANE, PANDA (always cute), BADGE, and it was good to see her maj as a definition for a change in SOVEREIGN, a beautifully constructed and nicely self-indulgent clue.
Plenty more to like, thanks Hoskins
Thanks also Quirister
Thanks Hoskins, Quirister
I particularly liked the clue for SOVEREIGN, and liked 2d but was unsure if it was going to be nanny, nanna, nonna …
@Rabbit Dave: a castle is an alternative name for a rook. Everyone solving this understood castle in the clue to mean rook, surely even you. It makes no sense to say a word doesn’t mean what everyone understands it to mean, leaving aside the justification of castle having rook as a dictionary definition.
James @11. Of course I understood what was meant, but that doesn’t make it right and, as someone with a passion for chess, I will always do my best to try to influence people to use only the correct terminology. You are of course entitled to your opinion but I respectfully disagree, although I am sure we can both agree that it is a very good clue.
Sorry, I’m being dim. I solved the REEBOKS clue OK, but I still can’t see how it works,because one meaning is derived from the other.
Entertaining puzzle with many nice touches.
I particularly liked NANNA, SAN MARINO and ON THE WANE.
The BRB gives castle for rook as informal or childish. Maybe the rook ‘to before’ is an allusion to the old-fashioned name (see Oxford.)
Thanks Hoskins and Quirister.
Enjoyed this one, despite not knowing the style of play in 6a.
My favourite was 16a with the widest grin going to the dreadful pun in 12a.
Many thanks, Harry, and thanks to Quirister for the blog.
Oops – meant 16d of course!
Just an extra possibility on the wording for 20a. Did Hoskins choose b4 as text speak for “before”? So “out” is “after” and “move” is “before”? Just an idea.
Thanks to Quirister and Hoskins
I found this great fun, only let down by the lack of THE in wordplay for 12a, and the vague last letter removal indicator @6d