We haven’t had the pleasure of blogging a Hob puzzle for over a year, so we really looked forward to this….
…..and we weren’t disappointed. We found the puzzle to be slightly easier than we had expected it to be, but no less enjoyable.
Towards the end of the solve, we realised that there might be a perimeter nina, which helped with the last few entries. A quick google revealed that 11d’s speech, referred to in the nina, was delivered to the House of Commons 80 years ago today.
By an amazing coincidence, today is also the 80th birthday of a friend of ours, who we met through 225, and who has been known to comment on various puzzles on this site. Happy birthday to him!
As we have come to expect from Hob, there were some ingenious clues, with some words doing double duty as definition and part of the wordplay in 14d and 17d. We were surprised that the same ‘sloth’ cropped up in both 17ac and 1d, especially as it was in combination with the two parts of the bible – probably a coincidence that was too hard for Hob to ignore! After all, there are other words that would have fitted the grid.
HOB (setter) NIL (nothing) round or ‘hiding’ A (first letter or ‘source’ of all)
An anagram of HIS LUBE – anagrind is ‘might be’
Hidden in orienTAL Caves
EX (former) + a homophone (‘report’) of CHECKER (inspector)
A B (bishop) BEY (governor – in Turkey)
An anagram of MENUS ARE – anagrind is ‘encrypted’
R (right) EAR (organ)
First or ‘primary’ letters of Cappuccinos Or Chordates Only Americanos
NT (New Testament – books) in AI (sloth) – the clue suggests that AI should be in NT, hence ‘on the contrary’
An anagram of BULIMIC (anagrind is ‘struggling’) round or ‘containing’ I (current)
A double definition, but with a reference to the two DOTS over the ‘i’s in ‘idiots’. This was our LOI and we were puzzled by the parsing for quite a while.
An anagram of LINE-UPS DO – anagrind is ‘unravel’
Double definition
An anagram of ATE, C (first letter of or ‘a little’ cookie), OK and A
FLY (annoying insect – 19d) HALF (small beer)
AI (sloth – as in 17ac) round OT (Old Testament – books – see also 17ac)
An anagram of BAKeRS CAN without the ‘e’ (prefix for online activities) – anagrind is ‘supply’ (in a supple manner)
W (women) I ELY (see, as in the diocese) round or ’embracing’ S (society)
A (adult) LOVER (partner) round or ‘taking’ E (ecstasy) + A (first letter or ‘just a little’ of apple)
An anagram of INQUESt without the last letter or ‘briefly’ – anagrind is ‘rubbished’
Hidden in or ‘infiltrating’ thaT’S A Russian
CHILL (relax) after C (cold) HURt (sore) without the last letter or ‘finally disappearing’
ATE (fed) AM (American)
TEn (number – Downing Street address) without the ‘n’ (name) in MAY (Theresa May – former PM)
OK (fine) in CHINOS (cotton trousers)
An anagram of mOAB without the ‘m’ (motorway) and UTAH (21d) – anagrind is ‘circling’ + N (north)
IN (batting) SECT (order)
ODD (not even) in odd (‘not even’) letters of DeLi + E (last letter or ‘end’ of June)
An anagram of the first four letters (‘somewhat’) of AUTHority – anagrind is ‘compromised’. Not one of our favourite clues in the puzzle. We only solved it when we had the crossing letters and had it confirmed when we solved 17d from the definition.
Hidden (‘some’) and reversed (‘flipping’) in evIL GUys
Usually struggle with Hob but rattled this off very quickly but thoroughly enjoyed it. I just seemed to get on the right wavelength today. I parsed DOTTY as in the blog but wasn’t totally convinced. Agree that 21d wasn’t too brilliant either but the rest (and the wonderful nina) were top class. Thanks Hob and Bertandjoyce.
Thanks for a great blog, B and J – lovely that it was your turn on our dear friend’s birthday. I shall be raising a glass [or two] to him later.
And a great puzzle to boot – many thanks to Hob for an enjoyable puzzle and fine tribute.
Two appearances by our three-toed friend and a not-too-hard-to-spot Nina, with CHURCHILL centre stage – who could ask for anything more. All parsed, except I didn’t know the ‘Government appointee’ sense of TSAR. As well as the theme/Nina, I liked the apparently simple but clever surface for INSECT.
Thanks to Hob and B&J
The (almost) perfect puzzle for me, not too difficult with excellent clueing and a nina/theme to boot. I used to play Scrabble a lot, and the ai (two-toed sloth from Argentina) was a favourite little eyebrow-raising word to tack on to something else for a big score. I didn’t see the dotted I connection in 20A, and also considered Ditsy and Ditzy, which didn’t fit either, before going for Dotty. Thanks Hob and B&J.
For 20a, I did also wonder about iDiOTs but decided to discount that.
Wordplodder – Chambers has tsar(3) as a person appointed as an authority or adjudicator on a some subject eg a language tsar.
Thanks B&J, a new use of the word for me; would clearly describe your good selves – TSAR and Tsarina anyway – and your pre-eminence in the field of crossword blogging.
Tatrasman @4, I’m happy to be corrected, but I believe the ‘ai’ is the three-toed sloth, and is found in the jungles of Brazil rather than in Argentina. Very interesting reading about the ai and the digitally challenged two-toed sloth in Wikipedia – fascinating creatures.
We found this to be at the easier enf og the Hob spectrum with the first four acrosses going in almost without thinking. And as soon as we’d got the first few downs we spotted the start of the nina and completing it helped us wrap up the remainder.
We puzzled ove the parsing of DOTTY and thought it nust be iDiOTs + TY but the dots over the i’s way seems equally good. And we weren’t too convinced by ‘order’ for ‘sect’, though Chambers Thesaurus gives it but the dictionary only implies it.
A most enjoyable solve. HOBNAIL, UMBILICI and the pair of sloths were our favoiurites.
Thanks, Hob and B&J
… the easier end of the Hob spectrum … even!
Lovely, and superbly smart puzzle (and blog), so many thanks, both. Couldn’t bring myself to love the clue for UTAH, but the blog puts it better than I had in my head and now it feels ok.
Thanks, both, for the blog. Another pleasing and well-constructed Indy puzzle, which fell out nicely. I guessed there would be an outer nina, but didn’t really go looking for it till the end.
UMBILICI was a favourite. Probably worth pointing out that UMBILICUS is a ‘depression’ in a biological sense – most notably on the shells of molluscs. But I’m guessing Hob was going for the tummy button version. Which might be slightly dodgy, since the world divides into those with a sticky-in and those with a sticky-out version.
Thanks to him too.
I had a completely different take on 21d.
The abbreviation for Utah is UT, which can be found inside ‘authority’.
With perhaps a bit of imagination, indicated by ‘…. ‘s somewhat compromised’.
@allan_c it must be, as I finished the clues, and even thought I’d parsed all bar three, but got here and realised I’d often fooled myself (e.g. CHILL from COLD and not RELAX, FED = FEDERATION = TEAM among others). Learning experiences abounded today – AI, BEY, supply as an anagrind (fine misdirection), and I’m delighted UMBILICI was clued as an anagram.
And for the first time ever – a NINA spotted, around two-thirds through, which sure helped with the remainder, especially CHURCHILL as LOI. Just need to work on those parsings…
Thanks to Hob and bertandjoyce
Thanks to Bertandjoyce and Hob
Nice, but I’m still not sure of 20a.
Would any word with a couple of I’s do?
“Like Latin one, slightly mad”
I think I may know whose coincidental birthday is being referred to – my (very slightly belated) best wishes too!