A mostly gentle solve from Hoskins this Monday morning.
There’s quite a bit of sport going on at the moment, so Hoskins has managed to include a football-related surface as well as golf and cricket terms. And of course we need a tennis reference, with it being Wimbledon fortnight: 5d was my LOI, but a real laugh when the penny finally dropped.
As usual, crossword solvers are expected to know some drugs slang, though “dope” in two places has more innocent meanings; and there’s even a topical vaccination reference among the excellent surfaces. Thanks Hoskins for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ASIDE FROM |
Save dose if arm wobbles about (5,4)
|
| Anagram (wobbles about) of DOSE IF ARM.
Save = aside from = except. |
||
| 6 | BADGE |
Wanting bit of rumpy-pumpy? Pester Mark! (5)
|
| BADGE[r] (as a verb = pester), without the first letter (a bit) of R[umpy-pumpy]. | ||
| 9 | RATIONALE |
Logic helping the French to accept answer (9)
|
| RATION (helping, as a noun) + LE (French “the”), accepting A (answer). | ||
| 10 | ASSET |
Dope and rests taken regularly can be a help (5)
|
| ASS (dope = stupid person) + alternate letters (taken regularly) from [r]E[s]T[s]. | ||
| 11 | DELHI |
City were ahead, flipping Hearts pitiful essentially (5)
|
| LED (were ahead), reversed (flipping), then H (abbreviation for hearts, in card games) + middle letter (essentially) of [pit]I[ful]. The surface makes sense if you take both City and Hearts to be short names for football teams; the latter is short for Heart of Midlothian FC, in Edinburgh. | ||
| 12 | AERODROME |
English staff in a foreign capital’s airfield (9)
|
| E (English) + ROD (staff), in A + ROME (foreign capital). | ||
| 13 | EXPENSE |
Outgoing old coppers brought into hearing (7)
|
| EX (prefix meaning “old”) + homophone (brought into hearing) of PENCE (coppers = small coins).
Outgoing = expense = money spent. |
||
| 15 | ENDORSE |
Stop heroin without husband’s support (7)
|
| END (as a verb = stop) + [h]ORSE (slang for heroin) without the initial H (husband). | ||
| 17 | SINGLET |
Top record in the charts by foremost of tenors (7)
|
| SINGLE (record in the charts) + first letter (foremost) of T[enors].
Singlet = a sleeveless vest top. |
||
| 19 | FATHERS |
Parents down, having half usual amount of energy (7)
|
| F[e]ATHERS (down), with only one E (energy) instead of two. | ||
| 21 | CHIEFTAIN |
Big cheese in cafe hit, surprisingly (9)
|
| Anagram (surprisingly) of IN CAFE HIT.
Big cheese = slang for a person in authority, for example a tribal chief. |
||
| 23 | CAPER |
Her Maj put on crown for a bit of a laugh (5)
|
| ER (Elizabeth Regina = Her Majesty the Queen) added to CAP (crown, as in “to cap it all”).
Caper = a bit of a laugh = a foolish escapade. |
||
| 25 | ENNUI |
Boredom leads to earl’s now nightly upper intake (5)
|
| Initial letters (leads, as a noun) of E[arl’s] N[ow] N[ightly] U[pper] I[ntake]. | ||
| 26 | HOLE IN ONE |
A shot sunk in a single stroke (4,2,3)
|
| Not-very-cryptic definition for a lucky hit in golf. “Shot” and “sunk” may be intended to make us think of irresponsible drinking, but “stroke” seems to put us firmly back into the realm of sports. | ||
| 27 | EARTH |
Want to get rid of bit of dirty mud? (5)
|
| [d]EARTH (want, as a noun = shortage) without the first letter (a bit) of D[irty]. | ||
| 28 | REGRETFUL |
Sorry Republican felt urge for revolution! (9)
|
| R (short for Republican) + anagram (for revolution) of FELT URGE. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ABRIDGE |
A spanner or clip? (7)
|
| A + BRIDGE (something that spans a gap = spanner).
Clip = abridge = shorten. |
||
| 2 | INTEL |
Dope popular with half-cut teller (5)
|
| IN (fashionable = popular) + TEL[ler] with the second half cut.
Intel = short for intelligence = dope = inside information. |
||
| 3 | EMOTIONAL |
I’m one mixed up with a lot of passion (9)
|
| Anagram (mixed up) of I’M ONE with A LOT. | ||
| 4 | REAL ALE |
Absolute ecstasy drinking a large cask-fermented beer (4,3)
|
| REAL (absolute, as in “a real triumph”) + E (ecstasy = slang terms for the drug MDMA), containing (drinking) A + L (large). | ||
| 5 | MCENROE |
One known to question seriousness of court official? (7)
|
| Cryptic definition: the court is a tennis court. American tennis player John McEnroe was notorious for arguing with line judges and umpires in the days before Hawk-Eye: “You cannot be serious!” was one of his best-known outbursts. These days he’s part of the BBC’s commentary team at Wimbledon. | ||
| 6 | BLAND |
Flat British countryside (5)
|
| B (British) + LAND (countryside).
Bland = flat = uninteresting. |
||
| 7 | DISCOURSE |
Conversation is crude so must be changed (9)
|
| Anagram (must be changed) of IS CRUDE SO. | ||
| 8 | EXTREME |
Most violent end (7)
|
| Double definition: as in “extreme weather”, or as in “from one extreme to the other”. | ||
| 14 | PENSIONER |
Old sort of French-style boarding house on Exeter’s outskirts (9)
|
| PENSION (French boarding house) before (on = above, in a down clue) outer letters (outskirts) of E[xete]R.
Old sort = old person = pensioner. |
||
| 16 | DETECTIVE |
Police officer in bust making fellow tense initially (9)
|
| DE[f]ECTIVE (bust = slang for broken / not working correctly), with the F (fellow) changed to the initial letter of T[ense]. | ||
| 17 | SECRETE |
Hide classified file at base (7)
|
| SECRET (classified as in “classified information”) + the end letter (base, reading downwards in a down clue) of [fil]E. | ||
| 18 | TEACHER |
Sprint to catch red coach? (7)
|
| TEAR (sprint = run quickly), containing (to catch) CHE (Che Guevara = communist = Red). | ||
| 19 | FINE LEG |
Position of Lord’s okay with member (4,3)
|
| FINE (okay = good) + LEG (member = limb).
A fielding position in cricket, so for example at Lord’s Cricket Ground. (Leg = on the side of the field corresponding to the batsman’s non-dominant hand, because the batsman normally stands slightly to this side of the wicket; fine = at a fairly small angle to the bowling line.) |
||
| 20 | SURREAL |
A ruler’s working like a dream (7)
|
| Anagram (working) of A RULER’S. | ||
| 22 | FAITH |
Trust porky husband to eat last of chilli (5)
|
| FAT (porky) + H (short for husband), containing (eating) the last letter of [chill]I. | ||
| 24 | PROOF |
Academic must collect old evidence (5)
|
| PROF (short for professor = academic), containing (collecting) O (short for old).
As I’ve said before in these blogs, evidence is not the same thing as proof, but in non-forensic contexts the terms can often be interchanged. |
Another very amusing and enjoyable offering from Hoskins, although I can’t see anything remotely cryptic about 26a.
MCENROE was my favourite, with EXTREME, PENSIONER, TEACHER and PROOF also deserving special mentions.
Many thanks to Hoskins and to Quirister.
I always enjoy a Hoskins and today was no exception and I almost finished which is nice!
Agree MCENROE was the best clue, also enjoyed ABRIDGE, ENDORSE and FAITH amongst many many excellent surfaces
I assumed 26a was too clever for me (not difficult) and looked at it for 10 mins trying to find something that may not be there!
Many thanks Hoskins for the fun and Quirister for filling in the blanks
I wonder if the Duolingo app will ever add “cricket” as one of its languages 🙂 . Hope PostMark enjoyed 6a.
Likewise, I thought 26A wasn’t at all cryptic, but apart from that very enjoyable and quite innuendo-free for Hoskins (at 15A my first thought was whether jockstrap might be relevant). Thanks Hoskins and Quirister.
Thanks Hovis @3: I suspect some – especially on the G page – do, indeed, think of me as Pester Mark ! Though I hope rumpy pumpy never comes into it.
Typically tight – as Hoskins generally is. Innuendo free, as Tatrasman observes, though with enough references in the clueing to hint at a life misspent. I agree MCENROE is superb. He’s much more serious, himself, these days – though his recent appearance in a two piece suit with basketball shoes detracted from his hauteur. Other ticks went to the already mentioned ABRIDGE and ENDORSE (the motto of a Cockney drug reformer?) as well as to REAL ALE, FATHERS, DELHI and ASIDE FROM. Favourite – again, already mentioned by Rabbit Dave, was PENSIONER.
Thanks Hoskins and Quirister
I thought ‘shot sunk in a single’ might have been wordplay (gunfire?), with stroke as def, but agree about the effect
A most enjoyable puzzle but 26a caught me out. I initially tried to enter “down” as the first word but realised my mistake quite quickly.
Many thanks to Hoskins for an enjoyable challenge. Thanks, also to Quirister.
Hoskins’ crosswords guarantee entertainment and fun, and this one was a treat. Agree cod was McEnroe, but other favourites were abridge, endorse and pensioner. Thanks to Hoskins and Quirister
Definitely on the PC side from Hoskins but as enjoyable as ever.
Refuse to vote for 5d as cotd owing to the way I feel about his erstwhile behaviour on court but I rather liked the idea of HM enjoying a CAPER and the French boarding house on the outskirts of Exeter.
Thanks to Hoskins and to Quirister for the review.
Was very grateful for 26ac.. opened things up a bit at the bottom.. guessed a few but had to resort to revealing the 2nd letter of 5dn, at which point it became pretty obvious.. ah well…
Thanks Hoskins n Quirister
Usual accurate clueing and fun surfaces from Hoskins – and doing this in an easyish puzzle is commendable. I thought the shot sunk in a single stroke was intended as an alcoholic mislead, hence a great cd, but who knows.
Now for today’s slormgorm, bit of a treat
Many thanks to The Communal Belter for the blog and to all who solved and commented.
If I recall correctly, I think I had ‘A shot sunk in one go’ for 26a in mind at one point, but prolly changed it for the difficulty level of the puzzle as a [w]hole.
BTW, nice to see you Dutch! Hope all good with you and hopefully catch up in York if I can scrape the funds together for it!
Cheers and chin chin to all and see y’all next time, no doubt. 🙂
That was me above, I can’t seem to get my name right anywhere nowadays! 🙂
Surprisingly easy and clean for hoskins. Makes you wonder if this wasn’t meant for the FT or some other outlet. McEnroe was brilliant last one in as I was looking for a word not a name. A true cry out oh god moment on seeing it.
I dunno, Flash – I reckon it had enough sex, drugs and booze for a Hoskins even if it was korma on the curry scale. The Boss has plenty of jalfrezi Hoskins in hand and he be the man with the plan so I guess you’ll have to wait for the curry sweats for now …