Independent on Sunday 1,674 by Hoskins

by

The puzzle is available here.

 

Hi all.  A puzzle well suited to those of us who are an hour short of shut-eye this morning, although for me at least there was a sting in the tail.  That aside, it seemed like Hoskins at his lightest, both in terms of difficulty and the cheekiness we have come to expect from this setter.  Just plenty of elegance and a pleasure to solve.  Thanks Hoskins!

 

Definitions are underlined in the clues below.  In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, explicit [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.  For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.

 

Across

1a    One stands to play rock (9)
SANDSTONE
ONE STANDS anagrammed (to play)

6a    A doctor punching curt chap Serpent (5)
MAMBA
A and MB (doctor) going into (punching) all but the last letter of (curt) MAn (chap)

9a    Gales and rain battered foreigners (9)
ALGERIANS
GALES and RAIN anagrammed together (battered)

10a   Weapon knight stored in decorative fabric (5)
LANCE
N (knight) stored in LACE (decorative fabric)

11a   Giant relations wearing brown (5)
TITAN
IT (relations – sexual ones) inside (wearing) TAN (brown)

12a   Naive boy touring North Island (9)
GREENLAND
GREEN (naive) + LAD (boy) going around (touring) N (north)

13a   Disease chirpy insects avoided initially (7)
RICKETS
cRICKETS (chirpy insects) without the first letter (avoided initially)

15a   Write about melody in piece of Holst (7)
NEPTUNE
PEN (write) reversed (about) + TUNE (melody)

18a   One involved in canine welfare? (7)
DENTIST
A cryptic definition

20a   Cowardly suspect admits “stole on occasion” (7)
GUTLESS
GUESS (suspect) contains (admits) alternate letters of (… on occasion) sToLe

21a   Angry soldier pinching one’s breakfast? (9)
CROISSANT
CROSS (angry) and ANT (soldier) around (pinching) I (one)

23a   Old boy grabs kiss with old wife in lake (5)
OXBOW
OB (old boy) goes around (grabs) X (kiss) followed by O (old) + W (wife)

25a   Flapper feels bad about losing jacket (5)
EGRET
rEGRETs (feels bad about) without its outer letters (losing jacket)

26a   Loathe boat name I concocted (9)
ABOMINATE
BOAT NAME I anagrammed (concocted)

27a   Crowd of reporters (5)
PRESS
Two definitions

28a   Lights by headland in countryside? (9)
LANDSCAPE
LANDS (lights) by CAPE (headland)

 

Down

1d    Devastated street had to be demolished (9)
SHATTERED
STREET HAD is to be anagrammed (demolished)

2d    Soon time for a period of darkness (5)
NIGHT
NIGH (soon) + T (time)

3d    Tiger seen wandering vast plain (9)
SERENGETI
TIGER SEEN anagrammed (wandering)

4d    Colours of old Sierras (7)
ORANGES
O (old) + RANGES (Sierras)

5d    Looking at The Sun in the morning? (7)
EASTERN
A cryptic definition.  This was my penultimate one in.  I didn’t fall into the trap set by the misleading capitalisation, but still needed all the checkers and a bit of thought

6d    Fruit yours truly left at work (5)
MELON
ME (yours truly) + L (left) + ON (at work)

7d    Chess problem I ruminate about (9)
MINIATURE
An anagram of (… about) I RUMINATE

8d    A leader doing well in the polls? (5)
AHEAD
A + HEAD (leader)

14d   Conservative series of lectures in large hall (9)
CONCOURSE
CON (Conservative) + COURSE (series of lectures)

16d   Roman satirist is not pure, sadly (9)
PETRONIUS
IS NOT PURE anagrammed (sadly).  It took a bit of letter shuffling on my part to find him!

17d   Some personnel sew hereabouts or at another place (9)
ELSEWHERE
Some personnEL SEW HEREabouts

19d   Path that will secure a victory for Labour (7)
TRAVAIL
TRAIL (path) containing (that will secure) A and V (victory)

20d   Book Blue and dance like no-one’s watching? (3,4)
GET DOWN
GET (book) + DOWN (blue)

21d   Stingy gentleman holding drug (5)
CHEAP
CHAP (gentleman) containing (holding) E (drug)

22d   Group one’s seen around venues (5)
SITES
SET (group) and I’S (one’s) written in reverse (seen around)

24d   White breaks second-rate centre of Grand Master (5)
BWANA
WAN (white) goes between (breaks) B (second-rate) and the centre of grand.  This last one was my last in.  After an alphabet trawl I put in the only thing I had found which seemed plausible and hoped

 

16 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,674 by Hoskins”

  1. All the usual fun from Hoskins except for the awful grid filler at 24d, which, like Kitty, I bunged in, hoped, and then found the answer in Chambers.

    21a was my favourite for its amusing surface.

    Many thanks to Hoskins and to Kitty.

  2. I went astray at 16D by entering PRETONIUS but that was eventually corrected. I didn’t really understand 5D EASTERN but it had to be that. Rather heavy on the anagrams, I thought, but much enjoyed anyway, so thanks Hoskins and Kitty.

  3. Thanks Hoskins and Kitty

    7D is an anagram of I RUMINATE, not CHESS PROBLEM.

    I should blame the lack of sleep if I were you!

  4. Not a lot of playful Harry on display today, perhaps he’s behaving himself for Mothering Sunday!
    I did get rather worried about EASTERN and had to ask Mr Google about the chess problem but everything else slotted in quite nicely.

    Thanks to Hoskins and to our favourite feline for the review.

  5. Good way to recover after some hard ones in the last few days. I wonder if 5d is ‘Looking at The’ = one sees that E is the last letter of ‘The’ = E ASTERN as wordplay and ‘Sun in the morning’ = EASTERN as the def. Iffy I agree, but sort of works.

    I didn’t know MINIATURE as a ‘Chess problem’ (I’ve just seen Simon S @3’s comment above re correct anagram fodder) and had never heard of the ‘Roman satirist’ though PETRONIUS seemed the most likely arrangement of the remaining anagram letters.

    Thanks to Kitty and Hoskins

  7. Yeah decidedly un Harry like Hoskins perhaps he’s mellowing in his old age. Ok that’s not happening. Cheers H and the kitty lady.

  8. Solvable, parsable, enjoyable and with minimal recourse to resource. Just a google for ‘roman satirists’ and this one was indeed not pure. Excellent workout for more complex grids of the future. I keep forgetting MB is a doc and B is second-rate but perhaps I won’t now they’re in the little black word file. I liked NIGHT. It might be simple but it’s fun like what grids should be. Thanks Kitty and Hoskins.

  9. Many thanks to the Kittehz for a great blog and to all who solved and commented.

    Flash@7 – I try and give the boss as much choice as possible so I can appear in any spot when needed. Because of this method I have a bank of easy puzzles, a bank of themed, a bank of Nina’d and a bank of freestyle difficulties. Within those four categories I also vary the spice levels to keep things varied. I think this particular puzzle forewent the naughties and had instead short clues. In other words, I always try to offer something if you ain’t getting the other.

    Hope to see you all next time around, but until then it’s good night and good luck to all.

    Ps. I very much enjoyed our blogger’s usual pussy pic, but I must say I prefer my melons to be of a smaller size and to come in a pair. 🙂

  10. Hoskins @9: whilst I whisper a silent prayer – most nights – that this should never happen, there is always the statistical possibility of you being run over by a bus. I do care. And don’t want this to sound callous. But do us all a favour and make sure the aforementioned boss has access to your hard drive so the bank can subsequently be put to good use 😉

    Thanks for a fun puzzle and to kitty for the blog

  11. Thanks Hoskins for a pleasant crossword as well as your blog entry. I enjoyed RICKETS, EGRET, and the PETRONIUS anagram. Thanks Kitty for parsing.

  12. They are already with the Ed. As is the message puzzle that he can if he wants publish upon my demise/sacking. PM@10.

  13. If you get sacked Hoskins, I would imagine melons would be involved as per your earlier stipulation …

  14. Nah, if I get sacked it’ll be because of the Tristrams and if I die it’ll be booze, drugs and ciggies no matter what Morrissey says.

  15. Thanks all for comments – btw, it’s really lovely to see you back here Flashling 🙂 – and to Harry for stopping by. I always enjoy your puzzles, of whatever strength and flavour, and I see there’s another one today in the FT – yay!

    Re melons, was something like this more what you had in mind?

  16. I can never click links due to browser so instead I’ll look forward to your recreating the picture for me next time we meet at a crossword do, Kittehz. 🙂

    Oh, and for anyones still reading, I’ll be back on April 12th with a right toughie for you to sink yer gnashers into … so hope to have your company then. 🙂

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