More E, vicar? Harry “pure filth” Hoskins provides another puzzle in his Sunday best style. It can be found here.
Hello folks. I’m about to brave the Sunday trains so wish me luck getting home! Fortunately, the puzzle didn’t present any difficulties: there’s nothing here which an experienced solver is likely to find too hard. Speaking of which, the “why does that mean … oh!” moment came for me at 3d. I think my favourite clue is 10a, just because of the possibilities which suggested themselves at first.
Cheers Hoskins – 14d!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics 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 Gere gets wild with horny beast (4,5)
GREY HERON
GERE is anagrammed together with (gets wild with) HORNY
6a Conservative whip in conflict (5)
CLASH
C (Conservative) + LASH (whip)
9a Naked folk tarts in US massaged (9)
NATURISTS
TARTS IN US anagrammed (massaged)
10a How I get milk’s not appropriate (5)
INAPT
Hoskins, he tells us, gets milk IN A PT (pint). Well, that was considerably more appropriate than I was expecting!
11a Arse stealing Queen track (5)
TRAIL
TAIL (arse) around (stealing) R (queen)
12a Diamonds left with that girl from Bow for a European (9)
ICELANDER
ICE (diamonds) + L (left) AND ‘ER (girl from Bow)
13a State censor imprisoned by Trotsky? (7)
LEBANON
BAN (censor) inside (imprisoned by) LEON (Trotsky?)
15a Complaint tabloid had time to overturn (7)
TETANUS
SUN (tabloid), ATE (had) and T (time) all needs to be reversed (to overturn)
18a A southern pro with E is a goddess! (7)
ASTARTE
A + S (southern) + TART (pro) + E
20a Bloody chap‘s a cad! (7)
BLEEDER
A double definition
21a Black and blue tubes in weapons (9)
BLOWPIPES
B (black) + LOW (blue) + PIPES (tubes)
23a Steal money off of popular singer (5)
ROBIN
ROB (steal money off) + IN (popular)
25a Passage I’ll read out loud (5)
AISLE
I’LL, homophone (read out loud)
26a Wise snips tidied up tree (5,4)
SWISS PINE
WISE SNIPS anagrammed (tidied up)
27a Content being tipsy (5)
HAPPY
Two definitions
28a Cleaner put off dope by tenor (9)
DETERGENT
DETER (put off) + GEN (dope) + T (tenor)
Down
1d Giant ale I ordered for privates (9)
GENITALIA
GIANT ALE I anagrammed (ordered)
2d Topless relations briefly corner actor? (5)
EXTRA
Without the first letter (topless), sEX (relations) + TRAp (corner) without the last letter (briefly …)
3d Uncompromising MP is up for it on bit of coke, right? (9)
HARDLINER
HARD (up for it – it as in relations … see the previous two clues) + LINE (a bit of coke) + R (right)
4d Former PM initially suppressed one article for Lubov Chernukhin? (7)
RUSSIAN
Without the first letter (initially suppressed …) tRUSS (former PM) + I (one) + AN (article). I was quite pleased that this former PM, the last one at the time of writing, didn’t spring to mind all that quickly!
5d Prince Andrew’s defence? Nothing to it! (2,5)
NO SWEAT
The first part of the clue references Prince Andrew’s claim in the infamous November 2019 Newsnight interview. In the context of the fun and frivolity in surrounding clues, such a reference can fall a bit flat
6d Hot to tuck into tea or Bud (5)
CHINA
IN (hot) going inside (to tuck into) CHA (tea)
7d A group joke duke is out of control (9)
ABANDONED
A + BAND (group) + ONE (joke – have you heard the one about …) + D (duke)
8d One apt to troll milliner half-heartedly (5)
HATER
HATtER (milliner) with the central TT reduced to just T (half-heartedly)
14d Bum drink for your health! (7,2)
BOTTOMS UP
BOTTOM (bum) + SUP (drink)
16d Hero tries to break ideas man (9)
THEORISER
HERO TRIES anagrammed (to break)
17d Most odd gent going out with stars (9)
STRANGEST
An anagram of (going out) GENT with STARS
19d Old model daughter gets naked (7)
EXPOSED
EX (old) + POSE (model) + D (daughter)
20d Muso bishop associates with Help! (7)
BASSIST
B (bishop) + ASSIST (help)
21d Brazen Republican divides party (5)
BRASH
R (Republican) goes inside (divides) BASH (party)
22d Shame about English godliness (5)
PIETY
PITY (shame) around (about) E (English)
24d Boring earl hugged by huge European (5)
BEIGE
E (earl) inside (hugged by) BIG + E (European)
Harry at his best or worst depending on your point of view. I loved it!
Many thanks to Hoskins. Thanks too to Kitty, and good luck with your train journey.
I too had several “Why does that mean…..oh!” moments. I’m sure many solvers shuddered at some clues and/or answers but I’m in the “loved it” camp. I had to look up Astarte as she’s neither Greek nor Roman, with which I’m familiar, but Semitic. Great fun, so thanks Hoskins and Kitty.
Last in was INAPT which I was just not seeing. Nice way to spend a Sunday morning either way.
Thanks to Hoskins and Kitty.
An amusing romp from Harry this morning. Amongst many fine clues my favourite has to be the vulgar (how does he get away with it!) but clever and funny 3d.
Thanks Hoskins and Kitty
Great fun. 10 across was my favourite too. Thanks, both.
Thanks both. Clearly intended to entertain today, whereas yesterday’s was about as entertaining as an electric chair. Not sure HAPPY is high on a long list of words meaning tipsy, but maybe it all depends on who’s buying
Thanks Hoskins, I always look forward to your ribald crosswords. My top choices were ICELANDER, TETANUS, GENITALIA, and BOTTOMS UP. I needed a look-up for ASTARTE, not knowing that pro = tart. Thanks Kitty for the blog.
Many thanks to Teh Kittehz for the usual great blog and to all who solved and commented.
I’ll be back a week on Tuesday with a mediumish puzzle, but until then it only remains for me to say goodnight and good luck to all. 🙂