Independent on Sunday 1,739 by Hoskins

by

After a few tougher Sundays a gentle Hoskins

OK there’s sex & drugs & alcohol & rock n roll but whadya expect? Thanks Hoskins

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Dope and beer? Bishop’ll avoid that! (3)
ASS

Bishop removed from former beer brewer B(ass). Long since defunct as a company Bass the beer itself is now brewed by Marstons who themselves are now owned Anheuser-Busch. Hoskins starting with rude words? Say it isn’t so.

3. Newly-arrived soldiers at the front reload (7)
REFRESH

RE – soldiers at the front of FRESH – newly arrived

7. Dramatic scene in story about black gold (7)
TABLEAU

B(lack) in TALE – story & AU – gold

8. Feeling nausea due to being high as a kite? (7)
AIRSICK

Cryptic definition, can’t see any wordplay anyway

10. Assassin detained in prison in Japan (5)
NINJA

Hidden in prisoN IN JApan

11. Prisoner not very bright duke cut down (9)
CONDENSED

CON – prisoner & DENSE – not very bright & D(uke)

12. Dry pal I will get blitzed with speed (7)
RAPIDLY

A blitzed [DRY PAL I]*

14. Blue European commie brought down (7)
LOWERED

LOW – suffering the blues & E(uropean) & RED – commie

17. Easy-going nurse meets one breaking fast? (7)
LENIENT

EN – nurse & I – one all in LENT – fast

19. Yen to punch sweet Hoskins? Good grief! (5,2)
DEARY ME

Y(en) inside DEAR – my sweet & ME – Hoskins

20. In period of darkness, blew a boat up (2,1,3,3)
AT A LOW EBB

An anagram – up of [BLEW A BOAT]*

22. One’s had a fill of Tory representatives! (5)
ICONS

CON – tory inside I’S – one’s

24. Predict warning will be given to holy office (7)
FORESEE

FORE – golf warning & SEE – bishop’s diocese

25. Highly emotional after Celtic played away (7)
CHEATED

C(eltic) & HEATED.

26. Doctor and old lady get on around ship (7)
MASSAGE

MA – old lady & SS – ship & AGE – get on, get older

27. Drink Kitty mostly knocked back (3)
SUP

PUS(s) – kitty mostly reversed

DOWN
1. Gangster, graduate, knight and saint (5)
ALBAN

AL (capone) & B.A. & N=Knight in chess

2. Dad and sleek date getting high get out of it (9)
SKEDADDLE

A high [DAD SLEEK D(ate)]*

3. Sexy chaps with guns like a boxer with no top on? (7)
RAUNCHY

RA, no not artists but Royal Artillery – chaps with guns & (p)UNCHY – like a boxer – with no top on

4. Something you might wash with is soap (7)
FLANNEL

Double def

5. Take drugs to get up? That’s uncannily weird! (5)
EERIE

R – take (it’s from prescriptions) & E drug twice reversed & I.E. – that is

6. One employed to help maintain a beehive? (9)
HAIRSPRAY

Cryptic def. Don’t see many beehives hairstyle or otherwise much anymore.

7. Nurse with rig cut large extremity off a climber! (7)
TENDRIL

TEND – nurse & with a cut-down RI(g) & L(arge)

9. Joke which might be provided by child (3)
KID

Double definition

13. Star map a gent ripped up without right (9)
PENTAGRAM

R(ight) inserted in a ripped up [MAP A GENT]*

15. A sewer’s in awfully tired state (9)
WEARINESS

[A SEWERS IN]* awfully

16. Pedal essentially pushed with less pressure to get in gear? (7)
DRESSED

(pe)D(al) essentially & P(ressure) removed from (p)RESSED

18. Articles written about concerning school in May? (7)
THERESA

RE – concerning & S(chool) all in THE & A – two articles

19. Society girl on beer snorting coke is mess (7)
DEBACLE

DEB(utante) – society girl & C(oke) inside ALE – beer

20. Man requiring you to separate colt from young cow (3)
ALF

C(olt) removed from (c)ALF

21. Old American bum going around island watering hole (5)
OASIS

O(ld) & ASS – US for bum with I(sland) inserted

23. Where one might find H readily available (2,3)
ON TAP

Well taps frequently have H(ot) or C(old) on them

 

16 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,739 by Hoskins”

  1. Thanks, Hoskins and flashling!
    Liked RAUNCHY and ALF.

    AIRSICK
    I agree with the blog that there doesn’t seem to be any wordplay.
    I tried feeling=AIR and nausea=SICK (the second part doesn’t work due to a part of speech mismatch).
    The literal meaning of the phrase “being high as a kite” is considered (as opposed to the idiomatic meaning of ‘intoxicated’)-this is the cryptic element, I guess.

  2. Liked CHEATED because I vaguely knew but didn’t twig the meaning of ‘played away’. Also liked MASSAGE and FLANNEL The blog helped with the parsing of EERIE. Lot of fun for a Sunday. Thanks flashling and Bob.

  5. My favourite ICONS with “beehives” needing HAIRSPRAY: Dusty Springfield (1939-1999) and Amy Winehouse (1983-2011).
    The hairstyle even has its own Wikipedia page – of course it does, no surprise there – on which Amy features, but no Dusty, How soon they forget.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive_(hairstyle)
    It’s packed full of fun facts, as is this from the Guardian, Dusty is there, along with Jackie O, Brigitte, Adele, Aretha, Marge, Ronnie,The Ronettes and The B52s.
    https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/shortcuts/2016/jun/14/history-beehive-hairdo-creator-died-1960s
    Not forgetting Mari Wilson, who – I’ve just found out – played Dusty in Dusty – The Musical

  6. I especially liked the clue for ICONS – “One’s had a fill of Tory representatives!”. Too right one has. As I’ve said before, elsewhere: “I agree. Well said.”
    Thanks H&f

  7. Good to discover that I wasn’t missing something with AIRSICK. RAUNCHY possible my favourite, along with RAPIDLY, ALBAN, TENDRIL, PENTAGRAM and ON TAP. I have not seen Celtic = C before and cannot place that abbreviation.

    I am very much in agreement with FrankieG’s comment about ICONS.

    Thanks Hoskins and flashling

  8. All good fun as ever from Hoskins with RAUNCHY my favourite.

    PM @7. According to Collins, C = Celtic is an American abbreviation, which struck me as a bit incongruous – why would an American need an abbreviation for Celtic?

    Many thanks to Harry and to flashling.

  9. Thanks RD. I checked Chambers which is my go-to – and is often reckoned to include more abbreviations than most other dictionaries. And I am as mystified as you as to why the US should want an abbreviation for Celtic. A quick Google search shows that the word does feature in the names of a number of sports teams but no obvious suggestion that it gets abbreviated.

  10. I’m still not very persuaded by the logic behind 20d but no-one else has mentioned it so it must be a ‘just me’ moment.
    Top marks here for ON TAP with a nod to LOWERED.

    Thanks to Hoskins and to flashling for the review.

  11. jane @ 10 If your query is about C = colt, it’s a standard abbreviation in horse-racing, and probably in the wider equine world too.

  12. Thanks both. I suspect the clue for AIRSICK was an attempted misdirect into the world of drugs, and I expect air sickness would not result from only being literally as high as a kite, as it is more related to motion, all rendered irrelevant as I entered seasick believing it was an anagram until I finally realised it was nowhere close. Surprised to see Bass beer as the source for ASS – don’t remember seeing it in a pub for decades, but I am certainly old enough to remember the brewery

  13. I imagine C for Celtic is more of an etymological or just possibly archaeological abbreviation than a sporting one. I stared at what I read as There’s a for a while before I could see the connection to May.

  14. TFO @12 plenty of Bass still here in the East Midlands but even so less than there used to be as it was once the most ubiquitous real ale in the country.

  15. Thanks Hoskins, I always enjoy your RAUNCHY style of clueing even though I couldn’t parse RAUNCHY itself. I also needed the blog to fully understand EERIE and I hadn’t heard of FLANNEL as “soap”. I liked ASS, DRESSED, and DEBACLE among others. Thanks flashling for the blog.

  16. Very enjoyable indeed with RAUNCHY worth the admission fee alone. I also enjoyed DEARY ME, ICONS and SKEDADDLE (lol)
    Many thanks Hoskins and flashling, needed your help to fully parse EERIE.

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