Independent on Sunday 1,742 by Hoskins

by

The puzzle is available here.

 

Hello everyone.  I’m always happy to encounter Hoskins; he didn’t detain me long today but kept me smiling.  I ended up in the SE which is handy because that is where I live.

I liked the recognition that being giving is hard (10a), the morning drink with a nicely worked definition (14a) and many good surfaces such as 4d and 15d.  Thanks Hoskins!

(The grid had me looking for a nina, and I spotted a little one in the 9th row, which seems rather uncharacteristic for this setter!  I hope he’s not on a 18a.  If there’s anything more in the grid I haven’t found it but I’m sure you will help me out.)

 

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

6a    Man covering R&B and bit of soul rocks (7)
 MARBLES
MALE (man) covering R&B + the first letter of (bit of) Soul

7a    Primate called on phone at centre (5)
 ORANG
RANG (called) next to (on) the middle letter of (… at centre) phOne

9a    Sparkling wine woodworker picked up (4)
 CAVA
CARVER (woodworker), sound-alike (picked up)

10a   Being philanthropic is a real bitch, sadly (10)
 CHARITABLE
A REAL BITCH, anagrammed (sadly)

11a   Landlord in Cleese remake (8)
 LICENSEE
An anagram (remake) of IN CLEESE

12a   Former Tory leader Bowles regularly praises (6)
 EXTOLS
EX (former) + the first letter of (leader of) Tory + bOwLeS regularly

14a   Drink in the morning is something non-pro players do (2-4)
 AM-DRAM
Whimsically, you could call a morning tot an AM DRAM

16a   Fancy fool meeting with you and your setter (6)
 ASSUME
ASS (fool) + U (you) and ME (your setter)

18a   German article about private’s depressing experience (6)
 DOWNER
DER (German article) around (about) OWN (private)

19a   Tag prison’s given to backsliding English chap (8)
 NICKNAME
NICK (prison) + the reversal of (backsliding) E (English) and MAN (chap)

22a   Contemptuous teacher I have on flipping side … mostly (10)
 DISMISSIVE
MISS (teacher) and I’VE (I have) on backwards (flipping) SIDe without the last letter (mostly)

24a   West opened with lead of trumps for partner (4)
 MATE
MAE (West) with the insertion of (opened with) the first letter of (lead of) Trumps

25a   Girl, head of Openbank, that might hold bit of stock (5)
 LASSO
LASS (girl) + the head of Openbank

26a   Large person bringing home bacon for schoolboy? (7)
 LEARNER
L (large) + EARNER (person bringing home bacon)

 

Down

1d    A jolly old fellow in Battle (10)
 ARMAGEDDON
A + RM (jolly, slang for a Royal Marine) + AGED (old) + DON (fellow)

2d    Foremost of shorts-wearers doesn’t own trousers (6)
 SLACKS
The first letter (foremost) of Shorts-wearers + LACKS (doesn’t own)

3d    Criminal has dame overcome with guilt (7)
 ASHAMED
An anagram of (criminal) HAS DAME

4d    Trees in fresco needing to be touched up (8)
 CONIFERS
IN FRESCO is anagrammed (needing to be touched up)

5d    Talk about start of affair? It’s a long story! (4)
 SAGA
GAS (talk) reversed (about) + the start of Affair

6d    Hoskins is getting train (north-bound) for foreign resort (5)
 MIAMI
I’M (Hoskins is) and AIM (train, as in aiming/training a weapon) going upwards in the grid (north-bound)

8d    Strong wind engulfing priest around region abroad (7)
 GALILEE
GALE (strong wind) surrounding (engulfing) ELI (priest) backwards (about)

13d   Contest rent with amount written in error (10)
 TOURNAMENT
An anagram of (… written in error) RENT with AMOUNT

14d   A party, but avoiding contact with others (7)
 ASOCIAL
A + SOCIAL (party)

15d   Having stolen ball, Athletic supporters in scrape (8)
 ABRASION
After taking in (having stolen) O (ball), A (athletic) + BRAS (supporters) + IN

17d   Sort of rifle nurse found on battleground (7)
 ENFIELD
EN (nurse) found on FIELD (battleground)

20d   Old leader could be usurper, you say? (6)
 CAESAR
This (at least to an English speaker) sounds like (… you say?) SEIZER (usurper)

21d   Car space entered by Ford model (after reversing) (5)
 MOTOR
ROOM (space) entered by T (Ford model) after reversing

23d   Bang your head mildly on shell housing at the front (4)
 MOSH
Initial letters of (… at the front) Mildly On Shell Housing

 

8 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,742 by Hoskins”

  2. Thanks for a fun puzzle, Hoskins,

    And thanks for the blog, Kitty – especially the pictures, which made me laugh, but also for explaining 6d, which confused me because I broke it down as I MAIM and couldn’t see how train meant maim… doh!

  3. I printed this out, enjoyed solving it, got distracted, and now I can’t find my answers 🙁

    So I’ll just say many thanks as ever to Hoskins for the fun and to Kitty, especially for the cat pictures.

  4. Yes, this one was a bit more SOBER than we’re used to from Hoskins. Still, enjoyable as ever with clear definitions and wordplay, though I took a while to cotton on to MIAMI as a ‘foreign resort’. My favourites were the surfaces for CHARITABLE and NICKNAME. Thanks to FrankieG @1 for the interesting ASS U ME background.

    Thanks also to Kitty for blog (plus pics) and to Hoskins

  6. Looking at Harry’s Nina, it’s apparent that he’s missing good old Mrs J and her supply of Babycham – maybe a replacement trolley dolly would be in order? Kitty has done her level best this morning to comfort him with some of her feline friends, I do hope he appreciates the gesture.
    Another enjoyable Sunday romp although have to say that I don’t associate MOSH with banging one’s head – live and learn! Tops for me were CHARITABLE, AM-DRAM & NICKNAME.

    Thanks to Hoskins and to Miss K for the review and pusskins.

  7. Loved MOSH, probably the only sort of dancing I’d have been any good at, if it had been around in the 60s. ORANG only works for me if it’s referring to humans as primates (which they are of course) as the word on its own means ‘person’ in Malay, while ‘orang utan’ means ‘forest person’. Thanks Hoskins and Kitty, great stuff.

  8. Thanks Hoskins for the Sunday treat. I managed to solve and parse everything so this must have been on the gentle side. My top picks were CAVA, MATE, LEARNER, and ARMAGEDDON. I half expected complaints about the CAVA/carver homophone but then I realised that I wasn’t on a Guardian blog. Thanks Kitty for great pictures — I recall having seen the Tuxedo & wine glass before and I hope to see it many more times.

Comments are closed.