It’s Sunday and Hoskins is in the room, expect sex, drugs and rock and roll
Indeed we did get them, around the grid is a Nina KICK AGAINST THE PRICKS with is a quote from the bible book ACTS and the name of the third album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Quite why he’s chosen it is beyond me right now. Thanks Harry
ACROSS
6. Hit single by popular tenor and Love (3,4)
RUN INTO
RUN – single in cricket & IN popular & T(enor) & O – love, zero
7. Titan unfortunately shrouds side of Tethys (5)
ATLAS
9. Seductive singer stripping off northern father (4)
SIRE
10. Denying oneself gin? Bang tea on! (10)
ABNEGATING
ON can mean drunk so [GIN BANG TEA]*
11. Judge about to imprison German horseman (6)
KNIGHT
G(erman) inside a reversed THINK – judge
13. Motorway and a river ring a foreign resort (8)
MARBELLA
M(otorway) & A & R(iver) & BELL – ring & A
14. American bum kidnaps Latin family (4)
CLAN
CAN is apparently the buttocks with L(atin) inserted
16. Daughter gets shot then eats hot dog (5)
DINGO
D(aughter) & IN – hot & GO – shot
17. Opponent in top shape cut by heartless nut (4)
ANTI
A heartless N(u)T inside A-1 top shape
18. Refurbish diner vet turned upside down (8)
INVERTED
19. Chaps on bit of Benzedrine about to get port (6)
BREMEN
B(enzedrine) & RE – about & MEN – chaps
21. Fairly-priced ales on bar drunk by English (10)
REASONABLE
A drunk [ALES ON BAR]* & E(nglish)
23. Topless harlots in etching and painting? (4)
ARTS
24. Breakfast? Little drink with a drop of sherry in it! (5)
TOAST
A & S(herry) in TOT – small drink
25. Fixed idea old boy expressed in boozy binge (7)
SESSION
O(ld) B(oy) removed from (ob)SESSION
DOWN
1. Drugs ultimately wanton king rolled in joint (4)
KNEE
2 x E – drugs & end of (wanto)N & K(ing) all reversed – rolled
2. Congress introducing new law unamended? (6)
INTACT
N(ew) in IT – sex, congress & ACT – law
3. One pinched by criminal? (4)
COIN
I inside CON and odd possible all in one definition
4. Go out with anorak and jumper (8)
KANGAROO
5. Everybody hates me for demolishing still (3,3,4)
ALL THE SAME
ALL – everyone & a demolished [HATES ME]*
6. You have to say check time the PM’s in power? (5)
REIGN
8. Perhaps measure of gin and it in the end is top (7)
SINGLET
SINGLE – spirit measure & end of (i)T
12. Biscuit and red juice 11 tucks into (10)
GINGERSNAP
GINGER – red & 11 = knight or N in chess notation inside SAP for juice
13. My boss, being sat on by geezer, is shocked! (5)
MANED
Shocked as in hair, MAN – geezer & ED a setter’s boss
15. Fast to save island nurse, showing mercy (7)
LENIENT
I(sland) & EN – nurse all in LENT – fast
16. Set off at ten with doe in need of treatment (8)
DETONATE
19. Bust leader of assassins in French port (6)
BREAST
Lead letter of A(ssassins) inside the port BREST
20. Had board elected all the eccentric nobs at summit? (5)
EATEN
Primary letters of Elected All The Eccentric Nobs
22. Party drug makes head go blue initially (4)
BASH
HASH – pot, cannabis with the first letter changed to B(lue)
23. A large one gets foremost of topers settled (4)
ALIT
A & L(arge) & I &T(opers)
Tricky for me/satisfying to complete. Hoskins aint just sex, drugs and rock n roll. Thanks for the blog for help with a couple of parsings and the great nina (love the sound of the quote although never quite sure what it mean). BASH (smooth surface), SINGLET (the ‘and it’ led me astray), and KNEE (thanks to the blog for the rolling material) among my favourites. Liked ‘think’ for ‘judge’ and ‘expressed’ for ‘omit’ in SESSION. Thanks very much flashling and Hoskins.
Not a satisfying solve for me I am afraid. Too many “well I suppose it must be” answers. Some lovely surfaces but too many other clues required stretches that could only possibly be parsed retroactively.
A diverting solve but I would prefer more convolution and fewer tenuous definitions. Probably just me…
Thanks Hoskins and flashling
Good fun as ever, but I am utterly unconvinced by the use of ON as an anagram indicator. Chambers says it is slang for “on the way to being drunk” and Collins says it is an Australian expression for drinking alcoholic liquor (usually followed by it).
Thanks to Hoskins and to flashling.
Typical Hoskins fare and reasonably accessible though I struggled at the end with the interlinked ABNEGATING (where I did not recognise ‘on’ as an angrind) and SINGLET; funnily enough, both clues containing ‘gin’. I’m intrigued by the def for REIGN – does a PM reign? Chambers defines the term specifically with relation to a monarch and, whilst some PM’s have acted as if they were royal, I can’t recall a premiership being defined as a reign. MARBELLA and KANGAROO my faves.
Thanks Hoskins and flashling
Thanks both. So CLAN has educated me that in the US ‘can’ may mean prison, toilet, and buttocks, so I’ll remember not to ask directions. Per Rabbit Dave@3 ‘on’ will never mean drunk to me, and I have more words for being so than the Americans have meanings for can, but I have learned to regard any word in a clue as a potential anagrind just in case. We’re off to Aus & NZ in November, so appetising to see DINGO and KANGAROO as well as the Nick Cave album in there.
Had to smile – only ‘arry would find that particular biblical phrase and use it to his advantage! Like others, I struggled with ‘on’ as an anagram indicator and also gave him a rather larger measure of gin for his top until 7a showed the error of my ways. My favourite was the old boy being left out of the boozy binge.
Thanks to Hoskins and to flashling for the review – can’t say I’ve ever heard of the band you mentioned but perhaps it is one that our setter would know about – he has a rather ‘different’ taste when it comes to music genres!
This might be the third Nick Cave themed puzzle in the last couple of years. One by Hoskins himself (a Murder Ballads/Stagger Lee special) and another by Serpent. But the Nina today could also be a nod to Johnny Cash
Thanks to Hoskins and flashling
Thanks for explaining SESSION. I could see it was the solution but didn’t know why.
I heard a good Nick Cave tune once. Probably on Peel’s nightly show. Could never find it again. Guess I was just back from the pub and anything sounded great.
Thanks Hoskins and flashling.
It’s interesting how different we all are, ABNEGATING was my first in as an obvious anagram. I completed the LHS and then bottom right steadily, then finally, much slower, the top right.
Thank you to flashling and Hopkins.
Any significance to EAGLE down col.9? Thanks H and F!
@10 good question, to be honest I’d not seen that. We’ll need Harry to answer that.
Thanks Hoskins and flashing. Great stuff. I never knew that kicking against the pricks was biblical. I always thought it came from CJ (Great! Super!). In the last few seconds of this YouTube compendium …
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjS9Y3Y3diEAxUjQkEAHf4wCF4QtwJ6BAgXEAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DR5Os_SrLJ0w&usg=AOvVaw3In12ff44crGU2DE2g1b1o&opi=89978449
What with one thing and another, I didn’t get to start this till late and then surprised myself by getting all but one answer very quickly. In the end, I couldn’t see 3dn so didn’t finish.