Independent 12,160 by Hoskins

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I found this of medium difficulty with some easy starter clues and a few that required a bit of thought.

I liked 21D for the novel way of indicating containment and 23D for the brevity of the def.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
7 ASIA
Vast amount of land found back in Faisalabad (4)

Hidden, rev in Faisalabad
8 RIB TICKLER
Clerk Brit annoyed with one amusing joke (3-7)

(Clerk Brit + i)*
10 TREBLE
Large drink and shake maiden polished off (6)

Tre[m]ble(=m{aiden} removed, abbrev from cricket maiden over)
11 OXTONGUE
Overseer primarily gets cross with language in plant (8)

O[verseer] + x(=cross) + tongue(=language)
12 INDECENT
One polite around knight being licentious (8)

(I + polite(=decent)) around N(=knight in chess)
13 RIPPLE
Wave of resistance milk outlet initially ignored (6)

R{esistance} + [n]ipple(=milk outlet)
15 MEDICINE CHEST
Chic items need reorganising in drug store (8,5)

(Chic items need)*
18 SCARAB
Small vehicle: a black Beetle (6)

S{mall} + car(=vehicle) + a b{lack}
20 PERVERSE
A part of a poem is deliberately wicked (8)

Per(=a) + verse(=part of a poem)
22 HAIRGRIP
One fixing locks in hotel feeling spasm of pain (8)

H{otel}(=abbrev from phonetic alphabet) + air(=feeling) + grip(=spasm of pain)
24 TITIAN
Chap who had a brush with one punching heavyweight (6)

I in Titan(=heavyweight). Titian was an Italian painter.
25 MONTSERRAT
Island resort man fixed up close to Phuket (10)

(Resort man)* + [Phuke]t
26 OPEN
Somewhere to go around with nurse in public (4)

Po<(=somewhere to go to the toilet) + EN(=enrolled nurse)
DOWN
1 ASTRONOMIC
Enormous Roman Stoic must get into shape (10)

(Roman stoic)*
2 NAN BREAD
Old relative given cash for food (3,5)

Nan(=grandmother) + bread(=slang for cash)
3 BREEZE
British become paralysed after female released wind (6)

B{ritish) + [f]reeze
4 HISTORIC
Famous drunken outburst about IS by curt conservative (8)

Hic(=drunken outburst) around (IS + tor[y])
5 SKIN UP
Son and family at university prepare a joint (4,2)

S{on} + kin(=family) + up(=at university). Skin up is a slang term for rolling a cannabis joint.
6 MENU
List of people appearing near end of Nosferatu (4)

Men(=people) + [Nosferat]u
9 BLOTTING PAPER
Big plan potter set out is absorbing stuff (8,5)

(Big plan potter)*
14 LOTUS EATER
Hedonist true to ales will get hammered (5-5)

(True to ales)*
16 CABERNET
Red piece of tree trunk seen by Seine, perhaps (8)

Caber(=tree trunk piece) + net(=seen by Seine). I'm not sure what the second half is getting at – possibly it means a net to catch fish might be seen by the Seine. The def refers to red wine.
17 ERECTION
Engineers returning unopened part for building (8)

RE<(=Royal Engineers)+[s]ection
19 RARITY
Institute opening right painterly collector’s item? (6)

I{nstitute) in(=opening) (r{ight} + arty(=painterly))
21 ROTATE
Turn in books confiscated by judge (6)

OT(=Old Testament books) in(=confiscated by) rate(=judge)
23 ATOP
On a vessel, taking a northern course (4)

A + pot<(=vessel)

5 comments on “Independent 12,160 by Hoskins”

  1. Seine in 16d is a misleading capitalisation. Seine is a type of fishing net.
    I thought the lining up of solutions in column 12 was, appropriately, 12 🙂

  2. I think CABERNET is making use of a seine net: A large vertical fishing-net whose ends are brought together and hauled (also seine net) acc to Chambers. I feared I was going to be undone at the last when I couldn’t think of flowers other than ox-eye daisy, oxlip and oxalis and I was seeking a specific language. A last minute PDM when TONGUE came to mind.

    Hoskins not being too INDECENT today: HAIRGRIP, TITIAN and ROTATE my podium.

    Thanks both

  3. Great fun as ever from Harry. Thanks to my sheltered past, I had never heard of SKIN UP. The things you learn from solving cryptic crosswords! I also didn’t know that SEINE could be a type of net. However, I found both in Chambers.

    My top picks were RIPPLE, SCARAB, PERVERSE, TITIAN, NAN BREAD & CABERNET.

    Many thanks to Hoskins and to Neal.

  4. Kmew about seine nets but totally forgot sbout caber tossing, so cabernet went in with a shrug. No other dnks. Hic the drunk’s outburst was cute. Cheers to Hoskins and Neil

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