I rarely seem to draw a Hoskins on blogging day, but it’s certainly a relief after two Nimrods on the trot.
It officially being Remembrance Sunday, I did wonder whether we might see a theme. The first two clues, along with the week’s political events might have suggested a different one, but as far as I can see, there didn’t seem to be one after all.
Just an enjoyable solve with some really nice moments that raised a chuckle when the penny dropped: MARINER, FACTORIES and MANGLER in particular hit that spot for me.
| Across | ||
| 1 | WALLIAMS | Islam and law reviewed in Camp David? (8) |
| Anagram of (ISLAM + LAW)*. Haha, OK. David Walliams, a comedian known for playing on his own natural campness. | ||
| 5 | UPSHOT | Totally knackered after winning result (6) |
| UP + SHOT. | ||
| 10 | SARACEN | Hospital screening career rugby player? (7) |
| RACE in SAN. | ||
| 11 | MARINER | One in a fleet entering foreign sea? (7) |
| (I in (A + RN)) in MER. “Mer” is French for “sea”, and this was quite a nice &lit, I thought. | ||
| 12 | EWES | Sheep? There are two in Nauru, I’m told (4) |
| Sounds like (the letter) “Us”, of which there are indeed two in the word “Nauru”. | ||
| 13 | CLASSIFIED | As CID files, possibly (10) |
| Anagram of (AS CID FILES)*, and a nice &lit. | ||
| 15 | WHISKERED | Where kids struggled with mutton chops? (9) |
| Anagram of (WHERE KIDS)*. | ||
| 16 | SUEDE | Material from kids brought round in hearing (5) |
| Sounds like “swayed”. Kids as in baby goats. | ||
| 18 | LOTUS | A great deal to secure you a fast car (5) |
| U in LOTS. To be pedantic, perhaps the “U” could have been signposted as textspeak or otherwise informal, but that said, it probably wouldn’t have done the surface reading any favours. | ||
| 19 | FACTORIES | Nothing about May’s party works (9) |
| FA + C + TORIES. I’ll spare sensitive readers’ blushes by not expanding the first acronym there. | ||
| 21 | OSCAR WILDE | Writer Mark Reckless found in empty office (5,5) |
| (SCAR + WILD) in O[ffic]E. | ||
| 23 | HISS | Derisive noise that man’s trousers initially smothered (4) |
| S[mothered] in HIS. | ||
| 26 | LEG SPIN | It might make a ball break off three stumps! (3,4) |
| LEGS + PIN. The “off” side and the “leg” side are one and the same in cricket, though I only know that from crosswords. | ||
| 27 | ICELAND | Country shop that sold knackered horses? (7) |
| I’ll choose my words carefully here. I think this is two definitions here, since the frozen food chain Iceland may or may not have been implicated in the 2013 horse meat scandal, though a cursory spot of googling doesn’t really turn up anything concrete on the matter. | ||
| 28 | DESIRE | Long for wage rise director holds back (6) |
| Hidden and reversed in [wag]E RISE D[irector]. | ||
| 29 | HELL-BENT | Utterly determined underworld criminal (4-4) |
| HELL + BENT. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | WASTE | Rubbish violin part heard on the radio (5) |
| It sounds like “waist”, which is the middle of the violin that goes in a bit, similar to a human waist, though perhaps not mine. | ||
| 2 | LARCENIST | Criminal certain to nick shilling after pound? (9) |
| L + (S in CERTAIN*). | ||
| 3 | ITCH | Long letter needing its introduction cut (4) |
| [a]ITCH. | ||
| 4 | MANGLER | One likely to ruin married line manager? (7) |
| M + ANGLER. | ||
| 6 | PER MISSION | Sanction how mercenaries might be paid (10) |
| PER MISSION. | ||
| 7 | HINDI | High-definition screens popular with one foreign-language speaker (5) |
| (IN in HD) + I. | ||
| 8 | TIREDNESS | Sex brought about visible inflammation and fatigue (9) |
| IT< + REDNESS. | ||
| 9 | AMUSED | A thought entertained (6) |
| A + MUSED. | ||
| 14 | SKYSCRAPER | Tall building editor evacuated after dogfight? (10) |
| SKY SCRAP + E[dito]R. | ||
| 15 | WELL-OILED | Drunk, but not making a squeak? (4-5) |
| Two definitions. | ||
| 17 | ELIMINATE | Take out china after priest comes round at home (9) |
| ELI + (IN in MATE). | ||
| 19 | FRIEND | Addict knocking back bar’s last Bud (6) |
| [ba]R in FIEND. “Bud” as in “buddy”. | ||
| 20 | CODEINE | Drug a German injected into Morse? (7) |
| EIN in CODE. | ||
| 22 | CAGES | Wire prisons about son receiving time (5) |
| AGE in (C + S. | ||
| 24 | SADAT | Old statesman unhappy thanks to U-turn (5) |
| SAD + TA<. Anwar Sadat was president of Egypt until his assassination in 1981. | ||
| 25 | MEAL | Strike the centre of gong for dinner? (4) |
| ME[d]AL. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations
I got a chuckle from WALLIAMS and FACTORIES. I hadn’t heard of either the ICELAND supermarket chain, or the horse-meat scandal (wrong side of the world) but got it from the definition and crossers.
Like Simon, I’ve learnt a lot of cricket terminology from crosswords. As for the seemingly obligatory reference to a football club, manager or player, I’m often at a loss. I eventually figured out SARACEN from the wordplay then had to check its connection to RU.
Thanks Hoskins and Simon.
Furtively checking the cricket score st 5a.m. I noticed the puzzle was on-line. 1ac a LOL moment at just the wrong time. Oh well….. I liked FACTORIES as well, I fully expect Cyclops to use it in the Eye soon. Thanks Hoskins & Simon.
Missed David WALLIAMS (though shouldn’t have) and didn’t know anything about the horse meat scandal. I liked the CLASSIFIED &lit, LEG SPIN and MANGLER with plenty of other clues also raising a smile. Sorry, being picky again, but I think def for 16 is ‘Material from kids’ (not all underlined), as you then do suggest in your explanation.
A pleasant Sunday afternoon solve. Thanks to Hoskins and Simon
Thanks Simon. The usual ingenious misdirection from this setter, with at least one laugh out loud in 19a.
Am I missing something? I thought skye was the dog, not sky. Glad to be corrected though.
For us fans, we get a double Hoskins treat today, because he has set today’s Sunday Times cryptic.
Ignore my query about sky.
My significant other has just explained (with a slightly unnecessary smidge of condescension I thought) what the dog fight actually is.
Query 7D. Hindi is the language, a Hindu a foreign-language speaker.
gwep @6
That was my immediate reaction, but under ‘Hindi’ Collins gives “a person whose native language is Hindi”.
great puzzle, lorra laffs.
Thanks to Hoskins & Simon
I really enjoyed this one from Hoskins. Pretty much in the IoS style (ie not impossible), but with some smiles along the way. I was another who liked WALLIAMS, and I thought PERMISSION was also cleverly clued.
I’ll fess up to being in the same care home for the bewildered that Conrad was in when it came to SKYSCRAPERS. Now that I’ve got it, I’ll add that to my list of favourites.
Bravo, Hoskins, and thanks to Simon for the blog.
Thanks, Simon – you’ve earned this one!
It’s great to start with a laugh and I just loved Camp David. Lots of wit all the way through, as we expect from this setter – great cluing altogether.
Many thanks to Hoskins for another most enjoyable puzzle
Can someone explain 26ac pls? Contrary to the blog, “off” and “leg” are opposites in cricket, not synonymous. And how does “three stumps” parse to LEGS + PIN ?
Geebs @11
LEG SPIN is the spin imparted to a ball to cause a leg break, which is a ball that breaks from the legside towards the offside on pitching.
Most of us have two legs (stumps) so with a pin (stump) you end up with ‘three stumps’.
Gaufrid .. thanks. I was familiar with the meaning, and behaviour, of leg-break, just correcting the blog reference.
I still struggle with “legs” and “stumps” being synonymous. I don’t think I ever heard of a leg referred to as such, except in the case of amputation, which strikes me as a very singular instance.
Geebs
Both Chambers and Collins give “leg (facetious)” under ‘stump’ and the latter goes further by adding “informal” and “often plural”.
Geebs, following on from Gaufrid’s comment, I’ve heard ‘stir your stumps’ as an encouragement to a child to get out of bed in the morning.
Really enjoyed this which I did on a train with the assistance of the drinks trolley. Many moons ago Gaufrid told me off over the FA bit and told me to use Fanny Adams!
Gaufrid and K’s D …. thanks, had never come across that meaning.
Many thanks to SH for the excellent blog (with added loveliness on the hovering abbreviation front), and to all who solved and/or took the time to comment with such kind words. Cheers also to Gaufrid, KD and CC’s other half for clearing up further questions of def or parsing – much appreciated on all fronts.
Now, at this particular juncture it is traditional for me to seek the fabled Fifteen Squared drinks trolley for a post-pub[lication] snifter – however, it looks like Phil’s only gone and eloped with it and, according to my sources, both were last seen on the 15:32 to Gretna Green hand in metallic handle being chased by a somewhat rightly incensed Mrs Flashing.
With a turn of events as dry as this, what’s a setter partial to a bevvie to do? Well, never fear for luckily I snarfed thirty miniatures (all the good stuff: Tia Maria, Baileys, Pina Colada etc) from a hotel minibar at the York sloggers and betters do the other week and so, if anyone can supply the trolley, the rolling bar of the liquid good stuff is back on the cards and the drinks are on me!
Cheers and chin-chin to all … 🙂
Very late to the party – just catching up after a long weekend away – but can’t resist for the benefit(?) of those who didn’t know about the horsemeat scandal the joke common at the time:
Q: What cheese do Iceland use in their lasagne?
A: Mascarpone!
I’ll get my coat…