Independent 9,453 by Hoskins

by

Last time around Hoskins was well oiled, a much more sober affair today.

Still fun though, not the hardest I’ve done- there’s no Nimrod like gaps of “how on earth does that work”?

Bit of nicely misdirected wordplay e.g. 12a.

Thanks Harry.

completed grid

Across

1 Poetic line one clad in Lycra mangled (7)
LYRICAL
L(ine) & 1 inside a mangled LYCRA*

5 In conversation, mock old man boobs (4,3)
FAUX PAS
Sounds like Faux (fake) & PA

9 Ring model about someone in a rush? (4,5)
GOLD MINER
After the gold rush and all that. [RING MODEL]* about

10 Weight? Well, I’m a big-boned beast! (5)
WHALE
W(eight) & HALE (well)

11 A certain aside never to be repeated (3-3)
ONE-OFF
ONE (certain) & OFF (a side). Not really happy withh this clue

12 Abandoned on account of rice wine? Not initially (8)
FORSAKEN
Sneaky misdirection in the wordplay here. FOR (on account of) & SAKE (rice wine) & N(ot) initially

14 One seen cruising room with chatty cast (5,5)
MOTOR YACHT
[ROOM CHATTY]* cast

16 Darling times entertaining a bishop (4)
BABY
A & B(ishop) in BY (times)

18 Take breath away by giving two veg a twist (4)
STUN
Just the two veg reversed rather than the “meat and” this time

19 Animal picking up icepack for jaw-leading boxer? (10)
CHINCHILLA
Will the ice pack could well be a chin chiller, Not too sure about the boxer bit here,My grid at the time contained _ H _ _ _  H _ _ _ _ and I thought of Boxer as a shire horse and wasted no end of time going down unparseable alleyways

22 A little bounder in a cravat (5,3)
ASCOT TIE
A & a little SCOTTIE dog

23 A jolly female you left close to a pint for Tony? (6)
ARMFUL
A & R(oyal) M(arine) & F(email) & U (txt speak) & L(eft) Definition refers to Tony Hancock and the the blood donor sketch

26 Gut-churning gas, heading to dunny a lot (2,3)
NO END
NEON with its guts churned & D(unny)

27 Different insult, standard answer: t***e*! (9)
DISPARATE
DIS (insult) & PAR (standard) & A(nswer) & T & E

28 Really striking Liberal integrity (7)
HONESTY
L(iberal) removed from HONEST(l)Y

29 He’s one to detail meteorological forces (7)
ELEMENT
He = Helium. A de-tailed ELEMENT(s)

Down

1 Space for members the French prepare (7)
LEGROOM
Members as in legs – LE (the french) & GROOM

2 Queen enjoy sending up Independent writer (5)
RILKE
R(egina) & LIKE with the I(ndependent) sent up a bit

3 A blaze outside the tents affected passion (8)
CAMPFIRE
CAMP (affected) & FIRE (passion)

4 City taking possession of a new Turner? (4)
LANA
A & N(ew) in L.A. Lana Turner

5 Free love should carry a short warning (3,7)
FOR NOTHING
FOR(e) a short warning & NOTHING (love)

6 Ill-advised popgun wiseguy’s packing (6)
UNWISE
A hidden packing answer

7 Spooner says “wind up McCartney” – with this, perhaps (5,4)
PRANK CALL
Spoonerism of a CRANK (wind up) PAUL

8 Sentry head of logistics treated harshly (7)
STERNLY
[SENTRY & L(ogistics)]* treated

13 24hrs in which Bob is all over the place? (3,4,3)
BAD HAIR DAY
Cryptic def

15 Con hunter twirling this? (9)
TRUNCHEON
Well it is [CON HUNTER]* twirling.  &lit like clue

17 Want wordplay that leads the solver to silver? (8)
SHORTAGE
A short ag(e) would lead to AG for silver

18 Faceless corporation behind small-town firm (7)
STAUNCH
S(mall) & T(own) & a faceless (p)AUNCH (stomach, corporation)

20 Menial labours beginning in the cold? (7)
AILMENT
MENIAL* labouring & the beginning of T(he)

21 Baptist regularly drinking rum in conflict (2,4)
AT ODDS
ODD (rum) in even letters of bApTiSt

24 Celebrity cuddling large lover (5)
FLAME
L(arge) in FAME

25 Perhaps a key passage missing its introduction (4)
ISLE
A missing from  (a)ISLE

11 comments on “Independent 9,453 by Hoskins”

  2. Can’ help feeling there’s a lot more going on in 27, DISPARATE then just the TE at the end. Hoskins seems very pleased with it.

  3. Thinking aloud: I was looking for a substitution of T for G in DISPARAGE. But p’raps Flashy is right and it’s just TOSSER without the asterisks. Which wd be slightly disappointing…

  4. Quite a struggle, LOI 23A after I gave in, forgetting the meaning of “jolly”. Also wanted to enter DISPARAGE, but would only parse (sort of) with DISPARATE. No clue about the end of the wordplay other than it provided the final letters of the answer.

    Wouldn’t 5A read better if it was “old man’s”? The French pronunciation and spelling of faux pas is the same whether similar or plural, but in English if we said “numerous faux pas” we would pronounce the second word as “pa’s”.

    19A I assume that a boxer who led with his chin would cop sufficient punishment and bruising to that feature to require an ice pack as a chin chiller.

    These are some of my queries about this puzzle, entertaining overall, SE corner was the problem for me.

    Thanks to Hoskins and flashling.

  5. I agree with Flashling’s explanation of DISPARATE. A similar device was used in Saturday’s Guardian prize puzzle: “With ‘P*** off!’, clergyman gives offence.” I suppose the weakness with t***e* is that if it were censored, it would be t***** or t****r, which I’m sure Hoskins would have considered. Still an amusing clue though, and a clever and funny puzzle. I enjoyed the man boobs in FAUX PAS (if the clue had been worded to sound out the plural S, there would have been complaints from the other direction, so the setter can’t win). Not a fan of most Spoonerisms, but PRANK CALL was ace, with the happy coincidence of “wind-up”.

    Thanks to Hoskins and Flashling.

  6. Wrong-footed for ages in the NE corner having put OUNCE for 10ac – not that a snow leopard is particularly big-boned – which wouldn’t cross with UNWISE. Then I saw FORSAKEN and it clicked. Which then left the SE corner, but after a couple of ‘aha’ moments (RM for ‘jolly’ and He as an ELEMENT) that was eventually completed too.

    One or two clues I wasn’t totally happy with – for instance why should a scottie necessarily be a bounder? I can think of other animals that fit the description better. But maybe it was a misdirection to make us think of ‘cad’.

    Lots to like, though, AT ODDS, BAD HAIR DAY and PRANK CALL included, but my CoD (showing my age, no doubt) was ARMFUL.

    Thanks, Hoskins and flashling.

  7. Re 19A I took picking up to mean chilla sounds like chiller. Could Hoskins explain please. Any connection to the boxer China Smith ?

    Some really good clues plus a few which didn’t entirely convince .

    Thanks to Hoskins and Flashling

  8. @Kryptickate Yes, “picking up” or similar are often used as homophone indicators and yes I forgot to mention that bit. 🙂

  9. A boxer who’s prone to being knocked out by a shot to the chin, or who doesn’t adequately protect his chin, is sometimes known as “chinny”, but I don’t see how this parses with the rest of the clue …

  11. Many thanks to The Flash for the blog and to all who commented and solved, always appreciated.

    GB, prepare to be … disappointed! KK, no relation to China Smith in the boxing clue (Gwep @4 has my intended meaning). I was a little concerned one of the southern corners of the grid would be tough and should’ve easied up a clue or two down there to help out. Still like the ‘little bounder’ for Scottie, but agree with Mr C that it wasn’t the most helpful.

    Many thanks again to all and look forward to seeing you next time around. Now, where’s that drinks trolley …

    P.S my numerical captcha to post this comment is nine x ____ = 63 … hardest ever so far (though the sun is over the yard arm though). What next? Equations?! 🙂

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