Hypnos occupies the mid-week slot this week – he’s been setting for the Indy for almost 10 years now, but mainly on Sundays – this is only our 2nd blog of one of his puzzles.
We’ve always found Hypnos puzzles enjoyable and relatively straightforward, with good clear clueing and very few unusual words, and this was no exception. We struggled a bit more than we had expected in the left-hand side of the grid, but it all eventually fell into place satisfactorily.
We were a bit uncertain about ‘new’ as a synonym for ‘strange’ in 26ac, but it is in Chambers, so we can’t complain.
| Across | ||
| 1 | Former prisoner has to do it? (8) | |
| SOMETIME | A prisoner has to do SOME TIME | |
| 5 | Outcome of lob in tennis? (6) | |
| UPSHOT | A lob in tennis is a SHOT in an UPward direction | |
| 9 | Ill-repute is harboured by Washington Republican? Correct (9) | |
| DISCREDIT | IS in or ‘harboured by’ DC (Washington) + R (Republican) EDIT (correct) | |
| 11 | Snare readily recalled close to hedge (5) | |
| NOOSE | SOON (readily) reversed or ‘recalled’ + E (last letter or ‘close’ to ‘hedge’) | |
| 12 | Chicago visitor might go so for a disc (7) | |
| ROUNDEL | The EL is an elevated railway in Chicago in the shape of a loop, so it is possible to go ROUND it as a visitor (although you’d have to change lines to do a complete circuit) | |
| 13 | Caribbean maiden with sulky expression gets to lose nerve (4,3) | |
| WIMP OUT | WI (West Indies – ‘Caribbean’) M (maiden) POUT (sulky expression) | |
| 14 | Article with line about Greek meal prepared for powerful politician (6,6) | |
| ANGELA MERKEL | AN (article) L (line) round an anagram of GREEK MEAL – anagrind is ‘prepared’ | |
| 18 | Fear short pun is flawed as evidence of linguistic ability (4,2,6) | |
| TURN OF PHRASE | An anagram of FEAR SHORT PUN – anagrind is ‘flawed’ | |
| 21 | Listen to security device after exchanging leads in hold (4,3) | |
| BEAR HUG | HEAR (listen to) BUG (security device) with the first letters swapped or ‘exchanged’ | |
| 22 | Disclosed revenue in part of film not broadcast (7) | |
| OUTTAKE | OUT (disclosed) TAKE (revenue) | |
| 24 | Expression that’s improvised in a German paper on reflection (2-3) | |
| AD-LIB | A + BILD (German paper) reversed or ‘on reflection’ | |
| 25 | Unusually rude worker covering new department no longer employed (9) | |
| REDUNDANT | An anagram of RUDE (anagrind is ‘unusually’) ANT (worker) round or ‘covering’ N (new) D (department) | |
| 26 | Mobile say not working kept by strange relative (6) | |
| NEPHEW | PH |
|
| 27 | Offence that’s major or minor type possibly when quietly ignored (8) | |
| ENORMITY | An anagram of MINOR TY |
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | Wasps, perhaps, stick round a minor route (4,4) | |
| SIDE ROAD | ‘Wasps’ is a Rugby team or SIDE + ROD (stick) around A | |
| 2 | Poorly interpret short film on court official (8) | |
| MISJUDGE | MIS |
|
| 3 | Grubby part of basement I redecorated (5) | |
| TIRED | Hidden in or ‘part of’ ‘basemenT I REDecorated’ | |
| 4 | Independent trader to get on back of dour administrative type (6,7) | |
| MIDDLE MANAGER | MIDDLEMAN (Independent trader) AGE (get on) R (last letter or ‘back’ of ‘dour’) | |
| 6 | It’s hung oddly amid ceremonial splendour in French hotel in capital (5,4) | |
| PHNOM PENH | H |
|
| 7 | Ring is seen on the wings of one bird (6) | |
| HOOPOE | HOOP (ring) + O |
|
| 8 | Versailles was noted for this feast before start of year (6) | |
| TREATY | TREAT (feast) Y (first letter or ‘start’ of ‘year’) – a reference to the Treaty of Versailles | |
| 10 | Note floor rotting around Western fellow in fortified landmark (5,2,6) | |
| TOWER OF LONDON | An anagram of NOTE FLOOR (anagrind is ‘rotting’) round W (western)
+ DON (fellow) |
|
| 15 | Label a hug that’s contrived as ridiculous (9) | |
| LAUGHABLE | An anagram of LABEL A HUG – anagrind is ‘contrived’ | |
| 16 | Dancer with partner snubbed by a women’s quarters barring male (4,4) | |
| MATA HARI | MAT |
|
| 17 | Small amount of money put in bank not long ago (8) | |
| RECENTLY | CENT (small amount of money) in RELY (bank) | |
| 19 | Get in boat at sea (6) | |
| OBTAIN | An anagram of IN BOAT – anagrind is ‘at sea’ | |
| 20 | Limit to endurance over work producing strike (6) | |
| WALLOP | WALL (limit to endurance, as in ‘hitting the wall’) OP (work) | |
| 23 | One, say, familiar with testing scales in fish, it’s said (5) | |
| TUNER | A homophone (‘it’s said’) of TUNA (fish) | |
I quite liked this. Thanks B&J
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Sue, Grabbitt and Run
Solicitors
Wednesdays are generally fairly easy but we found this needed a bit more thought than usual. Last one in was NOOSE after consulting a thesaurus and realising we’d spelt 6dn wrongly. And we hesitated a bit over MATA HARI as we weren’t familiar with the spelling ‘harim’ (but checking in Chambers we found ‘harem’, ‘haram’, ‘hareem’ and ‘harim’ as alternative spellings). Couldn’t parse MIDDLE MANAGER, either: we wondered if it had anything to do with Only Fools and Horses (Trotters Independent Traders &c) seeing ‘dle’ as an anagram of ‘Del’ (Boy) but that was really grasping at straws.
Several ‘of course!’ moments, including BEAR HUG and NEPHEW, but our favourite was ROUNDEL – seeing ‘Chicago’ in the clue immediately suggested the EL, even though we’ve never been there.
Thanks, Hypnos and B&J
I enjoyed this very much – there are some very nice surface readings. Wonder why 7d has turned out to be ‘setters “bird of the month”‘ ?
Thanks to Hypnos and B&J too
crypticsue@4 – Regarding 7d – having been threatened with court action – you may say that but we cannot possibly comment.
To Pierre’s legal team at 2:
Morning, vultures. *Image required*
Wasnt it Sue Grabbit and Runne-if my Eye memory serves me correctly.
Fine puzzle from Hypnos, whose offerings in the IoS slot I have always enjoyed.
HOOPOE was my favourite today.
Thanks, all three.
Copmus@7 – actually Grabbitt had 2 ‘t’s. (A pedant writes…..)
A slow start, only AD LIB on first pass through the across clues, but smooth progress after that apart from also being caught by the ‘harim’ spelling, and spent too long hunting for a dancing hare.
Thanks to S&B
Ah thanks B&J, I was stuck on manage=to get on for 4d. Actually I didn’t do very well although in retrospect everything was fairly clear -15d, really – maybe I’m just 3d. So I did 13a a bit earlier than usual, but the 5a is it looks like a great puzzle and An excellent blog, so many thanks Hypnos and thanks B&J.
The clues that appealed most to me were the simple ones, OBTAIN, TIRED, AD LIB, BEAR HUG, and more.