Tuesday fun from Hoskins, enjoyable as usual.
Hoskins’ surfaces here tend to suggest a familiarity with drink, drugs and rock’n’roll – all of which are common material in crossword clues.The last of these becomes more significant when you remember it’s Tuesday so there’s probably a theme to find. We’re looking at the Australian rock band NICK CAVE and the BAD SEEDS, with one of their albums MURDER BALLADS and the song STAGGER LEE; perhaps also the song Henry LEE. But like all good ghost themes, you don’t need to know any of that to solve the puzzle.
I liked the quirky definitions in 13a, 29a, 6d and 9d. Thanks Hoskins as always.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BUCKET |
Young dude in Hollywood with film container (6)
|
| BUCK (American slang, so “in Hollywood”, for a young man) + ET (the Spielberg film). | ||
| 4 | CLOSES UP |
SEAL at front that’s shot all over heals completely (6,2)
|
| Front letter of S[eal], surrounded by (all over) CLOSE-UP (shot = photograph). | ||
| 10 | BLOOD |
Family express disapproval at daughter snorting line (5)
|
| BOO (express disapproval) + D (daughter), containing (snorting = inhaling) L (line). | ||
| 11 | PREVALENT |
Stop to drink beer, mostly that’s extremely common (9)
|
| PREVENT (stop), containing (to drink) AL[e] (beer, mostly). | ||
| 12 | LOLLIPOP |
Lie about dad stealing one’s sweet (8)
|
| LOLL (lie about = relax lazily) + POP (dad = father), containing I (one in Roman numerals). | ||
| 13 | AGASSI |
Good dope inhaled by excellent old racketeer! (6)
|
| G (good) + ASS (dope = idiot), contained in (inhaled by) AI (A1 = excellent).
Andre Agassi, retired tennis player = old racketeer. |
||
| 14 | NICK |
Siren ultimately seedy, removing top to show bust (4)
|
| Last letter (ultimately) of [sire]N, then [s]ICK (seedy = unwell) without its first letter (top). Or perhaps without the first letter of S[how]? – I think it works either way. | ||
| 15 | BETTERMENT |
Chaps on the punt will get bit of tuition for it (10)
|
| Chaps on the punt = men betting (gambling) = BETTER MEN, then the first letter (a bit) of T[uition].
Extended definition: the point of tuition is betterment = making you better at something. |
||
| 18 | BUSHMASTER |
A hugely experienced topiarist? That’s Serpent! (10)
|
| Someone very experienced at topiary (training and trimming bushes into interesting shapes) might be called a BUSH MASTER.
Another name for Lachesis, a genus of vipers from Central and South America.The capital S misleads us into thinking of the crossword setter Serpent; see also 22d for a similar reference. |
||
| 20 | CAVE |
Beware of unfinished sparkling wine close to inebriate (4)
|
| CAV[a] (sparkling wine – in crosswords it’s usually either that or Asti) without its last letter (unfinished), then the closing letter of [inebriat]E.
Public-school slang for “beware” or “watch out”, from the Latin; there’s a mosaic at the entrance of a house in Pompeii that says CAVE CANEM = beware of the dog. |
||
| 23 | LUTIST |
Desire for Congress to arrest ‘Titanium’ musician (6)
|
| LUST (desire for sexual congress) containing (to arrest) TI (Ti = chemical symbol for titanium).
A lute-player, otherwise “lutenist” or “lutanist”. Some people get very worked up about which is the correct term; I’m not going there. |
||
| 25 | FIGURINE |
Reckon to have a hug of popular model of a man? (8)
|
| FIGURE (reckon = calculate) containing (hugging) IN (popular). | ||
| 26 | ADAPTABLE |
Easy-going couple of old men sent back food (9)
|
| PA + DA (two words for “father” = old man), reversed (sent back), then TABLE (food displayed on a table). | ||
| 28 | OUTRE |
Old, essentially drunk and very short as Hoskins? (5)
|
| O (old) + middle letter (essentially) of [dr]U[nk] + TRE[s] (French for “very”, but it seems to have been absorbed into English as a look-at-me-I’m-clever sort of word) without its last letter (short).
Outré (again from French) = eccentric or strange. Hoskins is describing himself; I couldn’t possibly comment. |
||
| 29 | STAMPEDE |
Step out with mad European in a beastly rush (8)
|
| Anagram (out) of STEP + MAD, then E = European.
Stampede = a lot of beasts rushing together. |
||
| 30 | MURDER |
Bloody spirit gone over because of this perhaps (6)
|
| RED (bloody) + RUM (strong drink = spirit), reversed (gone over). A bit of an old chestnut, but a useful word for the theme.
Extended definition: a spirit may “go over to the other side” as a result of a murder. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BABYLON |
Pint-sized idol finally performing in old city (7)
|
| BABY (pint-sized = small) + final letter of [ido]L + ON (performing). | ||
| 2 | CROMLECHS |
Cold gypsy with goat heading to see old Stones in the round (9)
|
| C (cold) + ROM (a gypsy man, or Romany) + LECH (short for lecher = goat = a lustful man) + heading letter of S[ee].
Ancient stone circles. |
||
| 3 | END PIN |
Nurse with dead leg (one supporting double bass) (3,3)
|
| EN (enrolled nurse) + D (d = dead) + PIN (slang for leg).
The metal spike on which a double bass stands while being played. |
||
| 5 | LEE |
High-kicking old star slippery type knocked up (3)
|
| EEL (slippery type) reversed (knocked up = upwards in a down clue).
Bruce Lee, actor and martial artist. |
||
| 6 | STAGGER |
Upset person puts on ace ‘Walk This Way’ when drunk! (7)
|
| EGG (slang for a person, as in “a good egg” = someone the speaker approves of), reversed (upset = upwards in a down clue), inserted into (puts on) STAR (ace = someone well-known as an expert). | ||
| 7 | SEEDS |
Sources close to Boris expect ‘EU done’ spiel at summits (5)
|
| Closing letter of [bori]S, then first letters (summits = tops, reading downwards in a down clue) of E[xpect] E[u] D[one] S[piel]. | ||
| 8 | PATRIOT |
Country lover and Irishman having port put on bit of Tammy (7)
|
| PAT (short for Patrick = stereotypical Irish name) + RIO (Rio de Janeiro = port city) + first letter (a bit) of T[ammy]. The surface suggests Tammy Wynette, US country music singer. | ||
| 9 | OPPOSERS |
We are people against old models taking the pee! (8)
|
| O (old) + POSERS (models, in a photographic studio perhaps), taking in P (letter whose name can be written “pee”). | ||
| 16 | THE PIPES |
Knight’s backing singers to secure English music producer (3,5)
|
| THE PIPS (original name of US music group who were later known as Gladys Knight and the Pips), containing (to secure) E (English).
Bagpipes, as in the song “Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling . . .”. |
||
| 17 | EMACIATED |
Junkie-looking criminal ate acid with me (9)
|
| Anagram (criminal = wrong) of ATE ACID + ME.
Very thin and unhealthy-looking, perhaps descriptive of a drug addict (junkie). |
||
| 18 | BALLADS |
Songs and dances about a bit of debauchedness (7)
|
| BALLS (dances = dance parties) around A + first letter (a bit) of D[ebauchedness]. | ||
| 19 | MISSTEP |
Wrong move lost tempi securing vacant squares (7)
|
| Anagram (lost) of TEMPI, containing (securing) S[quare]S (vacant = emptied out). | ||
| 21 | EYEWEAR |
You might say spectacles in which looker gets with listener (7)
|
| EYE (looker) + W (with) + EAR (listener). | ||
| 22 | SUDOKU |
Bit of lather over, on occasion, Knut puzzle (6)
|
| SUD (as in soap suds = a bit of lather) + O (over, in cricket scoring) + alternate letters (on occasion) of K[n]U[t]. | ||
| 24 | TIARA |
Headdress so long that Hoskins must put on (5)
|
| I (Hoskins, the crossword setter) putting on TARA (so long = casual form of “goodbye”) | ||
| 27 | BAD |
No good in the sack, gutted adult admitted (3)
|
| B[e]D (the sack), with the middle letter removed (gutted), then A (adult) inserted. |
Stagger Lee caused a bit of a to-do in a bar called the BUCKET of BLOOD.
This was just a day or so late to be a birthday treat for me.
Many thanks to Hoskins and Quirister.
Found this difficult, although hard to say why in retrospect. Couldn’t parse STAGGER or OUTRE (? Maybe Hoskins will drop by to explain…) but enjoyed many including BABYLON, BUSHMASTER, LOLLIPOP and ADAPTABLE.
Thanks both for the entertainment.
Thanks both. Failed to finish this unaided owing mainly to CROMLECHS being new to me, along with the obscure lech for goat. Unparsed STAGGER remained so until coming here – person equals egg?….really?
I was never going to see that theme in a month of Sundays! Can we have a classical music theme some time please? Or perhaps one based on the great musicals of the mid 20th century, or what the Beeb used to call ‘the dance band days’ and ‘the big band era’. Too many answers to list for which I needed some explanation, even though I somehow got there in the end. A good workout for the little grey cells so thanks Hoskins and Quirister.
Thanks Hoskins. It was good to see Serpent and Knut in the clues today. I didn’t look for a theme but I am familiar with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds; I remember them from Wim Wenders “Wings of Desire”, a stunning film. I hadn’t heard of CROMLECHS and I didn’t know “on the punt” meant gambling. I liked AGASSI, LUTIST, and SUDOKU. Thanks Quirister for filling in my parsing gaps and revealing the theme.
Many thanks to The Choirwoman for the blog and to all who solved and commented.
For those thoroughly beaten by this puzzle, nil desperandum as you are in good company as one of the most fiendish of national setters also found it tougher than an old boot. I think it was tougher due to some harder synonyms, less easy crossing letters and me not being so nice! BTW ‘she’s a good egg’ means she’s a good person and ‘outre’ is what my puzzles are and what that definition was).
I’ll be back two-weeks this Sunday with a much gentler puzzle – but until then its cheers and chin chin and goodnight and good luck to all from me. 🙂
I’ve just returned to crosswords after a long time away. Wasn’t enjoying it on account of being very rusty. Then I found Hoskins (and this page); now each failure to parse is a learning experience and not an ignominious reminder of my slow vegetation.
Thank You
Welcome back to crossworld, Damien.
Fifteensquared is a great resource and a pretty friendly place so very glad you found it. This was a very tough puzzle of mine so don’t take it as too much of an indicator of vegetation!
FYI – the Indy tends to (but not always) run like this:
– Sunday and Monday are usually easier end puzzles.
– Tuesday will have a theme/Nina and be of varying difficulties.
– Wednesday is usually easier to medium though occasionally tougher.
– Thursday is usually harder and might contain a theme/Nina.
– Friday is Phi-day and he is of varying in difficulty and may have themes/Nina
– Saturday is usually a harder-end puzzle.
Of course, the above isn’t always the case (with the exception of there always being a theme or Nina on a Tuesday), but I hope the info helps you in getting back into the swing of things. 🙂