Independent on Sunday 1,679 by Hoskins

by

Quick stand-in blog sorry for any errors or omissions

Well it's Harry, certainly not as rude as he can be but sex, drunkenness, royalty, self-reference are there – one omission is to his mate Serpent who normally gets a somewhat disrespectful mention. Don't know what's happened to PeeDee today but probably forgetfulness,

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Piece of tiling on church blokes fix (6)
CEMENT

CE for church & MEN (blokes) & a bit of T(iling) Nice easy start to get me going

4. Disorderly struggle in anagrammatic game (8)
SCRABBLE

A double def – although whether the two defs are a bit too close is debatable.

10. Post given to short nob regarding PM (9)
AFTERNOON

Post being AFTER & a short NO(b) & ON for regarding

11. Charge husband assuming Latin man’s name (5)
RALPH

RAP for charge & H(usband) with L(atin) inserted

12. Group of soldiers holding large American dance (5)
SALSA

The SAS with L(arge) inside & A(merican)

14. A cute don I fooled around with gives you this (9)
EDUCATION

A fooled around with [A CUTE DON I]* Somewhat definitely a non &LIT in truth

15. Careless soldiers fail to hit target (6)
REMISS

Royal Engineers & MISS

16. Intense old flame very short with Hoskins (7)
EXTREME

EX – old & TRE(s) very short & ME – Hoskins

19. Compete with Tesla guy over land (7)
VIETNAM

Did you look for ELON or MUSK – I certainly did. VIE for compete & T(esla) & MAN reversed

21. Brown river in Scottish city (6)
DUNDEE

DUN – brown colour & river DEE

23. Learner finally gets grade one playing this? (4,5)
REED ORGAN

OK extended def really but in truth messy hence the ?.- [(learne)R GRADE ONE]* playing

25. Drug given to cross flipping Art actor with no lines? (5)
EXTRA

E – drug & X (cross) & reversed ART

26. Blooming half-cut Reed is unconventional (5)
OUTRE

OUT for blooming & a half cut RE(ed) I assume a reference to Oliver who had one or two tipsy TV appearances

27. Drunkenly inept Rick is overly-fussy critic (3-6)
NIT-PICKER

A drunken [INEPT RICK]*

29. Refuse entry to performer on vacation (4,4)
TURN AWAY

Well if you don't let the act in you will TURN (them) AWAY

30. Mostly endure down-a-man side getting thrashed (6)
BEATEN

Most of BEA(r) & TEN – 1 short of the usual 11

DOWN
1. Broadcast channel lacking in refinement (6)
COARSE

Sounds like course for channel

2. Police squad coming up with no answer (3)
MET

Possibly the anti-Carlsberg of the police world. The best hardly there's been so many transgressions recently, well so so long as I can remember). Anyway it's TE(a)M for squad without A(nswer) reversed "up"

3. Commentary about a bishop’s state (9)
NARRATION

A RR (Right Reverend, bishop) inside NATION

5. Criminal and female do drugs to get dizzy (7)
CONFUSE

CON(vict) & F(emale) & USE – do drugs

6. Creative works describing old atomic vessel (5)
AORTA

ART around O(old) & A(tomic) Certainly a blood vessel.

7. Atrocious teller being argumentative (11)
BELLIGERENT

An atrocious [TELLER BEING]*

8. Changed, and hence, made better (8)
ENHANCED

A changed [AND HENCE]*

9. Dogs in underwear (6)
BOXERS

Double def, last one in – seems easy in retrospect

13. Machine that could ruin pork pie merchant? (3,8)
LIE DETECTOR

Cryptic def I guess,

17. Fresh Argentine fruit (9)
TANGERINE

A fresh [ARGENTINE]* sadly a more chestnut than fresh but still

18. Concerning to have sex and strain yourself? (6,2)
OVERDO IT

OVER – concerning & DO iT – have sex

20. Old lady seen with a bloke in the shade? (7)
MAGENTA

MA & A with GENT inserted

21. Give smack up during party with junkie at last (6)
DONATE

TAN (smack) reversed in DO (party) & end of (junki)E

22. Aristocrat reportedly unable to produce heir? (6)
BARREN

Sounds like BARON well it does to me anyway

24. Love wicked character written by Aristophanes (5)
OMEGA

Greek letter O for love & MEGA for wicked

28. Equipment used in ASK Italian (3)
KIT

Hidden answer.

13 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,679 by Hoskins”

  1. Thanks for getting it up at such a late hour, Flash. Much appreciated and best wishes to the hopefully okay pee dee I’ll be back two weeks yesterday with a naughtier puzzle for your entertainments. In the meantime it just remains for me to say thanks in the past to all who solved and thanks in advance to anyone who comments. Cheers and chin chin ?

  2. Thanks for stepping in flashling. Thought this was going to be a breeze until I came up against the classical ‘character written by Aristphanes’ for which I put in “ovega” despite the now obvious wordplay. At least I didn’t fall in to the earlier ‘Tesla’ trap.

    Best for me was the surface for EXTREME. Written from personal experience? Surely not.

    Thanks again to flashling and to Hoskins

  3. Thanks, Hoskins and flashling!

    LIE DETECTOR: ‘pork pies’ being ‘lies’, a lie detector could ruin a lie merchant’s business. I found it an interesting cryptic def.

    REED ORGAN: The clueing is a bit weak, I think. Maybe I am missing something.

  4. TURN AWAY:

    ‘refuse entry to’ works fine as a def. Doesn’t it?
    Taking ‘on vacation’ as a def seems to create a part of speech mismatch.

    Said that, I am unable to say what ‘performer’ is doing…

    I am certainly missing something here.

  5. Re turn away KVa yep I’ve just highlighted the wrong thing when writing a hurried blog. No great shock – I’ll be surprised if there aren’t worse howlers.

  7. Thx Hovis.

    I assumed so first and searched online to crosscheck. I could not find this particular meaning for ‘turn’. Hence the confusion.

  8. For what it’s worth, definition 20 of “turn” as a noun in the Chambers app is “A performer’s act or the performer”.

  10. Very enjoyable as usual from Hoskins. I had TURN DOWN instead of TURN AWAY util OMEGA put me right. DOWN as in DOWN TIME.

  11. Thanks for standing in for me flashling. I have been ill with a recurrence of labyrinthitis, still in bed in fact. Like being continually seasick but on solid ground.

  12. No worries PD – I did wonder if I was due to a holiday cover and had forgotten so contracted Admin at 15sq HQ and agreed to do a quick blog. Get well soon.

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