Independent 11,178 / Hoskins

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Quite unusually, Hoskins is filling the Wednesday this week.

I found this puzzle to be of exactly the right level of difficulty for a mid-week puzzle, i.e. not too stiff a challenge but with lots of entertainment value – perfect for a lazy, hot summer’s day!

I think that I have solved and parsed everything to my satisfaction, although I fear I may not fully have understood the definition at 27. Both 10 and 26 were new to me, yet were eminently gettable from the wordplay.

My favourite clues today were 1D, 16 and above all 13, all for surface reading; and 6 and 9, both for making me smile when the penny dropped.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

Across  
   
01 IMPORTANTLY I’m not partly drunk notably

*(I’M NOT PARTLY); “drunk” is anagram indicator
   
07 SEX It ultimately gets old

<get>S (“ultimately” means last letter only) + EX- (=old, former)
   
09 BLOOD British throne given to primarily dotty family

B (=British) + LOO (=throne, i.e. toilet, colloquially) + D<otty> (“primarily” means first letter only)
   
10 JUNGLE GYM Psychologist my leg kicked off climbing frame

JUNG (=psychologist, the Swiss Carl Jung) + *(MY LEG); “kicked off” is anagram indicator
   
11 ICE HOUSE Store for uncut rocks and diamonds by theatre

ICE (=diamonds, colloquially) + HOUSE (=theatre, audience); an ice house was once a building for storing ice in
   
12 CONRAN Late designer sprinted after head of company at work

C<ompany> (“head of” means first letter only) + ON (=at work) + RAN (=sprinted); the reference is to the British designer Sir Terence Conran (1931-2020)
   
14 FLEA Half-finished fleece by a very small jumper

FLE<ece> (“half-finished” means 3 of 6 letters only are used) + A
   
15 SMOTHERERS They suppress fire with engineers in southern dams

ER (=engineers) in [S (=southern) + MOTHERS (=dams, of horses)]
   
18 PASSIONATE Go around island worried as likely to erupt?

[I (=island) in PASS ON (=go, i.e. die)] + ATE (=worried)
   
19 CHAD Scoundrel touring hot country

H (=hot, on tap) in CAD (=scoundrel)
   
22 PAMPER Baby male wrapped in rag

M (=male) in PAPER (=rag); to baby is to pamper, cosset, mollycoddle
   
24 SHALLOTS Veggies snap about everyone having steak starter

[ALL (=everyone) in SHOT (=snap, photograph)] + S<teak> (“starter” means first letter only)
   
26 EAGLEWOOD Two below by court close to ice-covered tree

EAGLE (=two below, in golf) + WOO (=(to) court) + <ice-covere>D (“close to” means last letter only); eaglewood is a genus of large spreading trees of East India containing a resin a resin that is fragrant when burnt
   
27 CHILI Kid making duke one American-style dish

CHILD (=kid); “making duke (=D) one (=I)” means letter “d” becomes “i”
   
28 SIC So unwell having lost kilo

SIC<k> (=unwell); “having lost kilo (=K)” means letter “k” is dropped
   
29 OMNIPOTENCE Absolute power corrupted cop in Met no end initially

*(COP IN MET NO + E<nd>); “initially” means first letter only is needed in anagram, indicated by “corrupted”
   
Down  
   
01 IN BRIEF New cheese slices provided cut for easy digestion

[N (=new, as in NT) + BRIE (=cheese)] in IF (=provided)
   
02 PRONENESS Press release United head gives Bent

PR (=press release) + ONE (=united) + NESS (=head(land)); a bent is an inclination, hence proneness
   
03 RED-HOT Topical socialist books about horrendous leader

H<orrendous> (“leader” means first letter only) in [RED (=socialist) + OT (=books, i.e. Old Testament)]
   
04 ADJUSTMENT A duke fair with soldiers? Time for change!

A + D (=duke) + JUST (=fair) + MEN (=soldiers) + T (=time)
   
05 TONY Those introducing the Oscars’ newest yearly award

T<he> O<scars’> N<ewest> Y<early>; “those introducing” means first letter of each word only is used
   
06 YELLOWER Ohio wife punches one shouting “more chicken!”

[O (=Ohio) + W (=wife)] in YELLER (=one shouting)
   
07 SUGAR Baby and kid American brought up

RAG (=kid, tease) + US (=American); “brought up” indicates vertical reversal; baby and sugar are terms of endearment
   
08 XIMENES See minx messed around with crossword setter

*(SEE MINX); “messed around” is anagram indicator; the reference is to the legendary crossword compiler Derrick Macnutt (1902-71), aka Ximenes in The Observer
   
13 STITCHED UP Framed shot depicts hut

*(DEPICTS HUT); “shot” is anagram indicator
   
16 ETHIOPIAN African playing the piano around Italy

I (=Italy, in IVR) in *(THE PIANO); “playing” is anagram indicator
   
17 SIZE-ZERO Audibly moans “Nothing’s fit for a model?”

Homophone (“audibly”) of “sighs (=moans)” + zero (=nothing)
   
18 PEPPERS Showers very quietly amongst lords

PP (=very quietly, i.e. pianissimo) in PEERS (=lords)
   
20 DESPISE Hate little drinks being upending into river

SPIS (SIPS=little drinks; “being upending” indicates vertical reversal) in DEE (=river)
   
21 ELICIT Call forth criminal in hearing

Homophone (“in hearing”) of “illicit (=criminal)”
   
23 MAGIC Wonderful publication niece oddly ignored

MAG (=publication, i.e. magazine) + <n>I<e>C<e> (“oddly ignored” means odd letters are dropped)
   
25 JOHN Judge about to imprison hard solicitor’s client

H (=hard, as in HB) in [J (=judge) + ON (=about)]; the “solicitor” of the definition is a prostitute!
   

 

 

16 comments on “Independent 11,178 / Hoskins”

  2. Thanks both. I took CHILI to be the American spelling, but may be wrong. Didn’t look for or spot a theme, but have identified it now, thanks to baerchen@1. XIEMENES initially struck me as very self-indulgent, and a turn-off for inexperienced solvers, but is perhaps excepted by his status of legend, the essence of which perhaps escaped me as he died shortly after I was born

  3. I see now what baerchen @1 is talking about though didn’t spot it when solving. Anyway I was able to complete this despite knowing little about the theme.

    Same unknowns as RR but not too difficult to solve. PRONENESS and YELLOWER are also unusual words and took a while to get. I liked JOHN – no prizes for guessing our solver!

    Thanks to RR and Hoskins

  5. There’s a mistake in the parsing of PASSIONATE (would need an extra A). It is PASS ON around I + ATE. So ‘go’ in the sense of ‘die’.

  6. Only got the theme thanks to the steer by Baerchen and must admit it’s well outside of my comfort zone so I doubt that I picked up on all the references in the puzzle. Not to worry, it wasn’t necessary for the solve which went well apart from my first attempt at 9a resulting in ‘brood’ which obviously wouldn’t parse.
    Top three here were IN BRIEF, ADJUSTMENT & SIZE-ZERO.

    Thanks to Hoskins and to RR for the review.

  8. Well he promised us something spicy, when he commented on his last puzzle. Pardon my ignorance, but are the two dukes, kids and babies part of the theme?

  10. We enjoyed the puzzle but agree with TFO@2 that Ximenes is offputting for anyone not in the “clique”. As for the theme, as always I have no idea what’s being hinted at, but I enjoyed it more when I wasn’t looking.

  11. Ericw The theme is The Red Hot Chili Peppers, but I have to admit to ignorance about how many clues are thematic.

  13. Fantastic. JOHN last in – ‘about’ can be ‘on’ – and top clue with ETHIOPIAN (a ‘the’ anagram) and CHILI. Liked the punchy Ohio wife in 6d, ‘ultimately gets’ in 7a and the ‘close to ice-covered’ in 26a. Hoskins gave a heads up recently about a korma-themed puzzle on the schedule. I was looking for curries not blood sugar sex magic. Thanks.

  16. Belated thanks to all.

    If you are still reading this, Engineerb, I included 28a SIC as a crosser as a nod to the Magik/Magic.

    Cheers and hope to see you next time on September 4th, but until then goodnight and goodluck to all. 🙂

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