Hoskins pops up on a Tuesday this week…..
…so we’re expecting a theme, along with the usual Hoskins humour. However, we couldn’t identify any thematic entries while solving the puzzle, but the number of unusual words in the grid and the fact that it was a Tuesday, convinced us that there must be something going on. We had to resort to guesswork and googling – CHESS GAMBITS stood out, but with little knowledge of chess, we couldn’t identify anything more (the only gambits we had heard of were King’s and Queen’s). However, an electronic research revealed that there are no less than eight gambits in the grid – quite an achievement!
Many thanks to Hoskins for the fun – and chess lesson.
C (caught) A in or ‘breaking’ BALL (delivery) – Lauren Bacall, the American actress
An anagram (‘travelling’) of NEPAL and THE
An anagram (‘needs to be rectified’) of DOG OWNERS
Double definition
PEST (‘pain in the arse’) O (love)
HEN (‘Fife lass’ – a girl, but not necessarily just in Scotland) round or ‘securing’ ALLOW (permit) E (earl)
SECOND (assistant) E (middle letter or ‘centre’ of altered) – a new word for us
GO (shot) RING (resounding sound)
BE (live) S (son) round or ‘drinking’ RUG (syrup – a wig in Cockney rhyming slang – ‘syrup of figs’)
LEND (sub) with ALE (beer) outside or ‘brought over’
A L (large) + BELL (ring) after or ‘on’ ARM (member)
Cryptic definition – although we’re not sure that a THONG is necessarily painful
I (independent) CE (Church of England) + a reversal (‘rejected’) of IN (fashionable)
An anagram (‘flying’) of ACE AIRMAN
HORSES (nags) round A + T (tenor)
IN (hot) E (last or ‘final’ letter or plate) round or ‘cut into by’ a reversal of TIC (jerk)
BUD (pal) APES (copies) T (first or ‘primary’ letter of tape) – apparently the title of a song by George Ezra – completely unknown to us!
S (soprano) after or ‘beneath’ (in a down clue) CHESt (bosom) missing the last letter or ‘mostly’
LOW (depressed) DOWN (depressed)
LEG (member) AL (gangster – Al Capone)
A reversal (‘served up’) of RIO (port) S (small) SIP (drink)
An anagram (‘sadly’) of AMONG MEN after or ‘supporting’ A (first letter or ‘head’ of Amazon)
LENT (fast) after or ‘sat on by’ TA (Territorial Army – ‘volunteers’)
A reversal (‘repelled’) of SOP + H (hotel) NESS (head)
An anagram (‘in a weird kind of way’) of IN A CAN GREAT – we had to look this one up – there’s one in Spain and one in Colombia, but we’d not heard of either or them. Thanks to Quizzy Bob @2 for pointing out the error in the parsing
L (Liberal) in or ‘wearing’ an anagram (‘damaged’) of EARRING
B (bishop) EL (elevated railroad – ‘train’) GRADE (station)
A clue-as-definition – GM (Grand Master) round or ‘grabbing’ A + BITS (pieces)
T (‘model-type’, as in the Ford model T) ‘stuck’ in LAV (loo) + IAN (Scotsman)
A reversal (‘brought up’) of N (north) A (American) in DISH (bowl)
VANS (vehicles) after or ‘carrying’ E (drug) – a reference to Chris Evans, the DJ and television presenter, renowned for his ginger hair, who set up Ginger Media Group – we’re not sure about the inclusion of ‘at one time’ in the clue
OK (fine) A P (quiet) I (island)
I only know one George Ezra song and it’s that one. Thanks for enlightenment on the theme – I had no hope of spotting that. Some neat touches here – particularly liked “drinking syrup” and the dog owners anagram worked into a very tidy surface.
Thanks, Hoskins and B&J
As an ex-county chess player, I appreciated that puzzle, even if most of the gambits are unsound and rarely played at Grandmaster level.
A minor point: B & J, you seem to have included IN as part of the anagram in 15D; it’s only there for the surface. Thanks for the blog!
As for 24D, Chris Evans ‘at one time’ (2008) admitted to taking… oh, my lawyers have advised me not to complete that sentence.
1dn was my last one in: I didn’t know the song but, with all the crossers, I was able to piece it together from the wordplay. The theme was lost on me, too. I hadn’t actually looked for one, anyway, because I had forgotten it was Tuesday.
Like Widdersbel, I admired DOES WRONG – but I didn’t know rug = syrup.
My ticks were for ELEPHANT, HOARSEST, PISSOIR and AGAMEMNON.
Many thanks to Harry and to B&J.
Chris EVANS’s hair is white rhese days.
Like most of us here, I suspect! 🙂
Thanks, Hoskins and B&J!
Liked BRUGES, HOARSEST and BELGRADE.
THONG
I was looking for an explanation other than the discomfort a wearer of a thong might feel. Could not come up with anything worthwhile. The ‘whip’ sense may not fit in here, I think.
EVANS
I gather that Ginger Media Group was sold by Evans many years ago. Does ‘at one time’ refer to this ‘de-Gingerisation’?
No hope spotting the theme despite looking for one – well done – and couldn’t parse BUDAPEST, the ‘syrup’ CRS or EVANS, so lucky to complete without errors. I’ll pretend I’ve heard of SECONDE as it rang the vaguest of bells. PISSOIR was an original one which I don’t think I’ve come across in crossword land before.
I thought THONG as a “whip” was OK to make 25a a double def but I agree the grammar doesn’t quite work.
Thanks to Hoskins and B&J
In Spain it’s traditional to wear red underwear on New Year’s Eve.
One year THONGs were handed out to everybody. And yes, they ride up painfully.
Lauren BACALL was an amateur chess player – Bogart was a chess hustler.
Not my favourite puzzle from Harry with a lot of GK which was obscure (to me). This was undoubtedly a consequence of the theme, which at least was a subject dear to my heart.
A couple of niggles: even with the “?” I don’t think that “nobility” is a satisfactory definition for 9d; and the train in 17d is an unindicated Americanism.
Thanks to Hoskins. Here’s hoping normal service is resumed next time. Thanks too to B&J.
2&19d slotted in easily enough so I guessed what the theme might be but that was as far as I got with it – what odd terminology the chess world uses!
Didn’t have a clue about the necessary Ezra, the biblical character and Ezra Pound were all that came to mind.
Emerged with a completed grid after quite a battle and my top two were ELEPHANT & PISSOIR.
Thanks to Hoskins and to B&J for doing all the chess homework!
Thanks both. My GK did not extend to either ALLENDE or AGAMENMON the spelling for the latter I’d expect to beat me again. I normally bemoan rhyming slang but the ‘syrup’ in BRUGES has amused my Northern spirit years long. Could not parse BELGRADE fully, and still feel ‘railway’ rather than ‘train’ would work better
As others have said, GK was needed today. And when it wasn’t there, it was bung n hope. But that strategy got me to a completed puzzle, even if it didn’t alert me to the theme which I had concluded was something to do with foreign locations. DOES WRONG, ALARM BELL, ICENI, AMERICANA, PISSOIR, GAMBITS and LATVIAN were my faves. Although amusing, slightly disappointing to see the repetition of ‘pain in the arse’.
Thanks Hoskins and B&J
Thanks to Quizzy Bob @ 2 for pointing out the error in the parsing of 15d – now corrected
Normally do well on Hoskins, but couldn’t do a good third of this. Thanks for the blog and helping a thicko understand!