Hoskins made his debut in the Monday Indy slot in September, so this is his second outing. Like my fellow blogger Neal, who covered that debut puzzle, I found this a bit of a mixed bag. There are some excellent and inventive clues here, but also some with pretty meaningless surfaces. And a few where I’m unsure of my parsing, so help appreciated. To be fair to our new setter, the good bits outweighed the slightly iffy bits.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 I’m suffering with distemper over old PM
POST MERIDIEM
An insertion of O for ‘old’ in (IM DISTEMPER)* with ‘suffering’ as the anagrind.
8 Seafood and duck starters in carvery totally work
OCTOPUS
This is O for ‘duck’, CT for the first letters of ‘carvery’ and ‘totally’ and OPUS for work. Personally I would never
put any part of an OCTOPUS in my mouth. A rubber glove would be a good alternative.
9 Some protest if you bear witness to the Lord
TESTIFY
Hidden in proTEST IF You.
11 Animal brand clothing bill shortened
SEA BEAR
The surface means nothing to me, but I think it’s BEA[K] in SEAR.
12 Head of office interfering with work schedule – cock
ROOSTER
An insertion of O for the first letter of ‘office’ in ROSTER. Why cock is in italics, I have no idea.
13 Good place to go with one in White House?
IGLOO
A charade of I, G and LOO.
14 Very much what a poker player hopes for?
A GOOD DEAL
A cd cum dd.
16 Gold in those days mostly beat sterling
AUTHENTIC
A charade of AU, THEN and TIC[K]. I can see why the setter has chosen ‘sterling’ as a synonym for AUTHENTIC, but it’s a bit remote.
19 Work hard investigating where two grand’s gone?
DIG IN
DIG[G]IN[G]
21 Current husband to blow wife away quickly
IN HASTE
A charade of IN for ‘current’, H for ‘husband’ and [W]ASTE.
23 Animal we blame after letting rip?
EWE LAMB
(WE BLAME)*
More toilet humour. Most folk blame the dog.
24 New series on artist going round southern waterways
NARROWS
I think that this is a charade of N, ROW and S around RA reversed.
25 Lottery money turns around heart of Humber area
TOMBOLA
An insertion of MB for the middle letters of ‘Humber’ in LOOT reversed, followed by A for ‘area’.
26 A Stones fan rocks out on vacation quite frequently
AS OFTEN AS NOT
(A STONES FAN)* followed by O[U]T. The anagrind is ‘rocks’ and ‘vacation’ is telling you to remove the middle letter of ‘out’.
Down
1 Tablet screens held up behind hidden danger
PITFALL
A meaningful surface reading would have been welcome. An insertion of AFT for ‘behind’ reversed in PILL.
2 Ross, perhaps, cut disc for head of Motown?
SUPREMO
Well, Diana Ross was a SUPREME, and if you take the last letter from that and add O for ‘disc’, then you’ve got a word that could describe the ‘head of Motown’. I think.
3 Criminal races off to break into Polo?
MISCREANT
An insertion of (RACES)* in MINT. Now here is a good surface – clever cluing.
4 Eddy sees old queen going both ways over time
ROTOR
‘Eddy’ for ROTOR? If you must, but it’s not in my thesaurus. ‘Old queen’ is OR and if you put T in the middle of OR reversed and OR, you’ve got your answer.
5 Conflict can be hell with my daughter
DISCORD
A charade of DIS, COR and D.
6 Letter bomb with note has street cordoned off
EPISTLE
I think that this is E for ‘note’ plus ST inserted in PILE. ‘She’s making a bomb/she’s making a pile’ with reference to money. Unless someone has a better idea.
7 Rocky point in coast that prevents evacuation?
CONSTIPATION
(POINT IN COAST)* I think that we can put Hoskins in the bodily functions setter category.
10 By and large, no prep’s needed for that vegetable
YARD-LONG BEAN
(BY AND LARGE NO)* I’d consider myself a reasonably competent amateur cook, but I’d never heard of this baby. ‘Prep’s needed for that’ is the anagrind.
15 Men right to defend box with a load of players
ORCHESTRA
AN insertion of CHEST in OR (Other Ranks) and R, followed by A.
17 Type of model briefly annoyed with small tops
T-SHIRTS
A charade of T for the model T Ford, SHIRT[Y] and S.
18 Moderate FA fines after drugs report?
EASE OFF
A charade of EASE for a homophone of Es for ‘drugs’, O for FA for ‘nothing’ (or something like that) and FF for two ‘fines’.
19 Agree to get up around about morning – yeah, right!
DREAM ON
An insertion of RE for ‘about’ and AM for ‘morning’ in a reversal of NOD for ‘agree’.
20 Leave a boxing match or circulate
GO ABOUT
A charade of GO, A and BOUT.
22 Result of sex being banned from bathroom?
ENSUE
ENSU[IT]E. I liked this one especially, but then I’m a sucker for smutty surfaces.
Many thanks to Hoskins for this morning’s puzzle. I think he’s a promising setter who will continue to provide us with entertaining Indy puzzles.
Afternoon Pierre.
Midway through a Glenmorangie ( I refuse to say how many predecessors it has had) I thought I would check on comments on your blog.
None! This seriously undervalues your efforts, and those of Hoskins (who seems to share his/her sense of humour with my public school contemporaries).
I think yard long beans are associated with Indian food, at least in my experience.
As a fellow smut fan, I expected to get all the references, but it was – to my surprise – my better half who told me how 22d worked. I have looked at her in a different light since then. I invoke the fifth however if you want me to say anything about bathrooms.
So thanks for the blog, and Hoskins, come back soon.
I enjoyed this. Thought 23a and 7d in particular were excellent.
Another puzzle done waiting for the dentist but lots of fun thanks harry. Thought the bodily functions ok but did wonder if it may have offended some.
Spent an hour getting out of `preview mode` (where 5 plus 8 cannot must not ever equal 13 and I’m bored of the whole damn extricatory rigmarole – but I did enjoy this.
I like the sound of the voice.
Can someone please explain the “Cor” in “Discord”, 5d?
hastertu at #5, it’s the exclamation my! = cor!
nmsindy. Thank you. One to put in the memory bank.
@hashertu 7
I got that use of cor=my straight away, having put it in my memory bank from Hoskins’ excellent first puzzle!
Some really great clues here, thanks to Hoskins and to Pierre for the blog.
Many thanks to all who solved and took the time out to comment (hope the gnashers are ok, Phil!) and cheers to Pierre for the kind words and the blog.