We found the top half of this puzzle much easier than the bottom.
This wasn’t helped by us entering DRAGOON for 30ac. Yes, we knew we couldn’t parse it but we thought that if things ‘dragged on’ one might be rather unwilling but that was as far as we got. It wasn’t until Bert worked out 24d which incidentally raised a smile, that we were able to complete the SE corner.
22ac required a word search as we were running out of time. We kicked ourselves when we saw the list of possible answers and as soon as the R was written in we kicked ourselves again when we saw the answer to 22d!
Thanks Hoskins for a good work-out.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | Run slowly over bit of leg, teasing (7) | |
| JOSHING | JOG (run slowly) around or ‘over’ SHIN (bit of leg) | |
| 5 | Colour supplement intellectual unwrapped (7) | |
| MAGENTA | MAG (supplement) |
|
| 9 | Religious revivalists releasing a song and an EP (9) | |
| NEOPAGANS | An anagram of A SONG and AN EP (anagrind is ‘releasing’) | |
| 10 | Banger with puncture pulling off minor road (5) | |
| WURST | W (with) |
|
| 11 | Maybe a mathematician to stagger about? (6) | |
| TOTTER | A mathematician may be adding up and could be described as a ‘totter’ | |
| 12 | Piano associated with lively wartime dance (4,4) | |
| TIME WARP | An anagram of P (piano) and WARTIME (anagrind is ‘lively’). We weren’t that sure about this one as TIME appears in the clue and the entry. | |
| 14 | Spoil old woman with deals on preserves (10) | |
| MARMALADES | MAR (spoil) MA (old woman) and an anagram of DEALS although there doesn’t appear to be any anagram indicator | |
| 16 | Record-breaking institute with small margins (4) | |
| LIPS | LP (record) round or ‘broken by’ I (institute) + S (small) | |
| 19 | Press backs moving independent film genre (4) | |
| NOIR | IRON (press) reversed or ‘backing’ and moving I (independent) | |
| 20 | Bent attorneys stealing one’s paper and pens? (10) | |
| STATIONERY | An anagram of ATTORNEYS round or ‘stealing’ I (one) – anagrind is ‘bent’ | |
| 22 | Rubbish musical phrase hindering fine service (8) | |
| RIFFRAFF | RIFF (musical phrase) around or ‘hindering’ F (fine) + RAF (service) | |
| 23 | Beef jerky mules brought around cape (6) | |
| MUSCLE | An anagram of MULES around C (cape) – anagrind is ‘jerky’ | |
| 27 | Electrical retailer losing capital on satellite dish (5) | |
| CURRY | CURRY’ |
|
| 28 | Directors backing eccentric without substance (9) | |
| CARDBOARD | BOARD (directors) after or ‘backing’ CARD (exxentric) | |
| 29 | Yard initially dealt with missing female, then gave up | |
| YIELDED | Y (first letter of yard, or ‘initially’) |
|
| 30 | Soldier, perhaps unwilling, to put float into river (7) | |
| DRAFTEE | RAFT (float) inside DEE (river) | |
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | Woman article taken aboard plane (5) | |
| JANET | AN (article) inside or ‘aboard’ JET (plane) | |
| 2 | Soprano caught with hammy old novelist (5) | |
| SCOTT | S (soprano) C (caught) OTT (hammy) | |
| 3 | Hoskins to challenge authority? It’s very likely! (1,4,3) | |
| I DARE SAY | If you completed this on the Indy app you may not realise that today’s setter is Hoskins – I (Hoskins) DARE (challenge) SAY (authority) | |
| 4 | In America, dull sauce lacks bit of va-va-voom (4) | |
| GRAY | GRA |
|
| 5 | Fail to meet nurses Frank sends to wrong address (10) | |
| MISDIRECTS | MISS (fail to meet) around or ‘nursing’ DIRECT (frank) | |
| 6 | Stupid-looking Observer humorist sent up a … (6) | |
| GAWPER | WAG (humorist) reversed or ‘sent up’ PER (a). We have lost count of how many times that we forget that a = per. | |
| 7 | … story run on gunmen breaking into local (9) | |
| NARRATIVE | R (run) RA (Royal Artillery – ‘gunmen’) inside or ‘breaking into’ NATIVE (local) | |
| 8 | Mess about putting Tango in a vessel for tea? (3,2) | |
| ACT UP | T (Tango) inside A CUP (a vessel that you might use for tea) – in our house we mainly use mugs, a cup is never big enough. | |
| 13 | Pale coffee brought up after meat pie? (5-5) | |
| PASTY-FACED | DECAF (coffee) reversed or ‘brought up’ after PASTY (meat pie) | |
| 14 | Dude with cropped hair (3) | |
| MAN | MAN |
|
| 15 | Support restraint on behalf of church (9) | |
| REINFORCE | REIN (restraint) FOR (on behalf of) CE (church) | |
| 17 | Cunning Sally shows only occasionally (3) | |
| SLY | SaLlY (odd letters only or ‘occasionally’) | |
| 18 | Firm distributing album with Island record label (8) | |
| COLUMBIA | CO (firm) + an anagram of ALBUM and I (island) (anagrind is ‘distributing’) | |
| 21 | In the sack, Ray made an ass-like sound (6) | |
| BRAYED | RAY inside BED (sack) | |
| 22 | Unsteady old prizefighter? (5) | |
| ROCKY | A play on the lead character played by Sylvester Stallone in THESE movies | |
| 24 | Cruise that goes all around the UK? (5) | |
| COAST | Double definition and plays on the fact that we are an island | |
| 25 | Man one spotted being sat on by journalist (5) | |
| EDDIE | DIE (a die has spots) underneath or ‘sat on’ by ED (journalist). Having watched the programme about Eddie Izzard running 27 marathons in 27 days recently, we should have realised sooner that we had the wrong answer to 30ac. We needed 24d before we saw the error of our ways. Still, it was good to be reminded of Eddie’s amazing achievement. He’s now raised over £2,000,000 for Sport Relief. Makes Joyce’s attempt at raising money by walking 10,000 steps a day for a week on behalf of ‘Walk in Her Shoes’ seem rather insignificant! | |
| 26 | Not good to be cut by head of rusty nail (4) | |
| BRAD | BAD (not good) around or ‘cut by’ R (first letter or ‘head’ of Rusty) | |
Can’t tell if you spotted the nina or not. 🙂
The answer is no, we haven’t. We did have a look and have searched again but cannot find anything. What have you or your resident Nina spotter found please?
The theme (and you are right in your implied supposition – not spotted by me) is The Rocky Horror Show. Characters, at least one actor, and at least one dance.
Dammit Janet, some really good stuff hear, Hoskins.
…or even ‘here’ . Sorry.
Wow, brilliant theming! I count 13 definite RHS-related solutions –
across: 5, 12, 16, 22, 23, 27
down: 1, 2, 14, 18, 22, 25, 26
plus arguably 19 and 7, and Frank shows up in the clue for 5d.
Have I missed any?
I think you got the all swatty, though as there is a narrator, I wondered about 7 down as well.
Another mixture of write-ins and head-scratchers; several of the latter were clues where the answer seemed obvious but either I couldn’t parse it or I wasn’t sure if such a thing existed – e.g. TIME WARP as a dance. I did wonder about a nina when I got 1dn and 2dn but not knowing anything about the RHS (I know, where have I been all this time?) I decided that it was just coincidence.
No obvious CoD for me, but I liked NOIR and EDDIE.
Thanks, Hoskins and B&J.
Also 4D: Charles Gray played the criminologist in the film version
We know little about the theme – RHS as far as Joyce is concerned relates either to the Horticultural Society or the school she went to years ago in Bristol.
Unlike B&J, I know the film inside out due to a slightly misspent youth (I had the video – aaah, the 80’s – and the cast album, not to mention actually performing as Columbia a couple of times in a dodgy club…), but didn’t spot the theme until my LOI, which was Time Warp. No idea how I missed it! Thanks to Hoskins & B&J.
Well spotted hounddog. GRAY was ringing a bell but I couldn’t place it. Another actor – Meatloaf – almost made it into 13d but we got ‘meat pie’ instead.
Despite missing the theme (reassuring that I wasn’t the only one) I still liked this with some excellent clues including WURST, GAWPER and my favourite RIFFRAFF which held me up for quite a while.
Thanks to Hoskins and B & J.
For MARMALADES, barring a typo omitting the anagrind, I think the likeliest indicator is ‘spoil’ doing delayed double duty. (A very slight chance it could be ‘on’, which can mean getting tipsy or under the influence, but I guess allowing ‘on’ as an anagrind would lead to clueing chaos!)
Thanks, both. I did enjoy this puzzle, but of course didn’t even remotely see the theme. Rocky Horror Show? I might as well put my judge’s wig on and ask the litigant what is meant by ‘Linford Christie’s lunchbox’. No idea.
Some gentle ones to get you going, but I struggled with the last few. I quite liked the clever spot in PASTY-FACED, but was another one to tie myself in knots by putting in DRAGOON to begin with.
Well done, Hoskins.
Hey, I spotted a theme, albeit after I’d completed it and just as I came here. Not a fan of the show, but I know many people who are and I even saw the film once or twice.
Incidentally, 22dn could be a reference to Rocky Marciano, a real boxer and not a fictional one.
Many thanks to B&J for the blog and all who took the time to solve and comment. All the theme words have been found, though one could say ‘wurst’ (with a major squint and a few bevvies) is a nod to the neck of the woods of Frank N. Furter. P.s Doughnut has the intended use of ‘on’ as an angrind in #13.
Excellent Harry Hoskins, really enjoyed that. Theme twigged on timewarp but didn’t really help. Didn’t really help myself with i must say for 3d though for a while.
I thought the anagram indicator in 13ac might be ‘on’.
I can see Doughnut’s objection @13 but if you see ‘on’ as ‘working’ or ‘performing’ then it’s OK, in my opinion.
Perhaps, Hoskins did something unusual here but why not?
It is more or less in the same category as ‘up’ as an anagram indicator.
Meanwhile a nice puzzle, yet I was defeated by a couple in the NE.
Thanks to H and B & J.
Sil, good point about the similarity between ‘on’ and ‘up’ as anagrinds that can also mean other things. Chambers has ‘on’ as “on the way to being drunk”, but something like “performing”, as you say, is more likely.
Obviously in the context of MARMALADES, the deception is that ‘on’ is a common attachment indicator, but in this case ‘with’ had sufficed.
‘On’ doesn’t seem to appear in the usual online lists of anagrinds though – time for it to be added?
Apologies for the late reply to this, Doughnut. ON is in Chambers Crossword Dictionary and I have seen it used in Times before. I think both meanings of ‘on the way to being drunk’ and ‘working/performing’ work as anagrinds, but do understand it can be a tricky indicator because of other uses of ON in crossworld.
I think that you need to be careful using indicators like ‘on’ to mean ‘working’ as it might be seeing A=C because A=B and B=C. I could well be wrong, but I see ‘working, worked etc’ as viable anagram indicators because of the ‘to form or mould’ sense of the verb, which of course ‘on’ doesn’t mean.
The use of ‘on’ in the other sense seems to divide opinion among setters and editors alike. I think that if you would be happy with the phrase ‘on the way to being drunk’ as an anagram indicator then it is fine, and if not then it isn’t. I am probably in the latter camp.
Sorry it took me so long to get round to this one, but this was another fine crossword – thanks to Hoskins, B&J
Good puzzle.
I felt certain the anagrind for 14a was ‘on’ in the sense of ‘on the way to being drunk’. But I still don’t like it much. Just about justified by the otherwise straightforward clue though.
Also, can we call it a ghost theme rather than a Nina please?