I’m a stranger in these parts: I normally give here a link to the crossword, but to find where the Independent hides theirs would take me more time than I can .reasonably afford
Today I am a stand-in, and although I seldom do the Independent, I have come across Hoskins before; this one seemed reasonably tractable, with the one exception that I could not satisfactorily explain 23A, so it is over to you to fill in my blind spot
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | GAMBLE |
Risky venture drinking barrel – up for it? (6)
|
| An envelope (‘drinking’) of BL (‘barrel’) in GAME (‘up for it’). | ||
| 4 | DAUGHTER |
Don’t start chuckling after passing of dead relative (8)
|
| A charade of D (dead’) plus [l]AUGHTER (‘chuckling’) minus its first letter (‘don’t start’). My best guess is that ‘after passing of’ in the wordplay indicates the order of the particles. | ||
| 10 | DENIM |
Material from pit steed finally brought back (5)
|
| A reversal (‘brought back’) of MINE (‘pit’) plus D (‘steeD finally’). | ||
| 11 | STRANGERS |
Murderers doing away with fifty foreigners? (9)
|
| A subtraction: STRANG[l]ERS (‘murderers’) minus the L (‘doing away with fifty’; Roman numeral L). | ||
| 12 | OPERETTA |
Amusingly trivial work is awful to repeat (8)
|
| An anagram (‘awful’) of ‘to repeat’. | ||
| 13 | ALWAYS |
Gangster is ahead of customs every time (6)
|
| A charade of AL (Capone, ‘gangster’) plus (‘is ahead of’) WAYS (‘customs’). | ||
| 14 | SNOG |
After losing heart, boy shot back for a kiss (4)
|
| A charade of S[o]N (‘boy’) minus its middle letter (‘after losing heart’) plus OG, a reversal (‘back’) of GO (‘shot’ – “give it a go”). | ||
| 15 | CROCODILES |
Freshly-made cider cools some basking in the sun? (10)
|
| An anagram (‘freshly-made’) of ‘cider cools’. As cold-blooded reptiles, crocodiles may well be found basking. | ||
| 18 | FLAT-PACKED |
Gang in uniform head regularly boxed before assembly? (4-6)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of PACK (‘gang’) in FLAT (‘uniform’) plus ED (‘hEaD regularly’). | ||
| 20 | LOST |
Group imbibing drop of stout will get wasted (4)
|
| An envelope (‘imbibing’) of S (‘drop of Stout’) in LOT (‘group’). | ||
| 23 | IN TURN |
Where one might find desire to perform back to back (2,4)
|
| RUT (‘desire to perform’) ??? I cannot make sense of the wordplay. | ||
| 25 | DERRIÈRE |
Ruddy turned on about pinching one’s buttocks (8)
|
| An envelope (‘pinching’) of I (‘one’) in DER, a reversal (‘turned’) of RED (‘ruddy’) plus RE (‘on’) plus RE (‘about’). | ||
| 26 | NUMBER ONE |
Drink after drug like opium is the best (6,3)
|
| A charade of NUMBER (‘drug like opium’ as an analgesic) plus ONE (‘drink’ – “just a quick one”). | ||
| 28 | NINJA |
Mercenary judge held in ship going to America? (5)
|
| An envelope (‘held in’) of J (‘judge’) in NINA (‘ship going to America’ – along with the Pinta and the Santa Maria, the ships of Columbus; the ship was named Santa Clara, but is generally known as La Niña). | ||
| 29 | SHOOTING |
Filming Ghost in Barking, Whoopie’s heart stops! (8)
|
| An envelope (‘stops’) of O (‘WhoOpie’s heart’) in SHOTING an anagram (‘barking’) of ‘ghost in’. | ||
| 30 | BEDSIT |
Live debuts from Dre and Snoop one tenor digs? (6)
|
| A charade of BE (‘live’) plus DS (‘debuts from Dre and Snoop’) plus I (‘one’) plus T (‘tenor’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | GIDEONS |
Religious folk understand about eternities (7)
|
| A charade of GID, a reversal (‘about’) of DIG (‘understand’) plus EONS (‘eternities’), for members of the association which distributes free bibles. | ||
| 2 | MINNESOTA |
Etonian getting mixed up with S&M is a state (9)
|
| An anagram (‘getting mixed up’) of ‘Etonian’ plus (‘with’) SM (‘S&M’). | ||
| 3 | LIMPET |
Clingy type is flaccid and extremely expectant (6)
|
| A charade of LIMP (‘flaccid’) plus ET (‘extremely ExpectanT‘). | ||
| 5 | AIR |
Arabian with touch of irritating trapped wind (3)
|
| An envelope (‘with … trapped’) of I (‘touch of Irritating’) in AR (‘Arabian’). | ||
| 6 | GENTLED |
Bloke on line my boss stroked soothingly (7)
|
| A charade of GENT (‘bloke’) plus L (‘line’) plus ED (editor, ‘my boss’). | ||
| 7 | THETA |
Greek character hugged by lithe Tasmanian (5)
|
| A hidden answer (‘hugged by’) in ‘liTHE TAsmanian’. | ||
| 8 | RESISTS |
Reservation about South Island street fights (7)
|
| An envelope (‘about’) of S (‘South’) plus I (‘Island’) plus ST (‘street’) in RES (‘reservation’, commonly used abbreviation, particularly amongst indiginous Americans). | ||
| 9 | ESOTERIC |
Private parts at last held by naughty coterie (8)
|
| An envelope (‘held by’) of S (‘partS at last’) in EOTERIC, an anagram (‘naughty’) of ‘coterie’. | ||
| 16 | CLEVERER |
Brighter ace bails out of chopper with spinning soldiers (8)
|
| A charade of CLE[a]VER (‘chopper’) minus the A (‘ace bails out’); plus ER, a reversal (‘spinning’) or RE (Royal Engineers, ‘soldiers’). | ||
| 17 | LOOSE ENDS |
Some unfinished business in bogs Earl concludes (5,4)
|
| A charade of LOOS (‘bogs’) plus E (‘Earl’) plus ENDS (‘concludes’). | ||
| 18 | FRIENDS |
Wicked types snarfing rat-arsed leader’s Buds (7)
|
| An envelope (‘snarfing’) of R (‘Rat-arsed leader’) in FIENDS (‘wicked types’). | ||
| 19 | PERFECT |
Polish school monitor Roedean’s head sent down (7)
|
| PREFECT (‘school monitor’) with the R moved nearly to the end (‘Roedean’s head sent down’). The definition as a verb. | ||
| 21 | THE PAST |
What was tense man on assistant? Busted essentially! (3,4)
|
| A charade of T (‘tense’) plus HE (‘man’) plus PA (personal ‘assistant’) plus ST (‘buSTed essentially’). | ||
| 22 | PRINCE |
Royal visiting church is after publicity (6)
|
| A charade of PR (‘publicity’) plus IN (‘visiting’) plus CE (‘Church’ of England). | ||
| 24 | TEMPO |
Flipping love pint with Hoskins getting in speed (5)
|
| A reversal (‘flipping’) of an envelope (‘getting in’) of ME (‘Hoskins’) in O (‘love’) plus PT (‘pint’). | ||
| 27 | OWN |
Wife visits Iona naked? That’s personal! (3)
|
| An envelope (‘visits’) of W (‘wife’) in ‘[i]on[a]’ minus its outer letters (‘naked’). |
IN TURN
I thought…
desire to perform—>referring to performing on stage.
In (a) Turn one may find ‘desire to perform’
Couldn’t think any better.
Thanks PeterO and Hoskins.
Peter there is a link to the crossword on this page (ie the home page) of this website. It appears under the heading “today’s cryptics” (at the top left corner of the screen). As far as the IN TURN clue is concerned, the letters RUT appear reversed (ie back) in “turn”.
I didn’t enjoy this as much as I normally do with a Hoskins puzzle. If there is a theme, I can’t spot it.
I too struggled with the parsing for IN TURN and eventually came to the same conclusion as KVa #1.
“Passing” in 4a appears to be surface padding.
Thanks to the setter and the stand-in blogger.
I think I’m with Bagpuss on IN TURN.
Being a Tuesday I looked in vain for a theme. I wondered if GIDEONS DAUGHTER, a Bill Nighy drama, might lead somewhere but can’t see any other obvious links to him.
Thanks Hoskins and PeterO
My slightly different take on IN TURN. ‘Turn’ is a northern dialect word for ‘performer’. ‘Who’s the turn tonight?’ So a ‘desire to perform’ might be found IN TURN, or in a performer.
Doofs is correct on Gideon’s Daughter – but the link is Stephen Poliakoff.
Shooting the Past (1999)
Perfect Strangers (2001)
The Lost Prince (2003)
Friends and Crocodiles (2006)
Gideon’s Daughter (2006)
Pierre@5: the ” turn” can be the performance as well as the performer. [Chambers: TURN=a performer’s act or the performer] So if you’re watching a turn, in either sense, you’re seeing someone with a desire to perform. I’m with you, KVa@1 and RD@3 on this.
I vote for Bagpuss@2. Very clear, with the first ‘back’ serving as reversal indicator.
Good spot mw@6. Well hidden
Enjoyed it all, thanks both
I can’t see how the reversal of “rut” would work. If the first “back” is the reversal indicator, it just leaves “to back” as the definition.
Thanks all.
In the cold light of day, I think that the intention of 23A IN TURN must be as a double definition, with TURN as a stage performance. I cannot say that I am impressed.
Dunct@9. Back is doing double duty. Reversal indicator and part of the definition. Or is that against the ‘rules’?
If it’s the alternative, I’m not impressed either 🙂
Xmac@11 I agree that if this is intended as “a cryptic indication/definition clue” then “back” is doing double duty, which is definitely a no-no. There’s a further point — taking “back to back” as a definition of “in turn” doesn’t really work because both Collins and Chambers have “back-to-back”. Looks like an erroneous clue. Perhaps the setter could put us straight?
Thanks PeterO for standing in for us. We have only just found time to complete the puzzle.
Thanks to Hoskins as well – some smiles along the way but the theme passed us by.