Hoskins provides our Saturday challenge this weekend.
As usual from Hoskins, there are several references to sex and drugs but in our opinion, they are not as subtle as we would have expected.
For us, this was not one of Hoskins’ best puzzles – some of the clues seemed rather hastily put together – for example, ‘one’ is clued for the letter I no less than four times.
Sorry Harry – here’s to the next one!
I (one) BAR (boozer) round (‘drinking’) SO (like this)
T (time) AVER (state) + a reversal (‘reviewed’) of SAN (hospital)
An anagram (‘travelling around’) of I MOON GAL
LAd missing the last letter (‘short’) round (‘stealing’) O (old) LIT (literary)
RE (Royal Engineers – ‘soldiers’) + a reversal (‘knocked over’) of H (hard) SERF (peasant)
AD (bill) round (‘blocked by’) TT (teetotal – ‘abstaining’) E (English) N (knight)
U (uniform in the phonetic alphabet) GI (‘infantryman’) round (‘stuffed with’) L (large)
An anagram (‘changes’) of ALLUSION TO
An anagram (‘criminal’) of KNOCKS SALE
C (colt) in (‘beset by’) a reversal (‘flipping’) of GAS (flatus) – a slang term for heroin
RYE (grass) round (‘over’) I (one) BEd (part of garden) missing the last letter (‘trimmed’)
ROLL (tumble) in (‘tackled by’) TOP (excellent)
D (Dutch) kEEPER (goalie) missing the first letter (‘header’)
An anagram (‘up’) of PUBS RUNG – American submachine guns
A ST (street – ‘way’) O (old) DON (academic) round (‘describing’) R (rare) – we’ve never come across this dinosaur before
A homophone (‘picked up’) of XS (extra small – ‘clothing size’)
Hidden (‘about?’) in debtor’S NOT RAGing – not a good clue for an unpleasant answer
BOG (crapper) lOaF (alternate or ‘regular letters)
RELIEF (help) S (first letter or ‘head’ of save)
TA (Territorial Army – ‘old volunteers’) round (‘consuming’) E (ecstasy) – a slang term for marijuana
A reversal (‘served up’) of I (one) LAV (toilet – ‘can’) + ANT (worker)
Double definition
An anagram (‘upset’) of NANNA round T (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of flat) E (English)
HE’LL (‘that guy will’) CoAsT (alternate or ‘occasional’ letters)
An anagram (‘idiotic’) of PM I TELL + ER (Queen Elizabeth – ‘old head of state’)
An anagram (‘surprisingly’) of LINARES
M (first letter or ‘slice’ of meat) in (‘donning’) SEARED (burnt on the outside)
Double definition
A P (quiet) PEN (writer) DuchesS missing the middle letters (‘vacuous’)
I in LOG (record) C (contralto)
I (one) in B N (first and last letters or ‘case’ of brown)
I’m not convinced it makes for the best setting, if the setter is “tied-to” his or her trademark plays, which seems the case with Hoskins?
( flatus/ scag/ horse/ hooker/ crapper/ bog/ snot rag/ trollop/ ecstasy/ grass/ lav/ marijuana et al).
I was also a bit disappointed with the lack of craftiness in many of the clues, with the devices and definitions being far too obvious.
Using “LINARES” as fodder, for a poor answer, NAILERS, is not very pleasing.
I MOON GAL, for Mongolia? meh.
I got to thinking, it’s such a strange puzzle, there must be something I’m missing. The diagonal from top left is [ INN OR FOLK CLOUDS ], but might be just happenstance.
I recall, I have enjoyed previous puzzles from Hoskins, so I won’t be put off the next one, but it’s a raspberry for this one – sorry.
Ta and Ta to Bert and Joyce