i Cryptic Crossword 3118 Hypnos
February 4, 2021
The name Hypnos says odds on it’s an IOS reprint, which indeed this turned out to be, but on solving I had doubts as any expectations of a quick finish evaporated as a slow trudge through the grid ensued instead. Footballers, Mexican resorts, and London suburbs aren’t really my thing, but in this case I knew them all, which was handy as a lot of the wordplay eluded me and I ended up relying on definitions and checking letters throughout. A now defunct Home Secretary, an obscure French director, a dodgy homophone, and an odd spelling of a pretty common raincoat did little to ease matters. That said I finished a little under par for the i, though it felt like much longer.
COD? I must admit to struggling a little today, so I’ll go with 7d, which I’ve seen done before, but is still a nice idea – “Face maybe being confined to bed? (4-2)”.
To December 2016 for all the answers and parsing of the clues:
http://www.fifteensquared.net/2016/12/04/independent-on-sunday-1398hypnos/
Borodin
batarde
Saboteur
Denzo
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
willow1235
idothei 
Fairly raced through this one, even quicker than yesterday’s. FOI was 1ac, but surely the island is KOS, not COS, although there’s nothing in the clue to suggest a homophone That, coupled with the dodgy raincoat spelling that Jon points out in 26ac put a slight dampener on an otherwise enjoyable puzzle.
I had no problem with the politician or the footballer, amazingly enough, but the French director was new to me.
LOI was 20dn which I struggled to parse. Not sure why, it’s obvious when you know. I think my favourite of the day was 3dn.
I have to agree with allan_c on the other side that that was a bit curate’s-eggy, but nevertheless it was probably the most entertaining Hypnos I can remember thus far, with some very satisfying clues in the mix, even if I did bung in a few – like the well-known footballer or the one with the not-so-well known director – without having really understood them.
On another note, I have another of my probably-trying-too-hard puzzles in the Independent today, just in case you can’t be bothered waiting 4 years 🙂
https://puzzles.independent.co.uk/games/cryptic-crossword-independent?puzzleDate=20210204#!202102
Just goes to show how one man’s “well known” is another man’s “obscure”! 😀
Just watched this clip from ‘J’Accuse’ – powerful stuff! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toYgpks7PTA
Thanks for that. Great stuff!
I definitely can’t wait 4 years, so will have a look later! 🙂
Very nice Phileasfoggery there cornick. 16ac was a new one to me but thankfully you gave it a simple style of clue 🙂
Another great puzzle, thanks, Cornick. Nice nina and theme. Some lovely definitions – I particularly liked “starter home” and “variety of claret”.
Is that a sly self-reference in the SE corner?
That was all that fitted, Saboteur. I had to resist any temptation for a self-referential clue.
🙂
Much better than the Hypnos puzzle. Spent a long time on 2d, as many Clarets are named after St. somebody – intentional misdirection, I presume. Now I shall feel like Dracula every time I have a glass of claret.👹
Ha! 🙂
For the footmaller, I too, knew I wasn’t going to know, so Googled “Paul P…” and waited for autocomplete to tell me the rest. Not a name that’s guessable for the soccerphobe. Funnily re the French director, I used the same fella in a clue of my own only yesterday, and wondered how knowable he was. My last ones in were 20dn, then 21ac, and finally 23dn, which just seemed a bit vague.
*footballer
(o, for an edit button!)
How about that, three of us posting almost simultaneously.
The Unimind – spooky!
Your difficulty finding a COD says a lot, Jon! It seems like you didn’t enjoy the puzzle.
Made a good start – the top line went in quickly, though the wordplay for ACAPULCO was clumsy. It didn’t take too long to complete the NE corner and, to be fair there was some good clever stuff. However, I had all the crossing letters for PAUL POGBA, but couldn’t see the wordplay, and though I know enough about football to know he plays for France and Man City (or Utd?), he’s not well enough known for this to be a fair clue, as not everyone follows football. And what a horrible surface. I just couldn’t believe this clue and needed to consult 225 to see whether I had made some terrible mistakes.
This of course meant I could not complete the puzzle, but I am not sorry, as there were several other horrible clues eg 11a (no longer a politician), 18a, 21a. I would not have enjoyed it, though the majority was just about fair, but difficult.
I feel somewhat insulted to have been offered such a puzzle.
What Jonofwales said.
Loved the clue for EIDER.
I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It was set at exactly the right level for me: easy ones to get me started, others eventually falling into place, leaving a few unsolved. Then I came back to it, and got the rest. Perfect.
However – the footballer clue. I’m with dtw on that one. If my husband hadn’t looked in, I would not have solved it. I think it’s better if the construction of the clue yields the name (unless extremely famous), without you needing to know football abbreviations. So a minus point for that clue. I didn’t know it was Kos, not Cos, so I suppose that’s a minus point, too. But in practice, neither spoilt my experience.
Had to check a few answers, like the director. But I’m okay with that, provided I can work out what to check.
I note that fifteensquared were iffy about mare / mayor as homophone. It’s close enough for me. But given the previous qualms about particular homophones, I’d be interested if anyone else disliked it.
COD for me was FIASCO. Just because I didn’t spot it. It was my last one in, and I loved it when I saw it!
It can be either Kos or Cos, Veronica, but in crosswords it’s usually the latter, unsurprisingly. Clearly it’s more Hellenic to start it with a kappa, but in English the C has been more usual until fairly recently. It’s Coos in the King James Bible.
Well that’s today’s nugget of knowledge then. I’ve only ever known it as Kos, but on further investigation it seems that Cos lettuce may well originate from the place. Ho hum.
Interesting. Thanks. And very clear.
As you will have seen, for me this C(rossw)O(r)D was a FIASCO!
I’m disagreeing on homophones again, though I didn’t get that far. MARE is one syllable, MAYOR is two.
Let me go and find that recommended corny crossword In the Indy
Of course I was left with the footballer at the end, and out of sheer bloody mindedness refused to look him up. Giving the puzzle another scowling at after elevenses I wrote in the correct answer straight away, thinking “it won’t be that – nobody would risk outraging their solvers with such a clunker”. Anyway, not best pleased with that, but my only other complaint was not the French director but the classic car in the same clue. They’ve been making thuggish limos for the kleptocrat / generalissimo / gangsta rappa market for decades, and alas “classic” is not the adjective that comes readily to mind. If we’re talking marques as opposed to models, surely they have to be defunct to fit the definition – or is a new Morgan, say, an instant classic? On the other hand, the more strained the homophones the better I like ’em. Put me down as another one who found this good in parts.
Today’s Maize is unreservedly recommended.
This took me longer than usual, with the SW corner being particularly tough. By tough, I mean borderline unfair. 21 seems very weak, 26 I disliked because of the k (though admittedly it is in Chambers), but the worst of the lot was the non-homophone in 15. It actually never occurred to me that the setter had mayor in mind and I just left a big ? against this one My rhotic reservations of a few days ago pale into insignificance compared with this monstrosity.
That said, I enjoyed the rest of this very much. 10 was cleverly misleading, and I loved the definition part of 3.
As for the footballer, he is a much talked about, very well publicised character and his inclusion seems perfectly reasonable to me. It’s such an unusual name that I find it hard to believe that anyone even remotely connected with the world has not at least come across it. You couid say much the same about Amber Rudd i suppose
I find myself concurring with many of the comments above, but I did enjoy this overall, albeit with several reservations.
The usual people complaing about a football reference because “most solvers won’t follow football”. I feel heartily sick every time a composer or playwright is mentioned, but I don’t see anybody ever complaining about them. Pogba was the most expenaive player of all time when this crossword was written; if you’re going to be willfully ignorant of sport then that’s on you.
There are about 200 composers and 200 playwrights about whom we learn mostly in the first 20 years of our life. A few more are added as we grow older; their works can be performed throughout our lifetime are often still being performed long after we and they have died. There are well over 200 footballers in the Premier League alone, and those who were there when we were ten have gone by the time we are 25, and they disappear from sight. In fact the pool of players is recycled perhaps six times during our life time. and, once they stop playing, only the Peles, Bests, Beckhams and twenty or thirty or so others are remembered.
Interestingly, back in the day Pierre commented on 6dn: “Very clever for a Thursday ‘hard’ Indy, perhaps, but for an IoS? I don’t think so.” Coincidence that the puzzle reappeared on a Thursday?