The Week Crossword 1019

[WilliamRufus]

I can't solve the Clue of the Week, which is from The Times:
Take in (4-4) H???-???H

[mac44]

hood-wink?

[dannyk13]

Half inch?

[WilliamRufus]

It can't be HOOD-WINK, because the last letter is H. And HALF-INCH doesn't mean "take in" exactly.

[scorpiojo]

Are there no more crossing clues?

[dannyk13]

What clue gives the h in second word?

[Davemano]

Have with?

[MCC]

Take is 'half-inch' (rhyming slang - pinch) and 'in' is half of 'inch'.

[WilliamRufus]

l'm leaning towards HALF-INCH, though it doesn't wholly convince. The H and H are as given by The Week, with no other info.

[Davemano]

William, I agree. I can see that Take is to pinch - half inch, but I can't accept that the IN should be part of the answer generated.

[sarumite]

I agree with MCC that HALF-INCH is the answer, and he has given the precise explanation of the word-play.

[Davemano]

Seems strange to me that you have to use part of the 'generated' clue to fit the second part of the original clue. However if that is the case, so be it.

[Davemano]

that should say part of a 'generated' answer, not clue.

[TioMateo]

The answer is definitely "half-inch".

I remember doing the relevant Times puzzle about 6 or 7 weeks ago in the garden on a Saturday afternoon, and thinking it was a bit of a poor clue. Mind you, I was looking at _A_F -_N_H rather than "the first and last letters are H" as given in The Week, so there were no rivals for the answer.

What hasn't helped The Week's solvers is that the actual clue in The Times was "Take in ?" (with an all-important question mark) as opposed to simply "Take in" as shown in The Week, but I still think it's rather a poor clue.

Incidentally, my wife (who is an accomplished seamstress in addition to her many other skills), told me that she could easily refer to "pinching" a piece of fabric when taking in a seam, but I don't actually think that is relevant to this clue.

[Davemano]

That's it then Tio, all 'stitched up.