I enjoyed this crossword by a setter whose crosswords I have never blogged. Previous puzzles seem to have been rather difficult. This one was also on the hard side, but there are some very good clues here and it all just about makes sense after solving.
Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.
There seems to be something of a musical theme: tickle the ivories, chopsticks, Sviatoslav Richter, Goldberg Variations, upright/grand, tune, Brahms, Liszt, chorister, and no doubt others. Perhaps that’s all there is to it, but there may be some way in which it all hangs together, which I have missed.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TRIED ON | New tails jaunty editor wore as experiment (5,2) |
| (editor)* n — tails an indication that it comes after | ||
| 5 | UPRIGHT | In England, where Geordies are law-abiding (7) |
| When you look at a map of England, the Geordies are in the upper-right part of the country — I knew a geography teacher once who objected to people doing this but I wonder what he would have felt about this being done in a crossword | ||
| 9 | CHORISTER | Getting round in, S. Richter ordered a treble, perhaps (9) |
| (S. Richter)* round (but not the same sort of round as in the clue) O | ||
| 10 | GRAND | Luxurious German marque fails to start (5) |
| G {b}rand | ||
| 11 | LAIR | Contents of old jar – bird’s nest? (4) |
| {o}l{d} {j}a{r} {b}ir{d} | ||
| 12 | CHOPSTICKS | Tricky utensils for eating seconds of cutlet (10) |
| chop’s ticks are the seconds of cutlet — only tricky for most westerners I think | ||
| 13 | TESTICLE | Examine lice jumping around in seed store (8) |
| test (lice)* | ||
| 15 | HARD UP | Firm in profit short of cash (4,2) |
| hard [= firm] up [= in profit] | ||
| 18 | ENAMEL | Dub in Spanish the hardest part of 2 (6) |
| e(name)l — 2 being ivories, the hardest part of ivories is enamel | ||
| 20/23 | GOLDBERG VARIATIONS | Heavy metal composer, blogger excited about date, or mountain as 3 set by Bach? (8,10) |
| gold Berg, (blogger)* round d, gold [= or] berg are 3 variations on Goldberg | ||
| 24 | TUNE | See pitch isn’t flat before starting to play (4) |
| CD which led me down all sorts of paths until the answer became clear | ||
| 26 | See 27 | |
| 27/26 | BRAHMS AND LISZT | Tight underwear? Assistant grabs M&S catalogue for discussion (6,3,5) |
| bra [= underwear] h(MS)and “list” — cockney rhyming slang | ||
| 28 | SILICON | Is Nico confused about Latin? Si (7) |
| (Is Nico)* round L — Si is shorthand for Silicon | ||
| 29 | YEAR-END | Did long negotiation initially set back financial deadline? (4-3) |
| yearned [= did long] with the n [= negotiation initially] moved back | ||
| Down | ||
| 1/2 | TICKLE THE IVORIES | To amuse unruly heirs I’ve to play 12, say (6,3,7) |
| tickle (heirs I’ve to)* — play chopsticks, say | ||
| 3 | DRIB | Jot down sentence? On the contrary (4) |
| (bird)rev. — but I’m uncomfortable here: either ‘down’ or ‘on the contrary’ would have done the trick (in the first case perfectly, in the second making scant sense); why both, which leads to the same sort of thing as a double negative? | ||
| 4 | NUTSHELL | Diminutive hard case headbutts man over £50 (8) |
| nuts he LL | ||
| 5 | UNRIPE | Recycled urine bottles ‘pee green‘ (6) |
| (urine)* round p | ||
| 6 | RIGHT HAND | Man Friday that usually has the 24 on 5 or 10 (5,4) |
| The right hand usually has the tune [24] on upright [5ac] or grand [24], two types of piano | ||
| 7 | GLANCED | Galahad, disembowelled, claims his weapon took a deflection (7) |
| G{alaha}d round lance | ||
| 8 | TIDES | Changes in level, i.e. bottom to top (5) |
| id est with the t moved to the beginning | ||
| 14 | INELASTIC | Sentinel a stickler at heart, refusing to bend (9) |
| Hidden in SentINEL A STICkler — and it really is at heart, having four letters before it and four after | ||
| 16 | PIG-HEADED | Stubborn as a mule led by a brute (3-6) |
| led by a brute = headed by a pig | ||
| 17 | BOUNDARY | Without touching the ground, six leap over a train line (8) |
| bound a ry — if a boundary in cricket doesn’t touch the ground it is a six. Just in case you didn’t know that. | ||
| 19 | AEROSOL | Spray cold contents on a painful back (7) |
| {c}ol{d} on a (sore)rev. — but it’s a down clue so you’d have thought the ‘on’ was wrong, or at any rate went against what the Indy normally does — in this case ‘on’ = ‘following’ | ||
| 21 | EMULATE | Fast Australian runner behind rival (7) |
| emu late — rival a verb | ||
| 22 | BIG BEN | Bell‘s major feature of Scotch scene (3,3) |
| big [= major] ben [= feature of Scotch scene] — and Big Ben is the nickname for the great bell of that clock | ||
| 23 | VALES | Where streams flow after five beers (5) |
| V ales | ||
| 25 | EMMA | Novel – one of many covered by English degree (4) |
| I think this is E (m) MA, where m is ‘one of many’, ie number one, or the first letter of, ‘many’ | ||
*anagram
18a NAME in Spanish the(EL)-bit clumsy but…
I agree that JOT is a tad dodgy.
Other reservations too but maybe Filbert is getting there-nice idea for a theme and the S Richter is bang on.
My take on 3d: BIRD would be a “down sentence”, i.e. the word written downwards, but “on the contrary” it’s written upwards to give DRIB.
My favourite Filbert yet … but that could be just because I could do it. Some parts did take a while to work out, but I enjoyed the moments of clarification. Laughed when I twigged the seed store.
DRIB-wise, my thinking was as Andrew’s: I took the reversal indicator to be “down …? On the contrary” suggesting up, in a down answer. Bit Yoda-ish, but I wouldn’t have been happy with “down” on its own there.
Thanks to Filbert and John.
I’ve changed my mind-DRIB is fine.(thanks Andrew@2)
Could almost be the GOULDBERG variations-didnt he change his name from GOLD to GOULD. Classic recording .Very apt clue.
I thought this was quite a bit easier (not a complaint) than Filbert’s previous puzzles but that could be the friendly grid plus the generous long lights; it’s very hard to conceal GOLDBERG VARIATIONS & BRAHMS AND LISZT in a musical puzzle, no matter how tough the wordplay! Highly enjoyable stuff thanks to S&B
Yes, much gentler than the previous Filbert for which I was grateful. Good theme, with the triple wordplay for 20a/23a, including the ‘heavy metal composer’ misdirection, the highlight. As for the idea of ‘lice jumping around in seed store’ – no comment!
Probably serendipitous, but there’s a hidden composer linking 13a and 15a and another in 2d.
Thanks to Filbert and John.
Also had no problems with 3d, parsing as others have already mentioned. I thought it was a convention that if a down clue, say, contained a number reference to another clue, then this would only be an across solution if no down clue was numbered that way. So, for a long time, I took the 5 in 6d to reference UNRIPE not UPRIGHT. Finally saw my error. Felt there should be more to 24a – my LOI.
Lots of great clues, with 20/23 being particularly good, even though the surface makes an odd read. Thanks to Filbert and John.
I’d say the setter chose 12 ac to fit the theme but something got lost in the post.
If this is Filbert on the soft pedal then perhaps I won’t be tempted to tackle one at his ‘usual’ level!
Took me ages (plus the blog) to decipher the parsing of 12a, only got 3d by thinking of ‘dribs and drabs’ and had a real battle with the 20/23 combo.
Ho hum – obviously still a lot to learn.
I did particularly enjoy TIDES and BRAHMS AND LISZT.
Thanks to Filbert and to John for the blog.
I might have sussed 12a sooner without the tricky – I don’t find them tricky at all and for years they have been my default utensils. Ok not ideal for a boiled egg, but then again neither is a knife and fork. Similarly not sure we need diminutive, which also threw me.
Many thanks for the theme, 6d is quite subtle (thanks John) and had to come here to appreciate some of the parsing but it was all very enjoyable, thanks filbert.
Thanks John, & everyone else for commenting
Apologies for the errant on in AEROSOL (a late change without looking at the grid) and the missing ac in 6. Personally, I find chopsticks tricky, but it was meant mostly with reference to the cutlets. Adjectives that actually go with their nouns always throw me, too.
Just noticed that Filbert’s had a few up in the Indy, so thought I’d try one.
Funny, I thought it was ‘tinkle’ the ivories. Relieved to find I’m not the only one:
http://languagehat.com/tinkling-the-ivories/
I think the cd works best on those who play more sport than music, or the ‘cryptic’ meaning might come to mind first anyway — especially with all the other musical material. It certainly didn’t take me long.
It’s a shame about the bodge in 6d as I never got the wordplay. I hadn’t even solved 5a when I biffed 6d. I don’t like it when cross-referenced clues lead to crossing lights as here anyway.
I see I have theletters OLAEROS written on the page. I just spotted AEROSOL and assumed I misparsed, so that glitch didn’t detain me long.
Pleased to say I finished it, if only with a little help from Word Wizard at the end (EMULATE — doh!) and failing to parse LAIR. Also, I got VARIATIONS from crossers, then noticed GOLDBERG fit with “heavy metal composer”, so completely missed the very clever device and never went back to work it out. Thanks for the parsings, John and an enjoyable (and solvable!) puzzle, Filbert.