Back in April I blogged my first Filbert and wrote:
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.
Nothing has changed. Filbert has continued the good work.
Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.
There seems to be a bit of a nod (12ac, 14ac) to the tennis tournament which annually absorbs a nation that spends the other 50 weeks largely uninterested in tennis, but not enough to be a full-blown Nina. Or is there more? Is the fact that you can read the name of a tube station down the left starting at 1 of any significance? Or that a type of stuffing/tired old television presenter is in the top row of unches?
| Across | ||
| 1 | GOLDEN | Gent, a little short, beds elderly rich blonde (6) |
| G(old)en{t} | ||
| 4 | THREAD | Walk around edge of herd, or pass through? (6) |
| t(h)read | ||
| 9 | CONCERTO | Business finally failing to work for musicians (8) |
| concer{n} to | ||
| 10 | CLAUDE | Painter‘s son going round the bend in church (6) |
| C(la(U)d)E — this painter — U-bend perhaps, or that Chambers catch-all, anything shaped like the letter U | ||
| 11/6 | CROSS-EXAMINE | Six McRae’s, one mixed grill (5-7) |
| (six McRae’s one)* | ||
| 12 | TENNIS | 40-30; fault on return makes game (6) |
| ten (sin)rev. — 40 – 30 = 10 — I’m never all that happy with a hyphen as a minus sign, but it works | ||
| 14 | ASHE | Old court hero ultimately identifiable by cigar droppings (4) |
| ash [= cigar droppings] {identifiabl}e — the court is a tennis court and this refers to Arthur Ashe, winner of three Grand Slams | ||
| 15 | HEAVY METAL | Big dinner interrupted by tenor ‘singing’ with a loud band (5,5) |
| heavy me(T)al — evidently there is a sort of growling associated with heavy metal music: I’m a bit vague here, but no doubt someone will elucidate | ||
| 16 | BEAR IN MIND | ‘Sorry, Ned, I’m Brian, remember?‘ (4,2,4) |
| (Ned, I’m Brian)* | ||
| 19 | BIKE | British general in the driver’s seat in WW2 transport (4) |
| B Ike, referring to General Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Western Europe in WW2, who was nicknamed ‘Ike’ | ||
| 20 | PUTRID | Rotten dessert – eating three as starter (6) |
| pu(tri-)d — many words in some way indicating three begin tri- | ||
| 21 | PYLON | Support for conductor saying all aboard? (5) |
| “pile on” | ||
| 23 | HORACE | Poet‘s inclusion of metaphor a certainty (6) |
| Hidden in metapHOR A CErtainty | ||
| 24 | BUNGALOW | Unit of housing block let, one pound down (8) |
| bung a{L}low | ||
| 25 | DEBATE | Discuss young toff at Eton losing a lot of weight (6) |
| deb. at E{ton} — one thinks of toffs as male, but is that necessarily so? Under British English Collins says ‘esp male’ but the maleness isn’t mentioned in the other entries | ||
| 26 | JEDDAH | Journalist, during trip to Mecca, heading west to this city (6) |
| j(ed.)dah, the jdah being (hadj)rev. — so a sort of &lit. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | GLOUCESTER | Corset glue coming unstuck where tailor didn’t finish stitching (10) |
| (Corset glue)* — referring to Beatrix Potter’s The Tailor of Gloucester, whose work on a waistcoat is finished by the grateful mice which he rescued from his cat | ||
| 2 | LACTOSE | Introduce law to reduce sugar (7) |
| l(act)ose | ||
| 3 | EARNS | Capturing a bit of noise, audio equipment is on (5) |
| ear(n{oise})s — the bit of noise is the first letter of the word, something which I’ve seldom seen outside Azed. who does it often — the audio equipment is simply ‘ears’ — and the definition is well-concealed: ‘the chief executive is on/earns £X a year’ | ||
| 5 | HACKNEYED | Stale chop you once fed to Edward (9) |
| hack Ne(ye)d | ||
| 6 | See 11 Across | |
| 7 | DODO | Double-act, one that never took off? (4) |
| do [= act] repeated — the dodo never flew | ||
| 8 | PORTIA | Heroine left on the Titanic starts to imagine Atlantis (6) |
| port [= left on the Titanic (or any ship)] i{magine} A{tlantis} | ||
| 13 | MACKINTOSH | Top bunk lined with Calvin Klein coat (10) |
| ma(CK)in tosh | ||
| 15 | HUNGRIEST | Most empty their guns when ordered (9) |
| (their guns)* | ||
| 17 | RHUBARB | Pub in difficulty keeping separate hot food (7) |
| r(h)u(bar)b — I think the reason for ‘separate’ is that ‘rub’ in one part of the word contains ‘bar’ and in another part of the word contains h — but this is being a bit unnecessarily precise isn’t it? Maybe there is some other explanation for ‘separate’. | ||
| 18 | IN DEBT | Embarrassed where to put uniform for debut? (2,4) |
| In the word ‘debut’ the u [= uniform] has been placed in the word ‘debt’ | ||
| 19 | BOLLARD | Threat to bumper crop boy left with pig food? (7) |
| bo{y} l lard — until I looked it up I didn’t realise that lard is pig fat, so food from a pig — the threat is to the bumper of a car | ||
| 21 | PENGE | Writer, say, raised in suburb (5) |
| pen (eg)rev. | ||
| 22 | ROAD | Way a dung-beetle goes around upside-down (4) |
| ro(a)d, the rod being (dor)rev. | ||
*anagram
The surface of 14a gives a hint to the non-tennis-related theme..
There’s a stonking theme in this great puzzle and apologies if Ive ever said anything against Filbert.This rocks but I’ll leave it to the next poster to reveal the theme.
I took the painter in 10a to be Claude Monet, though with some reservations – the one you link to is perhaps more plausible, if less familiar.
The penny dropped with a strange boom (7)
“I am drinking Chateau Thames Embankment 2017, a particularly brutal year.
And as I am being cross-examined, I’d like to offer the following.
My first, and possibly only claim to fame was the Penge Bungalow Murders
I live in Froxbury mansions somewhere along the Gloucester Road.
I try and preserve the “Golden Thread” of law and my colleagues include Soapy sam “Bollard”who lives in waltham Cross and Claude Erskine-Brown who is married to the lovely “Portia”
But I have to leave now as “She who must be obeyed” is calling”
Don’t forget Her friend Dodo Mackintosh.
Andrew @6 Thanks! How could I have forgotten Dodo.
Marvellous! The theme went totally over my head, as did the explanation for 1d. Thought the clue for TENNIS at 12a was superb and is my COD. I also found the surface for 8d quite amusing.
Wasn’t sure about ‘embarrassed = in debt’ but it checked out. Always thought ‘heavy metal’ referred to the music, so still don’t really understand the ‘singing with’ part of 15a.
We don’t see Filbert very often but always well worth the wait. Thanks to all.
I missed it, but what a theme and well done to those who spotted it. I’d love to have the great man back on the telly as he hasn’t been shown here for years. British TV comedy (and something more than that) at its very best.
Enjoyed the couple of TENNIS clues as well.
Thanks to Filbert and John
I thought this was great, as usual from Filbert. I knew there was a theme the minute I finished the grid and saw Gloucester Road, but I wasn’t able to connect its significance so many thanks to the, er, learned commenters who could explain it.
Thanks to Filbert & John
Thanks to John for the blog and all for nice comments – liked the strange boom. Apologies to Hilda for her absence.
James
Took me a bit of effort, but I did finish it. Never spotted theme, but I never watched the programme.
A bit of inside information re 21ac. I worked for the National Grid for over ten years, and before that the Central Electricity Generating Board. We were taught never to call those things pylons, they were always towers. Something of a shibboleth in the industry.
Very good puzzle with a theme which is one of my favourite set of stories of all time. PENGE was one of the first answers I got and after solving BUNGALOW I realised we were in for a Rumpole treat and couldn’t wait to discover what other nuggets from John Mortimer’s invention would reveal themselves. HACKNEYED may be thematic too as Rumpole always describes himself as an Old Bailey hack, and at a stretch IN DEBT since his finances are usually rather precarious.
Thanks, Filbert old darling!