Since appearing on the scene sometime over a year ago Filbert has appeared about once a month, and though I’m sure I haven’t tackled all of them, when I see the name I know I can look forward to a tough and fair challenge with typically a theme thrown in.
This time the theme is clear from the clues: The Tour de France begins today!
(As if we haven’t had enough sport of various kinds lately what with the brilliant Women’s World Cup, the Cricket, Wimbledon etc. etc.)
What Filbert thinks of the people at the top of cycling is shown in the Nina seen at the top row of the grid !
But Filbert also has a message for the lowest of the low in the bottom row.
The first thing I noticed when beginning this puzzle was the grid design – it’s the one that when each light is given its own separate clue, delivers 33 clues. A lot of short words, and a lot of tricky clues. Indeed. After the first pass I had 11 answers in but got a bit stuck and was painfully aware I knew very little about the subject. So I did dip into Wikipedia initially to discover (at 2D) what is Galibier ( Col_du_Galibier ) and spent far too long there reading about its history in context of the Tour.
I only made one boo-boo early on writing in EASE at 4D, which put the kibosh on solving 12A for some time, one of the last to fall.
Then there were five unsolved: 7D Eastward was first of these in – to much pleasure. But the rest had to wait till after a break and a refreshed set of braincells.
Three of the last four were short answers where only having half or quarter of the crossing letters doesn’t help much.
6D was very difficult. 28D & 29D weren’t so bad, for instance I soon thought of Rani but couldn’t explain the wordplay – somehow, knowing the answer – ultimately confirmed by the top and bottom row Nina – helps decode the clue.
So Tour de Force greets Tour de France!
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 9 | ESPLANADE | Carried around in sedan, Alps easy place for a stroll (9) Reversed hidden (carried around) within sEDAN ALPS Easy. First one in but initially noted as an anagram of “sedan Alps” till writing this blog |
| 10 | USAGE | ‘Common practice where he’s from’ – Armstrong’s empty excuse, finally (5) US (where he’s (Armstrong is) from), A[rmstron]G, [excus]E |
| 11 | SKI | Descend fast, seven kilometres at 20% (3) S[even] KI[lometres] 20% of the letters of both Seven and Kilometres |
| 12 | SKYROCKETED | Old cycling team mostly fed on salad climbed unbelievably fast (11) SKY (Old cycling team) ROCKET (salad) [f]ED |
| 13 | BALLS-UP | Daring riding leads to disaster (5-2) BALLS (daring, as in “He’s got …”) UP (riding) |
| 16 | URINATE | Toying with ruin by drug use can … (7) (RUIN)* AInd: toying with, AT (by) E (drug) |
| 18 | EMPTY | … only work short term when cycling; ultimately, victory’s worthless (5) TEMP (only work short term) “cycling” to EMPT, [victor]Y |
| 20 | D U I | Periodically taking drug is e.g. Texan’s offence (1,1,1) Driving Under Influence. From alternate letters in DrUg Is |
| 21 | MEDOC | French intoxicant Froome documented, though not completely (5) Hidden in frooME DOCumented |
| 23 | ILL WILL | Bad blood one intends to dispose of (3,4) Double Def./CD: I’ll will – I will will – I will dispose of my possessions by making a legal document |
| 24 | NOSTRUM | New drink containing East German’s secret potion (7) N[ew] OST (East, German) RUM (drink) |
| 26 | GRASSHOPPER | Drive-by dope dispenser for six-footer with extra powerful legs (11) GRASS (Dope) HOPPER (drive-by … dispenser). Suspect “Drive-by” was added to make it more Tour de France-y |
| 30 | PAU | Capital of Pyrenées, to the French (3) P[yrenees] AU Semi-&Lit Pau <Wiki> capital of the Pyrénées-AtlantiquesDépartement |
| 31 | EPOXY | Two unknowns found with performance-enhancing drug resin (5) E.P.O. (performance enhancing drug EPO/Erythropoietin ) XY (two unknowns) |
| 32 | EGLANTINE | With money for Charlie, say, Lance rose (9) E.G. (say), LANCE swap C (Charlie) with TIN (money) Last one in. It took all crossing letters (some hopeful) before seeing the word and realising where the definition was in the clue – and even longer to dis-entangle that fearsome wordplay |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SENSIBLE | Practical German avoids being less organised (8) (BEING LESS – G[erman])* AInd: organised |
| 2 | UPHILL | Completed hard trial, like the road to the Galibier? (6) UP (completed) H[ard] ILL (trial) |
| 3 | PASS | I’ve no idea what the Galibier is (4) Double Def. Ref Col de Galibier – Galibier Pass |
| 4 | EASY | Promiscuous babe producing baby with this? (4) Using”E” instead of “Y” (“E” as “Y”), baby becomes babe Second one in – too fast – initially wrote in EASE |
| 5 | REVOLUTION | Cycling event that’s part of French national identity (10) Double Def |
| 6 | MUSK | Body odour acceptable for one in disguise (4) MASK (disguise) swap A (one) for U (acceptable). I thought PUCK from ?U?K and “one in disguise” – knew it was wrong – but couldn’t get it out of my head for ages |
| 7 | EASTWARD | A race official with energy making advances to Asia? (8) A STEWARD with the E (Energy) moving to the front This is my clue of the puzzle. Completely stumped till I had all crossing letters and a great PDM when I realised what the answer was and that sneaky definition. |
| 8 | NEEDLE | Bug one of many on Christmas tree (6) Double Def |
| 14 | STYLI | 8s found in back of Audi following short cut (5) STYL[e] (cut, short) [aud]I. Definition from 8s: Needles |
| 15 | PEDAL POWER | Newly wed, propel a tandem as transport? (5,5) (WED PROPEL A)* AInd: Newly |
| 17 | IAMBS | Filbert’s nonsense bits of poetry (5) I AM Bull Shit |
| 19 | POLKA DOT | Pattern king wears to do with alp, possibly (5,3) (K[ing] TO DO ALP)* AInd: possibly |
| 22 | COMMUTES | Does regular short ride into Paris, say, reduce punishment before start of sprint? (8) COMMUTE (reduce punishment) S[print] |
| 23 | INGRES | French artist nearly making an entrance (6) INGRES[s] |
| 25 | REPAID | Record that Sally holds is no longer outstanding (6) EP (record) in RAID (sally) |
| 27 | SKYE | Broadcaster suppresses final instalment of ‘Love Island‘ (4) SKY (broadcaster) [lov]E |
| 28 | POLO | What riders might get up to in a team car? (4) Double Def |
| 29 | RANI | Queen’s first person to finish in the shower (4) RAIN (shower) with the I (first person) moved to finish |
Lots of sneaky clues, as I expect from Filbert. In the blog for 4d, I think it would be clearer to put “Using E AS Y”.
I originally had an unparsed FUNK for 6d. The nina eventually showed me the error of my ways. Similarly I had POLE at 28d (pole position) and nina to the rescue again. Didn’t parse ILL WILL. Just didn’t think of “will” as in writing a will. No excuse.
Don’t think I would ever use ILL and TRIAL as synonyms but my Chambers thesaurus lists “trial(s)” under “Ill”.
Thanks to Filbert and beermagnet.
Is it just me, or are setters these days over-obsessed with sex and drugs? Is this to prove that they;re “down with the kids”? By the way, you may enjoy my free and ad-free site Wordsmith at https://wordsmith.blog/.
Witty and very enjoyable puzzle. Liked the nina(s).
We realised what the theme was as soon as we saw the clues, but still needed two sessions to complete, helped in the second session by spotting the nina.
We saw 19dn as a clue as definition – the ‘King of the Mountains’ in Le Tour is awarded a polka dot jersey. In fact that was our CoD – even though it was a facepalm moment when we got it.
Thanks, Filbert and beermagnet.
Hovis: You’re right about 4d – fixed
Geoff W: No
Allan: Thank you for emphasising the quality of 19d – I agree – really super clue/answer and I didn’t make enough of it in the blog
Terrific puzzle, I thought. Very witty and full of ingenuity.
Geoff @2, perhaps you’re joking, but the drugs references are appropriate for the theme. Talking of which, Texan in 20a is another reference to Lance Armstrong – might be obvious but not mentioned in the blog.
I laughed at the way 3d followed 2d with such neat comedy timing.
Thank you, Filbert and beermagnet.
When I grew up (and, after that, in my university days – did I grow up then?) the Tour de France was a huge thing.
Filbert’s crossword is not just simply a themed one, it is also one that digs a lot deeper.
If the subject isn’t up your street, then probably it leaves you relatively cold.
But like the previous speaker I thought this was terrific.
Unfortunately, not many comments (and I know how that feels when you put so much effort into getting things right).
At another place there was a lot more discussion about piling Pelion on Ossa.
But for the solver in me this is the sort of ‘real thing’.
Many thanks to beermagnet & Filbert.
It seems a pity that a puzzle like this with too many clever clues to mention (SKI for one – has it ever been clued better?) should attract comparatively little attention, when other setters (no name, no pack drill) seem strangely overrated and get tons of comments. A matter of taste to an extent, but obviously one of the reasons is The Indy now being online only. (And quite often my browser refuses to format the puzzles properly, and perhaps I’m not the only one.)
Perhaps this has been covered elsewhere, or I’m being naive, but why can’t the i paper publish new 15×15 cryptic puzzles? (Pace Inquisitor, 5-clue cryptic…)
Nila@8: Perhaps your memory is better than mine but most of the time when solving the i cryptic I have no recollection of solving it previously – and am quite surprised to turn up the original 15^2 blog to see that I commented on it. And sometimes what I found easy the first time I struggled with the second!
Thanks to Filbert for a top-class puzzle and to beermagnet for the blog. I figured out the bottom row Nina quite quickly which helped greatly with the lower half; the top bit was much more of a struggle. I thought the clue for PASS was exceptional!
Geoff, this is the umpteenth time you’ve made this comment. zzzzzzz.
Allan @9, I’m the same. Some of the themed ones ring a bell when they reappear but not much else.
I was just thinking that it’s a pity these new Independent puzzles don’t get into print as well. Now the i-paper and Indy are separately owned, it won’t happen.
This seems almost too good to be a daily puzzle. I’ve taken pleasure in Filbert’s cluing since seeing his Guardian competition clues before he became Filbert, but have not often tried his puzzles, which I find hard, more often just read the blogs and admired the cluing. Noticing this one was up, I decided to put aside my regular Saturday challenge (Guardian Prize) to have a go. Even though I was a bit put off by the theme at first as I don’t follow the sport, I was delighted to finish it, even if that didn’t happen till I came here and saw the ninas mentioned, which allowed me to get the remaining downs from 9a. Since the theme was mostly confined to the clues, not the answers, my ignorance of competitive cycling didn’t really matter.
I think, as others have mentioned, the cherry on the cake was finding, just after looking at 2d, that 3d had presciently read my mind. Superb puzzle.
Thanks to Filbert and beermagnet
Some excellent stuff here but by the end I just wanted it over because I could no longer trust the wordplay ( no matter how clever ).
Unless I’m mistaken 12a , 26a (unless DRIVE-BY has a meaning I’m mot aware of ) , 25d, and 29d don’t really work.
If in 5d REVOLUTION = CYCLING rather than CYCLE then I’d say that doesn’t work either but I think it’s CYCLING EVENT
I wonder if the Nina is meant to be read as a whole : SUPERMEN on STEROIDS
Dansar @13, I’m not too sure why ‘drive-by’ is there, but perhaps Filbert is thinking of Collins’ definition 5: “Also called: hoppercar, an open-topped railway truck for bulk transport of loose minerals, etc, unloaded through doors on the underside”? I think the others work fine, though. ‘Revolution’ can mean ‘revolving’, which is at least very similar to ‘cycling’. What’s the problem with 12a, 25d and 29d?