I found this quite hard.
I may have been misled by getting 1a near instantly. Not sure why that is such a obvious anagram. I most certainly slowed down after that.
There may be a few clues on the easy side here – I’m looking at 12, 23 and maybe 10 – but there are many others that are not so.
Early on for 13a I happily wrote in DUSTBUSTER confident that DUST is an anagram of STUD (AInd: flipping). These were all the rage when they appeared about 40 years ago, definitely bestsellers. Of course that put the kibosh on solving 4d and 11d for a very long time. It was quite late on in the solve that I realised what golfing term 4d must be, and twigged my mistake. Then the K meant the answer for 11d was a bit of a giveaway given all the other letters I had for it by then. This is a shame because that “instruction” is a beautiful clue construction that I’d’ve liked to have solved it rather than near as dammit having it shown to me.
Also, early on I wrote in POWER OUT instead of CUT. (In fact I suspect I wrote in a poor “C” and tidied it up into an “O” while pondering other clues.) However this did not present so much of a hold-up. I still had difficulty solving 17d IDENTICAL after realising my mistake. 17d was the penultimate clue solved.
So, finally 16a THIRD.
I am not ashamed this was my last one in it is surely a very hard cryptic clue. Even with all 3 crossing letters and after coming to the conclusion that THIRD is the only reasonable word to fit, it took a long time to find the one brain cell that could make the appropriate leap of logical/linguistic imagination to see that X (cross) is the 3rd letter in TAXI. What a relief.
Filbert puzzles are known for often having some hidden theme, typically involving sports, and as it is a Saturday the old Prize Crossword slot I was expecting something, but I cannot see any theme in here.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SOUTHPAW | Boxer who sat up after crumbling (8) (WHO SAT UP)* AInd: crumbling |
| 5 | IMPAIR | One’s brace hurt (6) I’M (One’s) PAIR (brace) |
| 9 | STIRRUPS | Where to put your feet up (8) Cryptic definition for those things you stick you feet in |
| 10 | ANGERS | French city gets hot (6) Double Definition |
| 12 | EASE | Stand in front of painter, nearly still (4) EASE[L] i.e. EASEL unfinished (nearly) |
| 13 | BONKBUSTER | Stud flipping knackered by leading lady in this bestseller (10) KNOB< (stud, flipping) BUST (knackered) ER (leading lady) |
| 15 | DAVIS CUP | Retired potter Charlie finished pot for Murray etc. (5,3) DAVIS (Retired potter, snooker player, take your pick: Joe, Fred, or even Steve) C[harlie] UP (finished). The definition refers to the tennis competition, and Murray has a choice of Andy or Jamie |
| 16 | THIRD | When ordering taxi, cross here? (5) X (cross) is the 3rd letter in TAXI. |
| 18 | HALVE | Tear into two very fit guards (5) V[ery] inside (guards, guarded by) HALE (fit) |
| 19 | SWINDLER | German with a list wants wife to replace central heating, sharp (8) SCHINDLER (German with a list) W/CH (instead of W[ife] use C[entral] H[eating]), |
| 21 | SEE-THROUGH | Those huge pants Romeo wears not hiding much (3-7) (THOSE HUGE)* AInd: pants, around R[omeo] |
| 23 | STOP | Pack it in jars to be sent back (4) POTS< |
| 25 | INSULT | Slight consequence of Chamberlain’s ultimatum being largely ignored (6) Hidden in ChamberlaIN’S ULTimatum. Humourous clue surface in a modern ironic way |
| 26 | POWER CUT | Might share when supply fails (5,3) POWER (might) CUT (share) I stupidly wrote in OUT instead of CUT and made 17d harder |
| 27 | EVEN SO | Despite all that drawing, cartographers misdirected (4,2) EVEN (drawing? not sure about this) OS< (Ordnance Survey) reversed |
| 28 | BERKELEY | Bishop philosophical, with pillock beginning to evangelise in diocese (8) BERK (pillock) E[vangelise] in ELY (diocese, the classic one) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SUSSEX | 21 former duchy (6) SUSS (21 = See-through = understand) EX (former) |
| 2 | UNINSTALL | Son trapped by loveless marriage unlikely to delete … (9) S[on] between UNI[o]N (loveless marriage) and TALL (unlikely) |
| 3 | HURL | … www.tinder.com, perhaps after hot fling (4) URL (tinder as an example of a URL) after H[ot] |
| 4 | APPROACH SHOT | Chip, software, joint effort (8,4) APP (software) ROACH (joint) SHOT (effort) |
| 6 | MANSUETUDE | Gentleness of old chap, sort of fat and due for treatment (10) MAN (chap) SUET (fat) (DUE)* AInd: treatment |
| 7 | ADEPT | Expert taped broadcast (5) (TAPED)* AInd: broadcast |
| 8 | ROSE-RED | Petra’s colour returned in seaside resort (4-3) Hidden rev. in seasiDE RESORt |
| 11 | SKIPPING ROPE | Instruction for gro_e; there’s a line for you to work out (8,4) If you take this instruction as “Skip ‘P’ in grope” you end up with SKIP P IN GROPE which is used to exercise (work out) |
| 14 | CINEPHILES | Picture lovers breaking awkward silence with quiet greeting (10) (SILENCE P HI)* AInd: awkward |
| 17 | IDENTICAL | Like it mixed with ice and slice of lemon (9) (IT + ICE AND L[emon] )* AInd: mixed Identical is a bit more specific than “like” |
| 18 | HOSTILE | Belligerent publican on Lewis maybe ignoring Sabbath (7) HOST (publican) I[s]LE (Lewis is an example of an Isle) |
| 20 | APATHY | Absent father meets your total indifference (6) A[bsent] PA (father) THY (your) |
| 22 | ELSIE | Tanner, maybe in Spain, lies cooking (5) E (Spain) (LIES)* AInd: cooking Definition is ref. Elsie Tanner of Coronation Street fame |
| 24 | PERK | A thousand extra at work (4) PER (a) K (thousand) |
Very tough indeed. Used a word fit on the first part of 4d which then gave me DAVIS CUP & SWINDLER as my last 2. Did like SKIPPING ROPE. When I first read 10a, I immediately thought PARISH but where’s the definition?
You always know you’re in for a struggle with Filbert but I did enjoy this one. Took a while though. Thanks both.
Very enjoyable puzzle and blog, so thanks to Filbert and beermagnet.
Tough (we’d never heard of MANSUETUDE, for example), but lots to enjoy. SWINDLER was excellent, and SKIPPING ROPE was outstanding. Like you, beermagnet, we only got this when we already had _K_P…, otherwise I don’t think we’d ever have got it.
We slowed right down in the SE corner, with PERK (very clever) and BEVERLEY (we spent some time trying to parse the diocese of BEVERLEY as the solution) our last two in.
As a solver you think “Vlad and Picaroon (at another place) in quick succession, what can be better than that?”.
Well, in my opinion, this (comes close)!
Very good crossword but, indeed, not easy.
Had to check the connection between Petra and ‘rose-red’, but what about the gem that is 11dn?
For some, crosswords are about ‘witty surfaces’, LOL moments and the like.
Watertight clueing, ideally embedded in relatively meaningful surface readings, with one or two original twists, does it for me.
And that’s where Filbert scores.
Scores very high, actually.
Many thanks to Beermagnet for the blog & Filbert for ‘my kind of crossword’.
I meant to say that I was ok with EVEN for “drawing” in 27a I the sense of “the teams were even/drawing in the match so far”.
When solving 6d, the only 4-letter words for “fat” that came quickly to mind were “lard” and “suet”. Once I got the U, I thought “surely MANSUETUDE is not a word” but there it was in Chambers. Too long for Countdown, alas.
I could only finish this with much help from a wordfinder, so not one of my best efforts. And I only entered ‘Third’ at 16A in desperation, without parsing it, but I see it now – very clever! I would never have got ‘Mansuetude’ in a month of Sundays. I suppose I enjoyed it on reflection, but had my doubts at the time. Thanks Filbert and Beermagnet.
And so say all of us! Well worth the tussle. 11d is genius, and I hope to remember it if I ever see its like again. 4d last one in, golf not being my thing, but bits of general knowledge certainly helped elsewhere- I can’t see the word Petra without thinking rose-red, and I knew of the bish. Thanks to Filbert (a hard nut to crack?) and Beermagnet.
Excellent crossword and eventually all solved – however I couldn’t find a definition for 16a – THIRD. In other words which part of the clue in the blog should be underlined? Perhaps the whole thing is a cryptic definition and the convention is not to underline these. Still struggling with this but thanks anyway.
The expected toughie from Filbert. It’s funny how the brain works, but EASE was my second last in, having managed to see THIRD (relatively) early. I was saved for 28a by remembering that my first guess Beverley, as per DavidO @2, is not a diocese despite its magnificent Minster. Getting PERK near the end then helped with the unheard of ‘Bishop philosophical’ and I finished with SUSSEX.
Top notch and hard to choose favourites among so many good ones. SKIPPING ROPE was very original and I liked the ‘sharp’ and ‘Chip’ defs.
Thanks to Filbert and beermagnet
tough… never ever heard of BONKBUSTER.. tbh secretly pleased… the only one i understood immediately was 16ac..
thanks Filbert and beermagnet
Anyone who read yesterday’s blog to the end might have been helped by the wholly coincidental mentions of BERKELEY (the California city named for the Bishop philosophical).
Very nice challenge for a Saturday, and enough clever misdirections to necessitate several passes until all the pennies dropped.
Thanks to Filbert and beermagnet
Hi Dicho at #7 : For the definition of 16a THIRD I did ponder just underlining ‘here’ at the end of the clue, but decided the whole clue is a definition for the answer and in those cases I tend not to underline the whole thing. Maybe I should. Maybe I should have explicitly stated that the whole clue is a cryptic definition for the answer in the chat.
Excellent. 13ac my favourite amongst many superb clues.
Thanks to Filbert and beermagnet.
I had lots of mis-parsings on this e.g. taking a long time before recognising crumbling and pants as anagrinds, working out what the fodder was for 17d and more, but when pennies finally droppped or I resorted to the reveal button, it was with a mix of “oh of course” and respect for the crafting of the clues.
Absolutely not ashamed to say I spotted BONKBUSTER immediately. Thanks Jilly Cooper. Today’s took me longer than usual but I got there in the end. A wee chuckle at 22dn.
Thanks beermagnet and Filbert.
Tough but fair, and we finished almost without help (we realised 6dn was ‘—suetude’ but weren’t sure about the ‘man’). We guessed BONKBUSTER but had to wait till we got SKIPPING ROPE to be sure. And ROSE-RED took longer than it should because we knew the quotation (A rose-red city, half as old as time) but didn’t realise that was the answer!
STIRRUPS, SWINDLER and SKIPPING ROPE were our favourites.
Yhanks, Eccles and beermagnet.
I thought this needed a damn good edit . HALVE was very clever
SEE THROUGH good. THIRD and PERK were in fact perky.
SWINDLER excellent
I dont like JOINT/ROACH-if my memory serves me well, the former is welcomed by a reggae lover, the latter is the last dregs which are usually tossed out’
SUSSEX good, so was HOSTILE and HURL was almost good except for timber.Is tossing the caber in mind?
So most of this good, some more than good but a few needing a good editor or test solver. maybe these are thin on the ground
@16, Copmus, I checked our Chambers and this gives JOINT = “a cigarette containing marijuana” and ROACH = “(the butt of) a marijuana cigarette”, so I don’t think there can be any complaint there?
Re 3d, I’m not sure why you mention “timber”. Our online version says “www.tinder.com” (an online dating site), making the surface very neat, in my opinion.
David@17 sorry about tinder/timber confusion but i dont buy JOINT=ROACH in spite of Chambers being my crossword bible.
i didnt like BONKBUSTER either-all i am saying is that this was quite a good puzzle but could have been an excellent one with a slight tweak.
Copmus @16 – I’ll have to bow to your expertise on JOINT/ROACH 😉
Not sure what sort of face has appeared after my last comment – it was meant to be a wink.