I found this a very enjoyable puzzle. Thank you Filbert.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SPARTA |
Greek state set back by strikes (6)
|
| AT (by) RAPS (strikes) all reversed (set back) | ||
| 5 | ESCAPE |
Eruption from Earth’s mantle (6)
|
| E’S (Earth’s) and CAPE (mantle) | ||
| 8 | PRISON CHAPLAIN |
Butcher in choir appals new clergyman (6,8)
|
| anagram (butcher) of IN CHOIR APPALS then N (new) | ||
| 9 | CITES |
Read out scene’s quotes (5)
|
| sounds like (read out) either “sites” (scenes) – sights would also work here | ||
| 10 | HIT PARADE |
Bestseller list affected some local shops (3,6)
|
| HIT (affected) and PARADE (some local shops) | ||
| 12 | MARITAL |
Within wedlock, educated woman catches French disease? On the contrary (7)
|
| MAL (disease, in French) contains (catches) RITA (character from the play Educating Rita) – on the contrary indicates the containment as stated in the clue has been reversed | ||
| 14 | CAHOOTS |
Collusion starts to cause angry calls from Parliament (7)
|
| first letters (starts to) of Cause Angry then HOOTS (angry calls, as made by our beloved politicians in Parliament) – or better (thank you Hovis) a parliament is a term for a group of owls | ||
| 15 | KEYHOLE |
Important part of course giving entry to Yale? (7)
|
| KEY (important) and HOLE (part of golf course) – Yale is a brand of lock | ||
| 18 | BANDAGE |
Dress and dressing: part of verb and a gerund (7)
|
| found inside verB AND GErund – two definitions, as verb and noun | ||
| 20 | RELOADING |
Action taken after firing director during regional reshuffle (9)
|
| D (director) inside (during) anagram (reshuffle) of REGIONAL | ||
| 21 | MAPLE |
Chart the Québécois growth, notably in Canada (5)
|
| MAP (chart) and LE (the in French, Quebecois) – a tree that grows notably in Canada, and is also seen on their bank notes | ||
| 22 | FORWARD LOOKING |
Cheeky ladies’ man with a plan? (7-7)
|
| FORWARD (cheeky) LOO (the ladies, a toilet) and KING (man on a chess board) – what a super clue! | ||
| 23 | ASHRAM |
Religious community remains jolly about the onset of apocalypse (6)
|
| ASH (remains) RM (Royal Marine, nicknamed a Jolly Sailor) contains (about) Apocalypse (first letter, onset of) | ||
| 24 | SWEATY |
We stay out, lubricated, naturally (6)
|
| anagram (out) of WE STAY | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | PAINTER |
Artist isn’t breaking through (7)
|
| AIN’T (isn’t) inside (breaking) PER (through) | ||
| 3 | ROOTS |
Bits of ginger hair revealing true colour (5)
|
| double definition | ||
| 4 | ALCOHOL |
Cavity appearing shortly after fizzy cola drink (7)
|
| HOLe (cavity, shortly) follows anagram (fizzy) of COLA | ||
| 5 | ELASTIC |
Reforming leader of Ecuador to carry on in charge (7)
|
| Ecuador (first letter, leader of) LAST (to carry on) and IC (in charge) – re-forms into original shape after distortion | ||
| 6 | CALLAGHAN |
PM‘s instruction to contact man in Kabul, fellow having disappeared (9)
|
| CALL (to contact) AfGHAN (man in Kabul) missing F (fellow) – Jim Callaghan, former UK Prime Minister | ||
| 7 | PAISANO |
The old man’s voting against that Spanish neighbour (7)
|
| PA (the old man) IS A NO (is voting against that) | ||
| 8 | PACEMAKER |
Creator of law for police that keeps one on the beat? (9)
|
| a PACE MAKER is someone who helped create PACE (the Police and Criminal Evidence act) – something that keeps the beat of your heart steady | ||
| 11 | EASTER EGG |
Spring treat, say, including special rates for one (6,3)
|
| EG (for example, say) contains anagram (special) of RATES then EG (for example, for one) | ||
| 13 | TROJAN WAR |
Violent dispute at narrow junction’s beginning to get sorted (6,3)
|
| anagram (to get sorted) of AT NARROW and Junction (first letter, beginning) | ||
| 16 | YELLOWS |
Two pointers at the table given chicken beginning to slobber (7)
|
| YELLOW (chicken) and Shudder (first letter, beginning to) – at a snooker table the yellow ball is worth two points | ||
| 17 | EPIGRAM |
Saying mass lifts all even from despair (7)
|
| GRAM (unit of mass) follows (lifting, underneath in a down solution) the even letters from dEsPaIr | ||
| 18 | BIGGLES |
Pilot with long limbs, good at higher altitude (7)
|
| BIG LEGS (long limbs) with one of the G (good) moved to a higher altitude (as viewed in a down solution) – fictional fighter pilot James Bigglesworth, nickname Biggles | ||
| 19 | APPOINT |
Pick an argument on the phone (7)
|
| sounds like (on the phone) “a point” (an argument, the point being made) | ||
| 21 | MOOSE |
Deer are imitating cattle all around London (5)
|
| MOO (are imitating cattle) then SE (the South East, the area all around London) |
Although your parsing for 14a works, I feel sure the “hoots” are from owls – the setter’s favourite mislead for “parliament”. Thanks for parsing first part of 8d.
Should have said what a great crossword this was. A little harder than usual for an ios but I somehow managed to keep getting the answers without too much thought. I was particularly pleased on how quick I latched onto BIGGLES & FORWARD LOOKING. On another day, these could have held me up for ages. I’ve been learning Spanish recently, so 7d wasn’t too hard to guess though I wasn’t familiar with the word.
I do not usually offer such fulsome praise as others on this site to setters and their crosswords, but here I make an exception. I thought this was an absolute cracker: clever and entertainingly clued from beginning to end.
Seeing 18d always makes me chuckle, recalling “Monty Python’s Big Red Bok” (if memory serves me right) on their alleged best seller list “Biggles flies undone”.
Many thanks to Filbert.
Thanks Hovis, I hadn’t thought of a parliament of owls.
I enjoyed this enormously. Like Hovis, I thought this was a bit trickier than the usual IoS, but quite a bit easier than Filbert’s other puzzles, so Eimi – that wise old member of parliament (see what I did there?) – has picked well I think.
Many thanks to Filbert & PeeDee
First time posting. Did enjoy this but failed on 15a. I had “Keynote” which I believe also fits and seems to make sense – key (yale) given to note (entry) = keynote (important part of a course). Thanks to Filbert and PeeDee
For me, this excellent puzzle had a ‘Nimrod feeling’ about it.
Not that it was too difficult, nor that I had to look things up, not that Filbert’s style was similar.
I mean, I could fill in everything but – like with Nimrod – I could not (sufficiently) explain a handful of clues.
After reading the blog my admiration for this crossword only increased!
Great stuff.
Thanks PeeDee for your blog – 21dn should read MOO (are imitating cattle, as a form of the verb) and not MOOS – & Filbert for a satisfying solve.
This was an absolute cracker. The answers went in easily enough after some thought, but the parsing was of the highest order. PACE new, but I guessed the idea without feeling the need to google. Went with your HOOTS, PeeDee, until Hovis came along, and agree that the clue of the day, or even week, was FORWARD LOOKING for its simplicity and excellent surface.
Thanks PeeDee and Filbert.
I also really enjoyed this one, and mostly found it a bit easier than a normal Sunday (or maybe I was just on Filbert’s wavelength). Did struggle with some but got there in the end with a bit of help and several not completely parsed. Favourites CAHOOTS and EASTER EGG.
Lovely stuff, as others have said. Thanks PeeDee for parsing MOOSE and PACEMAKER. My favourites were CAHOOTS, KEYHOLE, ROOTS and YELLOWS (great definition). Cheers, Filbert.
FORWARD LOOKING and BIGGLES both excellent in a puzzle which provided enough encouragement for the less confident and enough challenge to satisfy the more demanding. Thanks both.
Would have preferred to see a hyphen in the clue for 16d: yellow balls are two-pointers. They can’t be two pointers because there’s only one of them.
@7 – Thanks for spotting that Sil, fixed now.
Hi Aphid – interesting, I thought about that too when writing up the blog. The surface reading works fine without a hyphen (two dogs at the table). Mentally adding or omitting some punctuation to the wordplay is commonplace, but not so in a definition. Does this break the clue? In the end I couldn’t come to any conclusion and decided that if it is OK with Filbert then it is OK for this blog.
Thanks PeeDee & everyone for comments. I’m pleased it was an accessible puzzle, my efforts in that direction are often ineffective.
AdrianG @6, welcome. If I were judging whether your entry qualified for a prize puzzle, I’d accept it. My SOED has ‘keynote: … the prevailing idea of a … course of action’, so wordplay and definition both work as you say.
Aphid @12 I would probably write two-pointers in normal prose. But while I am pretty anal about crossword clues, I am not always so fussy about everyday English, and I think hyphenation is something where there is a degree of flexibility or uncertainty. So I wasn’t meaning to rely on any crosswording convention about including or omitting misleading punctuation in clues, rather I was relying on my belief that the hyphen in two-pointer is not necessary in normal English, though as a matter of custom or style it might be standard.