Independent 11,197 / Filbert

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Once again, it falls to me to blog a puzzle by Filbert – it must be my lucky day.

I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle, which is crammed with entertaining and ingenious clues – just what I needed to kick off my working day!

I think that I have managed to sort out the parsing to my own satisfaction at least, although I am never quite sure when a semi- & lit. becomes an & lit., e.g. at 6 and 23. My favourites are almost too numerous to mention, but if pressed, I would single out 5, 21 and 25, for smoothness of surface reading, with 25 proving particularly deceptive; 2 and 16, both for making me laugh out loud; and 19, for the abundant foot(wear)-related content.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

Across    
     
01 HEADWORD Who dared to change a dictionary entry?

*(WHO DARED); “to change” is anagram indicator
     
05 HERMIT Small island the very thing for recluse

HERM (=small island, in Channel Islands) + IT (=the very thing)
     
10 RIDER Grid erroneously contains 1up

Hidden (“contains”) in “gRID ERroneously”
     
11 TRAVERSAL Crossing states after turning right before Alabama

TR (RT=right; “after turning” indicates reversal) + AVERS (=states, declares) + AL (=Alabama); traversal is the act of crossing
     
12 CORNISH PASTIES Fresh posset in his car, savoury snacks in the mine?

*(POSSET IN HIS CAR); “fresh” is anagram indicator; Cornish pasties were traditionally eaten by tin miners in Cornwall
     
14 RAGWORT Plant with scrap value finally scrapped

RAG (=scrap, of cloth) + WORT<h> (=value; “finally scrapped” means last letter is dropped)
     
15 MUSCLE Force cryptic clues on millions

M (=millions) + *(CLUES); “cryptic” is anagram indicator; muscle is force, strength
     
17 ATHENS Present-day capital equally accommodating at another time

THEN (=at another time) in AS (=equally)
     
19 TRAINEE One in education originally named after Rita in play

*(RITA) + NÉE (=originally named, of married woman); “in play” is anagram indicator
     
21 MISAPPROPRIATE Nick, being married, behaves as he should

M (=married) + IS APPROPRIATE (=behaves as he should); to nick is to steal, hence “(to) misappropriate”
     
24 ORGAN LOFT Look in two newspapers for superior source of church music

LO (=look!) in [ORGAN (=newspaper) + FT (=newspaper, i.e. Financial Times); the “superior” of the definition refers to the organ being in a higher position
     
25 EXTRA By jumping tear trousers more

X (=by, as in 6M by/x 7M) in *(TEAR); “jumping” is anagram indicator
     
27 PAROLE Trial period in job in job as secretary

Cryptically, a “PA (=personal assistant) role” is a job as a secretary!
     
28 FREEHAND Voluntary worker using only a pencil?

FREE (=voluntary, spontaneous) + HAND (=worker); a freehand drawing is produced using only a pencil, no ruler, for example
     
Down    
     
01 HIRE CAR Bike overturns after hail, wheels taken briefly

HI (=hail, i.e. greeting) + RECAR (RACER=bike; “overturns” indicates reversal); the “wheels” of the definition refer colloquially to a car
     
02 ADD Before date, naked lady put on top

<l>AD<y> (“naked” means first and last letters are dropped) + D (=date)
     
03 WORRISOME Annoying introspective music teacher spat when upset

EMO (=introspective music, i.e. rock genre) + SIR (=teacher) + ROW (=spat, argument); “when upset” indicates vertical reversal
     
04 RATCHET Baker perhaps next to butcher’s back at one-way system

<butche>R (“back” means last letter only) + AT + CHET (=Baker perhaps, i.e. the US jazz trumpeter); e.g. a ratchet screwdriver operates in one direction only
     
06 EVERT No.1 lady with racket, no longer occupied as such

EVE (=No.1 lady, in OT) + R<acke>T (“no longer occupied” means all middle letters are dropped); semi-& lit., referring to retired US tennis superstar Chris Evert (1954-)
     
07 MISCELLANEA Jumble sale man jumping with lice

*(SALE MAN + LICE); “jumping with” is anagram indicator; a miscellanea is a jumble of different things, a miscellany
     
08 TELE Box left in driver’s place

L (=left) in TEE (=driver’s place, in golf); (goggle-)box is a slang word for television set, hence “tele”
     
09 SALAAM Good day? How terrible getting up in the morning

SALA (ALAS=how terrible; “getting up” indicates vertical reversal) + AM (=in the morning); salaam is a gesture of salutation in the Middle East
     
13 RIGHT-WINGER Rees-Mogg, perhaps Spooner’s anaemic twin

WHITE (=anaemic, i.e. not red) + RINGER (=twin, double) is a spoonerism for right-winger (=(Tory MP Jacob) Ress-Mogg, perhaps)
     
16 SEA BREEZE Salty puffs filling for Sue having gone on a picnic

S<u>E (“filling having gone” means middle letters is dropped) + A + BREEZE (=picnic, i.e. something straightforward); cryptically, salty puffs (of air)” could describe a see breeze!
     
18 SIPHON Drink, darling? Something with soda perhaps

SIP (=drink) + HON (=darling, i.e. short for honey)
     
19 TROTTER What’s most often found in stiletto heel? A foot

T (=what’s most often found, i.e. the most common letter in sTileTTo) + ROTTER (=heel, scoundrel)
     
20 EMERALD Mal de mer leaving maiden turning green

*(<m>AL DE MER); ”leaving maiden (=M, from cricket scorecard)” means letter ”m” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “turning”
     
22 ANNAL Obsessive stores new logs for a year

N (=new) in ANAL (=obsessive, from anally retentive); an annal is a year’s worth of records, hence “logs”
     
23 COOP What a pigeon calls parking?

COO (=what a pigeon calls) + P (=parking); & lit.
     
26 TEA Break in play, if side is one short

TEA<m> (=side, squad); “one short” means last letter is dropped; the tea interval is a break in play during a cricket match, say
     
     

 

7 comments on “Independent 11,197 / Filbert”

  1. Not too taxing for Filbert but even so I couldn’t parse TROTTER which went in from the def. Lots of good ones, with my favourites being the surface and ‘savoury snacks in the mine?’ def for CORNISH PASTIES, the surface for EXTRA and the original ‘Salty puffs’ def for SEA BREEZE.

    I’m probably talking through my hat, but I had COOP as an &lit, with the whole clue contributing to the wordplay, whereas I don’t think ‘as such’ contributes to the wordplay for EVERT. Happy to be corrected if wrong.

    Thanks to Filbert and RR

  2. I liked the snack duo of CORNISH PASTIES and SEA BREEZE. I struggled with TELE, because I would spell it TELLY. Thanks to Filbert ans RR

  3. Agree wordplodder as to &lits, with 6 not really doing it for me. 23 is better, though birds parking there? Anyway fun puzzle, and the trousers in particular were good.

  4. Hi Filbert, on the FT thread you posted:

    lady gewgaw @8, you’re right of course, 6d isn’t an &lit, but no one has suggested it is. Such is the definition (= such a person, per Chambers) referring to the previous description.

    …which I guess wasn’t your intention!

    Of course I was connecting (at #3 in THIS thread) with wordplodder, after RatkojaRiku’s remarks in the blog. Your clue for EVERT seems okay to me as a kind of extended definition, which term provides for me a good way of explaining how clues that aren’t full &lits work.

  5. My pick of the day-shame there wasnt much competition
    Very lively like a good bottle of bubbly (although solved with cups of tea)
    Thanks Filbert and RR

  6. We got off to a good start with 1ac, 5, 10 and 11 going straight in. Things got a bit trickier after that but we completed it all without help, apart from fruitlessly looking up types of feet (in poetry) for 19dn before the penny dropped. We liked 6dn which we thought was &lit-ish, but 23dn didn’t really work for us. Favourites were CORNISH PASTIES and ORGAN LOFT.
    With the puzzle being by Filbert we wpndered if there was any significance in the two F-shapes at the sides of the grid but we can’t see anything in the way of a theme or nina.
    Thanks, Filbert and RR

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