Independent 11,245 / Filbert

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Filbert latest puzzle has been provided for our sheer delectation this Thursday.

I found this to be a challenging and at the same time thoroughly entertaining puzzle, a joy to solve from start to finish.

I think that I have managed to solve everything correctly and have more or less parsed the clues to my satisfaction.

16, 20 and 22D were all new to me, but could be inferred from the wordplay without too many leaps of faith being required. My favourite clues are almost too many to mention today: 6A, for its childcare-themed surface; 6D, for sheer concision and originality; 10, for the split between surface and wordplay appearing in the middle of “sperm // whales”; 23, for its topicality and surprising anagram; and even 15, for sauciness.

I hope others enjoyed this Filbert as much as I did.

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

Across    
     
01 CENOTAPH Eton chap shambles along Whitehall, a sad reminder

*(CENOTAPH); “shambles” is anagram indicator
     
06 BLEARY Sleepy-looking father of three girls cleared out baby clothes

LEAR (=father of three girls, in Shakespeare’s King Lear) in B<ab>Y (“cleared out” means middle letters are dropped)
     
09 ABANDONED SHIP Mum stops swim after Jack and I jumped in the sea

AB (=jack, i.e. able-bodied seaman) + AND + ONE (=I) + [SH (=mum, as in to keep mum) in DIP (=swim)]
     
10 GAMETE Maybe sperm whales eat veg regularly

GAM (=whales, i.e. a school thereof) + E<a>T <v>E<g> (“regularly” means alternate letters only are used); a gamete is an egg cell or sperm cell
     
12 OVERLOOK Discount place for a cistern opening in Knightsbridge

OVER LOO (=place for a cistern, quite literally!) + K<nightsbridge> (“opening in” means first letter only); to discount, as a verb, is to disregard, hence “overlook”
     
13 MEAT MARKET Tinder for one lunch with an evangelist? Satisfied all round

[EAT (=(to) lunch, as verb) + MARK (=evangelist, from the New Testament)] in MET (=satisfied, e.g. a condition); the Tinder sexdate app could be described as a meat market!
     
15 REED A little vibrator was liberating with fellow away

<f>REED (=was liberating); “with fellow (=F) away” means letter “f” is dropped; a reed is a vibrating part of e.g. an oboe
     
16 ASEA Skin last seal in the Atlantic, perhaps

<l>AS<t> <s>EA<l>; “(to) skin” means to strip off the first and last letters; asea is another way of saying at sea
     
18 LITERATURE American volume a new collection of true stories

LITER (=American volume, i.e. US spelling of litre) + A + *(TRUE); “new collection” is anagram indicator
     
21 ANTIGONE Good parts not for me? A tragedy

G (=good) in [ANTI (=not for) + ONE (=me, used formally)]; the reference is to the Greek tragedy by Sophocles
     
22 BEDLAM University’s preparation for teaching strike chaos

BEd (=University’s preparation for teaching, i.e. a Bachelor of Education degree) + LAM (=strike, hit)
     
23 EMINENCE GRISE Unofficial power supply in emergencies?

*(IN EMERGENCIES); “supply”, i.e. “flexibly”, is anagram indicator
     
25 TENNIS On reflection, it’s wrong to trap game

SIN (=wrong, as a noun) + NET (=trap); “on reflection” indicates reversal
     
26 ENFILADE Some back-pedal if near the firing line

Hidden (“some”) and reversed (“back-“) in “-pEDAL IF NEar”; an enfilade is a discharge of firearms that sweeps a line from end to end
     
Down    
     
02 EDAMAME Dutch produce early English green beans

EDAM (=Dutch produce, as noun, i.e. cheese) + A.M. (=early, i.e. in the morning) + E (=English); edamame are soy beans that are harvested green and eaten as a vegetable
     
03 OVA 10s the end of many Russian women?

The names of many Russian women end in the suffix – ova; ova are gametes (=entry at 10), eggs
     
04 ADDLE Not having the front seat on a tandem’s rotten

<s>ADDLE (=seat on a tandem); “not having the front” means first letter is dropped; as an adjective, addle means rotten, putrid
     
05 HANCOCK Comedian’s article Charlie pawned?

[AN (=article) + C (=Charlie, in radio telecommunications)] “in HOCK” (=pawned!); the reference is to British comedian Tony Hancock (1924-68)
     
06 BEDWETTER I’m used to rising damp

Cryptic definition: a bedwetter is wet when he rises in the morning!
     
07 EXHILARATED In heaven I relax – death isn’t normally structured

*(I RELAX DEATH); “isn’t normally structured” is anagram indicator
     
08 REPROVE Carpet salesman set off without an itinerary

REP (=salesman) + ROVE (=set off without an itinerary, roam); to carpet is to reprove, reprimand, rebuke
     
11 EXTRADITION Deporting criminals is no longer the done thing

EX- (=no longer) + TRADITION (=the done thing)
     
14 ALLCOMERS Anyone wanting to play cello with arms flailing?

*(CELLO + ARMS); “flailing” is anagram indicator; tournaments for allcomers are open to all who wish to compete
     
17 SINCERE Not inclined to lie after studying the Ten Commandments, etc

SINCE (=after) + R.E. (=studying the Ten Commandments, etc, i.e. Religious Education)
     
19 TREACLE What’s brown and sticky? Bit of wood a canine left inside

[A + C (=canine, in dentistry) + L (=left)] in TREE (=bit of wood, i.e. of forest)
     
20 REAR-END Hit on a nerd for a change

RE- (=on, regarding) + *(A NERD); to rear-end is to hit the rear of a vehicle with the front of one’s own vehicle
     
22 BOGOF One speaking for the Foreign Office sent over generous offer

Cryptically, an “FO (=Foreign Office) + gob (=one speaking, i.e. mouth)” could be “one speaking for the Foreign Office”!!; “sent over” indicates vertical reversal; a BOGOF is a buy-one-get-one-free promotion, hence “generous offer”
     
24 ILL Jack’s companion is missing Jack badly

<j>ILL (=Jack’s companion, in nursery rhyme); “missing Jack (=J, in cards)” means letter “j” is dropped
     

 

 

17 comments on “Independent 11,245 / Filbert”

  1. Is there anyone else out there?

    We enjoyed the puzzle but perhaps not as much as RR.

    We needed all the two crossing letters and the continual use of a check button for ASEA. We tried a word search on our Chambers app but it wasn’t listed.

    Thanks Ratkojariku for the blog – hope you get some more comments. Thanks also to Filbert.

  2. Thanks both. Yes, I am and also found the puzzle somewhat ‘out there’ with many unknowns and correct entries unparsed….too many to list, and perhaps too revealing of my failings. I also could not find ASEA defined in this context but did not persist beyond Google’s first page. For once, I did not fail on the London landmark – and apparently there is only the one other in Aberdare (a 55 hour walk from the capital)

  3. Enjoyed what I could do and parsed them all, but gave up with 5 unsolved and came here to lick my wounds. Thanks Gilbert for a tough, but enjoyable puzzle and thanks RR for putting me out of my misery.

  5. Looks like we’ve all been beaten up a bit. Sourdough so much that spelling the setter’s name has proven too much 😀 I’m another to retire hurt and needed the blog to make sense of an embarrassingly high proportion. Not on Filbert’s wavelength today. Probably a good thing we didn’t have Gilbert: he’d have beaten me too.

    Thanks Filbert and RR

  7. Thanks both – this was mainly a ‘reveal’ exercise due to time constraints but I had to drop by to register appreciation of BEDWETTER – a welcome chuckle. I could go on (EXTRADITION) but as I said: time….

  9. Tough but fair. Failed on asea, but of course ashore is a thing, so why not? Faves bleary and the simple, elegant extradition. Might finally have learned correct spelling for 7d. Thanks to Filbert for the challenge and RatkojaRiku for the helpful explanations.

  10. This Filbert and Sullivan opus was more Trial and Error than Trial by Jury for me, but some great clues. I’d add BEDLAM to the list above.

  12. Thanks for a great puzzle, Filbert. Like others, I ran aground on ASEA, but otherwise found this so enjoyable that I wanted to persevere to the end despite finding it very challenging in places. Simply top class clueing throughout. 6d is brilliant. So is 6a. And what a great anagram for 23a.

    Thanks for the blog, RR. Your parsing all looks good to me – and well done for unraveling ASEA!

  14. Thanks RatkojaRiku and Filbert.
    Tough but excellent.
    Wordplay led to MEAT MARKET and wondered about its connetion to tinder, until the penny dropped. Very funny.
    That one plus BLEARY, BEDWETTER, GAMETE and ABANDONED SHIP are favs.

  15. So glad I just came to look at the answers and never even saw the puzzle. Filbert’s clues are delightful, but they’re mostly too hard for me. Really enjoyed reading the parsings/explanations, though.

    1ac made me lol. I presume Filbert meant the same particular ‘Eton chap’ shambling down Whitehall that I pictured (still ploughing, watch this space)?

    RatkojaRiku, you’ve accidentally put the answer for 1ac (CENOTAPH) in your parsing, instead of the fodder (Eton chap).

    Just thought of a clue that missed its window:

    Having said that, perhaps pray PM won’t last so long (7)

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