Independent on Sunday 1,730 by Filbert

by

The puzzle is available here.

 

Hello everybody.  With Filbert we know to expect clever wordplay and wit, so I was pleased to see his name on this one.

I had to work a bit harder than usual for a Sunday and halfway through began to feel it might be a job to finish.  I was never held up for too long though: whenever I began to fear I was about to get stuck I found a foothold.  It made for a very satisfying solve.

Once again I can’t pick a favourite clue, but not through lack of choice.  Thanks Filbert!

 

Definitions are underlined in the clues below.  In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, explicit [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.  For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.

 

Across

1a    Camilla cleared out most of posh jeweller’s collection (8)
CABOODLE
CamillA without inner letters (cleared out) + most of BOODLEs (posh jeweller’s).
Adding an S to make the jewellers seemed obviously right, so maybe I did know it after all

5a    Contractions beginning for Susie, father’s seconds from impregnating Esther (6)
SPASMS
The first letter of (beginning for) Susie + PA’S (father’s) + the second letters of (seconds from) iMpregnating eSther

10a   Powerful through taking charge after revolution (5)
BEEFY
BY (through) containing (taking) FEE (charge) on reversal (after revolution)

11a   Confusion west of Tripoli as Rommel manoeuvred (9)
MAELSTROM
An anagram of (… manoeuvred) the leftmost letter of (west of) Tripoli and AS ROMMEL

12a   Part for hooter has taped harmony to listen to (9)
NOSEPIECE
Sounds like (… to listen to) KNOWS (has taped) PEACE (harmony).
I had to check that to have taped means to know well

13a   Dominant peak on Hawaii (5)
ALPHA
ALP (peak) + HA (Hawaii)

14a   Little sibling rolled ball (3)
ORB
BRO (little sibling – little as in abbreviated) reversed (rolled)

16a   Fancy a sing in calm Sunday morning practice? (11)
ANGLICANISM
An anagram of (fancy) A SING IN CALM

18a   Flash Charlie’s back at home all evening (11)
SCINTILLATE
C’S (Charlie’s) reversed (back) + IN ‘TIL LATE (at home all evening)

21a   Intelligence of chap who’s not all there (3)
GEN
GENt (chap) without his last letter (who’s not all there)

22a   Land punch smack in the middle (5)
CHINA
CHIN (punch) + the central letter of (… in the middle) smAck

23a   Academic group that is keeping vaguely active (3,6)
IVY LEAGUE
IE (that is) holding (keeping) VAGUELY anagrammed (active)

25a   Courier’s left right box for customers (9)
CLIENTELE
Courier’s left + LIEN (right) + TELE (box)

26a   Malign ring around tree (5)
OLIVE
EVIL (malign) and O (ring), all backwards (around)

27a   Child given doughnut after first class fighting (6)
AIKIDO
KID (child) with O (doughnut) after AI (first class)

28a   Scrap of pink paper that’s a case for scrap collectors (8)
FRAGMENT
FT (pink paper) that contains (that’s a case for) RAGMEN (scrap collectors)

 

Down

1d    Babycino smeared on son’s small hands (5,4)
CABIN BOYS
BABYCINO anagrammed (smeared) + S (son)

2d    Sanction Belgium in a more limited way (5)
BLESS
B (Belgium) + LESS (in a more limited way)

3d    Member wears woolly hijab regularly in sporting arena (7)
OLYMPIA
MP (member) is inside (wears) alternate letters of (… regularly) wOoLlY hIjAb

4d    Mule with leg broken duly skinned, meat for traveller (6,8)
LEMUEL GULLIVER
An anagram of (… broken) MULE with LEG + dULy without outer letters (skinned) + LIVER (meat)

6d    Volkswagen with answer for something red and Italian? (7)
PASSATA
PASSAT (Volkswagen – A VW model) + A (answer).  A smooth Italian tomato sauce

7d    Youngster doing three times tables after end of class (9)
STRIPLING
TRIPLING (doing three times tables) after the last letter of (end of) clasS

8d    Dance in the morning to charge muscles up (5)
SAMBA
AM (in the morning) going inside (to charge) the reversal of (… up) ABS (muscles)

9d    One who succeeded in taking Parliamentary seat? (10,4)
HEREDITARY PEER
A cryptic definition playing on different meanings of “succeeded”

15d   Alibi involved burning part of a candle, an expert’s field (9)
BAILIWICK
ALIBI anagrammed (involved) + WICK (burning part of a candle)

17d   Setter’s satisfied eating roughly separated pie filling (9)
MINCEMEAT
MINE (setter’s) and MET (satisfied) around (eating) CA (roughly) with the C and A taken in separately (separated)

19d   Professional tried hard after losing the lead (7)
TRAINED
sTRAINED (tried hard) missing the first letter (after losing the lead)

20d   Snatch of doggerel on gravestone is anon (7)
ERELONG
A part of (snatch of) doggEREL ON Gravestone

22d   Steamed wheat that has no uses beside a brown foodstuff (5)
COCOA
CO[us]CO[us] (steamed wheat) that has no USes + A

24d   Men talked about superficial appearance (5)
GUISE
GUYS (men), homophone (talked about)

 

14 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,730 by Filbert”

  1. Needed to check whether I had the parsing right. I was uncertain about KNOWS PEACE (not familiar with taped) and the L in CLIENTELE. I failed to parse COCOA but I see it now. My favourite was the anagram for CABIN BOYS. Small hands! I agree with ‘clever and witty’ and also a very entertaining compiler. Many thanks both Kitty and Filbert.

  3. Thanks both. Happy to see ‘chin’ for punch in CHINA as it reminds me of Jack Charlton as a tv pundit in the World Cup, when asked how he would have responded to a certain provocation in the game, to which he answered ‘I’d have chinned him’

  6. Nice to see an unfriendly clue for CHINA, but I can’t even blame a hangover for the amount of help I needed to finish this. I liked the &littish ANGLICANISM.

  7. At 13A, although it had to be ALPHA, I was thrown by the fact that the US postal zip code for Hawaii is HI not HA. No doubt someone will tell me where the latter is used. Otherwise all hunky-dory so thanks Filbert and Kitty.

  9. Very enjoyable as, unlike yesterday, I was on wavelength from the off.
    I thought SCINTILLATE was clever but not keen on “Charlie’s back” to clue SC but the rest I really liked.
    My page is littered with ticks but I’ll mention CABOODLE as it got the puzzle off to a fine start, MAELSTROM as it’s such a great word, CHINA as it made me laugh and SAMBA as it’s a rather incentive way of clueing one of crosswordland’s most popular dances. Good stuff indeed.
    Many thanks Filbert and Kitty.

  10. Some head-scratching required in this one and I did need our blogger’s help to get the full parsing of 12&25a.
    Top three for me were SCINTILLATE, IVY LEAGUE & HEREDITARY PEER.

    Thanks to Filbert and to Miss K & the felines.

  11. I like Filbert’s puzzles and this was very welcome on a Sunday.
    But shorely Hawaii is HI-or has it been changed again

  12. Not quite a Sunday stroll but not a marathon, either. Anyway, we made it to the finish line and parsed it all to boot. Plenty to like, including MAELSTROM, SCINTILLATE and CLIENTELE.
    Thanks, Filbert and Kitty.

  13. Sorry about Hawaii. There is an HA in wikipedia’s table of state abbreviations in eye-catching red which I failed to notice was in the USCG (coastguard) column, next to USPS.

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