Filbert was on duty last Sunday so a little surprised to see him on again today.
Hard in places as you’d expect, for a change Filbert has included a helpful Nina, the outside columns read HELPFUL LETTERS although they weren’t particularly helpful until late in the solve, thanks Filbert.
Over to you for comments & corrections.
HO(use) & OVER for too. Now just a generic name for vacuum cleaning
US – American & TAR – sailor all in CD – recording
Initial letters of E(lection) A(gree) R(ecount) L(est)
Cryptic def, can’t see any wordplay anyway.
All in one clue. End term of (rop)E after [I FELL IN]* at sea. Nicely done setter.
An evacuated S(mar)T & RIFE – widespread
Jerry meaning bedpan or PO & MAD – furious & end of (warn)E. I’m not sure if there was some extra story about a row between someone called Jerry and Warne 🙂
CHAR – clean inside or boxed by PIET (mondrian)
FIRED – made redundant & A & MP – politician
TEG a youngish sheep & RAT – grass, sing all reversed
Usually of beds, well mine. A made over [MAN DUE]*
T(ime) inside PREEN – to groom & CE – church
LAD – boy & I.E. – that is & BLIND – swear
I guess this is meant as an all in one, although I’m still not really seeing the meaning unless user of E(cstasy). The second S in USSR is Socialist so replace that with E – ecstasy – 27a
Sounds a bit like EX TO SEE I guess, just about, maybe. hmm
NATO* manoeuvring inside SS – ship. A Brazilian port
Without the “limits” (w)OMAN I(s)
Hmm, ok you need LOVE CAFE & and of (descen)T reversed so TEFACEVOL then cycle 3 times to get VOLTE-FACE. Obvious really.
REF – official & RIG – outfit on top of E(nglish) & RATE – judge
LOSE – miss inside CUP – tournament
Double def
F(ellow) removed from (f)AIRER – lighter
The spoiler on a sporty car. DOWN – gloomy & end of (titani)C in FORE – golfer’s warning
SEE THE ARTS – understand culture with W(omen) inserted
Front of O(dd) & RIEN – French for nothing & TATE for the gallery
Alternate letters of tHeAtRe & L(arge) and the end of EQUIN(e) missing
PEPPER to dot & Y(ear)
V(ictor) removed from (v)ARIES. Zodiac “house”
C(onservative) & REDO – put differently
Hidden – accommodated by whoSE Attitude
Couldn’t parse HOOVER correctly but it was an obvious solve. Thanks. Agree about 10a (lepidopterist didn’t fit) and with the parsing for drug USER (of ecstasy). Otherwise, a tough and entertaining challenge which I expected and enjoyed very much. In future, I must look out for helpful hints with Filbert. I liked PIE CHART most of all, and DOWNFORCE, TARGET (I’ve heard of two-tooths but now I know TEGS) and ORIENTATE (after spending too much time trying to accommodate the odd letters of gallery) a lot. Then again, I liked ’em all. Thank you very much.
Liked LIFELINE, SWEETHEARTS and CREDO.
ECSTASY
Experts will have something to say. Let’s wait and see.
USER
As you indicate, it should be an &lit.
FRONT CRAWL
…is the first lesson a butterfly expert (a butterfly stroke (swimming) expert) will give the beginners (who have just got out of the comfort of their floaties/water wings)?
I don’t know if the front crawl is the first type of stroke taught in swimming. With the ? in place, we have the option to say yes or no.
Thanks, Filbert and flashling!
I had no issue with “ex t’ see”.
Strong work from Filbert this morning. Got to admit I struggled to get on their wavelength for a lot of it and 10a still escapes me!
Thanks Flashling for the blog.
10A: if a butterfly’s wings were removed, it would have to crawl. Horrible thought! Doesn’t work anyway. Thanks Filbert and Flashling. What happened with yesterday’s Phi?
I found this tricky – mainly the clues that have been eyebrowed in the blog. I am still struggling to get FRONT CRAWL and am hoping the setter might drop in at some point and reveal something we have all missed. USER and ECSTASY also went in with a bit of a shrug and I’m afraid I just anagrammed VOLTE FACE. Although I am not keen on ‘cycling’ as an anagrind, there is form for it appearing as such and I do think of Filbert as one who is happy to stretch the boundaries a little. I cannot see anything connecting the nina to the puzzle and feel I am missing something.
That said, the gems in here more than made up for the eyebrow exercise. LIFELINE is superb, as is PIE CHART. I also liked EARL, LADIESWEAR, CLOSE UP, HARLEQUIN and SEA. I was helped by seeing REFIGERATE clued in a very similar way rather recently.
flashling – I can shed no light on who Jerry might be (for some reason, Hall was in my mind as a Jerry with a lot of hair) but I do recall Shane Warne, the Australian cricketer, promoting some kind of hair replacement treatment?
Thanks Filbert and flashling
I always find this setter’s puzzles tricky and this one I thought particularly.
Even with KVa’s semi plausible explanation I think FRONT CRAWL is a bit of a stretch to say the least so I suspect there may be something more to it, and, like PM, I simply made an anagram from the fodder for VOLTE-FACE. I think setter’s should be given a degree of artistic licence with homophones so I quite liked ECSTASY.
Top clues for me though we’re the excellent LIFELINE along with SEA, LADIESWEAR (the mind boggles at the possibilities conjured up by the surface read!) DOWNFORCE and ORIENTATE.
Many thanks F&f.
I entered “float crawl” for 10A, without looking up whether it actually was a stroke, thinking of the intermediate step in swimming when you hold a float and kick to propel yourself. However, on consulting Google that isn’t a thing. Great puzzle, didn’t notice the nina.
We needed a wordfinder for SWEETHEARTS, and only got FRONT CRAWL when the nina gave us L for the last letter of 10ac; till then we’d being trying to find the name of a butterfly – possibly some sort of ‘brown’. Apart from that no problems and plenty to like.
Thanks, Filbert and flashling.
I’m with Hovis on EX T’ SEE. If I’m going to see someone, that’s exactly how it sounds.