Filbert is a setter whose work is appearing more rgaularly. I find Filbert’s puzzles quite testing, but satisfying when complete
I think this puzzle is theme and message free. Most Wednesday puzzles are theme and message free.
Clues using ‘dropped soldier’ or something similar for PARA , are being seen quite often at the moment and Filbert increases the occurrences today at 1 across.
I had to think about CIDRE in the wordplay of ACID REFLUX until I dredged up memories of a Stella advert stressing the word CIDRE rather than CIDER, a few years ago.
I thought this was probably one of Filbert’s gentler offerings, but feel free to disagree
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Suspicious armed man dropped in with no credentials (8)
PARANOID (having intense, especially irrational, fear or suspicion) PARA (member of the PARAchute regiment [armed man dropped]) + NO + ID (identity papers; credentials) PARA NO ID |
| 6 | Builder‘s hand really has broken (5)
MASON (builder in stone) SO (really [?]) contained in (has broken) MAN (worker; hand) MA (SO) N |
| 9 | Indicate imminent arrival of wine butt (7)
PORTEND (to warn of as something to come; indicate imminent arrival of) PORT (fortified wine) + END (a butt is the thick and heavy END) PORT END |
| 10 | Family label vase with identical wrapping (7)
SURNAME (family name) URN (vase) contained in (with … wrapping) SAME (identical) S (URN) AME |
| 11 | Setter’s suggestion for bored test solver, say (8,5)
SOUNDING BOARD (person, object or institution used to test the acceptability or effectiveness of an idea, plan, etc; e.g. a test solver) SOUNDING BOARD (possible clue for [crossword setter’s suggestion for]) BORED, although I think the clue would also need a definition) SOUNDING BOARD |
| 14 | Remove tie from fellow leaving enjoyable party (4)
UNDO (untie; remove tie from) FUN DO (enjoyable party ) excluding (leaving) F (fellow) UN DO |
| 15 | A Stella following some light regurgitation (4,6)
ACID REFLUX (regurgitation of acid from the stomach into the oesophagus) A + CIDRE (Stella market a cider drink using the description CIDRE) + F (following) + LUX (SI unit of illuminance; some light) A CID RE F LUX |
| 17 | Male animal parts defendant used (10)
ACCUSTOMED (used [to]) TOM (male cat) contained in (separates; parts) ACCUSED (the defendant) ACCUS (TOM) ED |
| 19 | Dog without lead is an irritation (4)
ITCH (irritation) BITCH (female dog) excluding (without) the first letter (without lead) B ITCH |
| 22 | Dragoon of note turned to salute (4,9)
GOOD AFTERNOON (greet with words salute) Anagram of (turned to) DRAGOON OF NOTE GOOD AFTERNOON* |
| 24 | Springlike as the last ice melts away? (7)
ELASTIC (springy; springlike) Anagram of (melts away) LAST ICE ELASTIC* |
| 25 | All said visit Rome (4,3)
HOLY SEE (the Roman Catholic bishopric [SEE] of Rome, ie the Pope’s SEE) HOLY (sounds like [said] WHOLLY [completely or all) + SEE (visit; SEE the sights) HOLY SEE. |
| 26 | River pretty muddy in the middle (5)
TWEED (river in southern Scotland, flowing within a few miles of where I am writing this blog) TWEE (sentimentally pretty or quaint) + D (central letter of [in the middle] MUDDY) TWEE D |
| 27 | Yankee taken on holiday given a makeover (8)
RESTYLED (given a makeover) REST (holiday) + Y (Yankee is the international radio communication codeword for the letter Y) + LED (guided; taken) REST Y LED |
| Down | |
| 2 | Silver bullet landed accidentally (7)
AGROUND (in a stranded condition; landed accidentally on firm ground rather than staying afloat) AG (chemical symbol for silver) + ROUND (ammunition of one shot; bullet) AG ROUND |
| 3 | Commander accepts objective plan of action (6)
AGENDA (list of things to be done; plan of action) AGA (Turkish commander or chief officer) containing (accepts) END (objective) AG (END) A |
| 4 | Stale or unopened (3)
OLD (past its best; stale) GOLD (in heraldry, OR is defined as the tincture gold or yellow) excluding the first letter (unopened) G OLD |
| 5 | Bidet Edison designed giving trouble (11)
DISOBEDIENT (not doing what one is told; causing trouble) Anagram of (designed) BIDET EDISON DISOBEDIENT* |
| 6 | Peg fully lifting a million tonnes? (8)
MARGARET (Peg is a diminutive of the name MARGARET) TERAGRAM (1012 grams, equivalent to a megatonne [one million tonnes]) reversed (lifting; down entry) MARGARET< |
| 7 | Examine boy brought up in immoral circumstances (7)
SCANDAL (anything that causes moral discredit or injury to reputation; immoral circumstances) SCAN (examine critically) + LAD (boy) reversed (bought up; down entry) SCAN DAL< |
| 8 | Opposing voters minutes out of time (4)
NOES (voters opposing the motion or proposal) NOTES (minutes of a meeting) excluding (out of) T (time) NOES |
| 9 | Carriage’s following river in Russia (8)
POSTURAL (relating to ones carriage; carriage’s) POST (after; following) + URAL (river in Russia) POST URAL |
| 12 | Magician has affair with Romeo after brief snog (11)
NECROMANCER (sorcerer; magician) NECK (informal term for ‘to kiss amorously’) excluding the final letter (brief) K + ROMANCE (affair) + R (Romeo is the international radio communication for the letter R) NEC ROMANCE R |
| 13 | Telephone office without coins (8)
EXCHANGE (central office where telephone lines are connected) EX (without) + CHANGE (coins) EX CHANGE |
| 16 | Like Dorset, remarkably varied (8)
ASSORTED (varied) AS + an anagram of (remarkably) DORSET AS SORTED* |
| 18 | Upended apple Tango can contains something related (7)
COGNATE (related) COGNATE (reversed [upended; down entry] hidden word in [contains] APPLE TANGO CAN) COGNATE< |
| 20 | Rather special ties in film noted for actor’s dress (7)
TOOTSIE (name of a 1982 romantic comedy film that featured a male in female clothing; film noted for actor’s dress) TOO (rather) + an anagram of (special) TIES TOO TSIE* |
| 21 | Ruffled young horse hugs rail at the start (6)
FRILLY (ruffled) FILLY (young mare) containing (hugs) R (first letter of [at the start] RAIL) F (R) ILLY |
| 23 | Dog perhaps that’s bitten son is an irritation (4)
PEST (irritation) PET (a dog is an example of a pet) containing (that’s bitten) S (son) PE (S) T |
| 25 | Hurry, save ten bears (3)
HAS (holds; carries; bears) HASTEN (hurry) excluding (save) TEN HAS |
I found the puzzle trickier than gentle but sometimes it’s like that. Wavelength thing. I couldn’t get on the wave to parse SOUNDING BOARD but otherwise it was cream. Big ticks for OLD, ACCUSTOMED, MARGARET and SURNAME from a star-studded line-up. Thanks to Duncan for the blog (needed you for the ‘lux’ part of 15a) and to Filbert for the fun.
Thanks, Filbert and duncanshiell!
A very enjoyable puzzle and a detailed blog.
Liked SOUNDING BOARD, OLD, POSTURAL and TOOTSIE.
HOLY SEE
(looks like an inadvertent omission)
HOLY sounds like WHOLLY
I also found this tricky. Needed the blog to explain CIDRE. I also couldn’t parse MARGARET and guessed TOOTSIE knowing nothing about the film. Wasn’t sure whether or not ELASTIC was an anagram or an inclusion (thE LAST ICe with ‘th + e’ melting away from the outsides). I went with the latter.
MASON
I hear this sometimes: “You are so going to like this.”
Assuming this is grammatically correct, ‘so’ means ‘really’ here, I think.
Not so=Not really?
Hovis@3
ELASTIC
I agree with your parsing.
KVa @ 2
You are right – I have now added WHOLLY into the blog. It’ll put it down to another senior moment.
Hovis @ 3 and KVa @ 5
Thanks – your suggestion sounds like a plausible parsing.
I found this really tough but fair. Needed the blog for OLD and ACID REFLUX. Thought MARGARET was great. Liked POSTURAL SURNAME and several others too.
Tx Filbert and Duncan.
Sorry if I’m being blind as usual but what is the theme and message?
I spent far too long on this, and only finished with help from a wordlist. Stella = cidre is a step too far in the obscure direction for my liking. Despite which I enjoyed the puzzle, so thanks Filbert and Duncan.
If there is a theme, it’s gone over my head. I thought this was a medium difficulty Filbert puzzle and it was no surprise I couldn’t parse everything. I missed – though shouldn’t have – the parsing for MASON (“those chocolate biscuits were SO good” = “those chocolate biscuits were ‘really’ good”) and had no idea about MARGARET which is one I never would have seen. I had to take CIDRE on trust but it seemed a reasonable bet.
Favourite was the amusing surface for NECROMANCER. Scott’s View over to the Eildon Hills is the wallpaper for my laptop so it was also good to see the River TWEED make an appearance.
Thanks to Duncan and Filbert
I found this a tougher Filbert, it appears, than other posters. A fair amount of use of the check button at the end, though no reveals. I had no idea how to parse MARGARET – what an amazing spot. I’m another ‘hidden word’ parse for ELASTIC – though with just the tiniest bit of unease as there was nothing to indicate either how much ‘melts away’ or that it melts unevenly. Neither are an issue in a ‘normal’ hidden but the clue suggests selective deletion to me rather than hiding within. SURNAME, PARANOID, ACCUSTOMED, NECROMANCER, TOOTSIE and FRILLY were my favourites.
Thanks Filbert and Duncan
Excellent puzzle, really enjoyed this one, I thought the wordply was outstanding throughout. Struggled to get half in, went for a walk along the seafront and virtually wrote the remaining half in on return, it’s amazing what a break can do.
PARANOID came up in today’s Telegraph clued in much the same way so that got me off to a good start.
I particularly liked MASON (clever and succinct) SOUNDING BOARD, HOLY SEE, RESTYLED, TOOTSIE and HAS to name but a few.
Many thanks indeed to Filbert and DS, particularly for the explanation of ACID REFLUX.
This was tricky in places, with the NW corner holding out longest; then we realised ‘suspicious’ was in the sense of having suspicion rather than being dodgy, hence PARANOID and the rest flowed in. Great puzzle; we liked ACID REFLUX, HOLY SEE, COGNATE and particularly MARGARET – our CoD.
Thanks, Filbert and Duncan.
Nick @8: I think Duncan meant to say the puzzle is theme and message free (as Wednesdays usually are).
allan_c @ 13
Well spotted – you are absolutely right. I have missed out an important word which now present in the blog
Thanks Filbert for a top notch crossword. I found this trickier than his last offering but still much easier than what this setter can do. My favourite clues included SOUNDING BOARD, ITCH, MARGARET, NECROMANCER, and ELASTIC. I couldn’t parse OLD; I needed a word finder for ACCUSTOMED but I couldn’t parse that either because I failed to see “parts” as a verb. I spent too long on PARANOID trying to make an anagram from “armed man.” All else eventually clicked. Thanks Duncan for explaining things.