Independent 11,500 by Filbert

by

Filbert gets our Indy week going again after the disappointment yesterday.

Not as tough as some Filberts have been, but a few chewy ones to satisfy some solvers. As an aside congrats to my former firework colleagues at Skyburst for winning the UK Championships last week. Thanks Filbert.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
8. Employee often up before the board (7)
TEACHER

Cryptic def referring to black/white/green boards teachers write on. At least I assume they do still and not use Powerpoint or some such abominations.

9. Kinda hot on holiday (2,1,3)
IN A WAY

IN – hot, fashionable & AWAY – on holiday

10. Race circuit announcer retires, to dismay (5)
APPAL

LAP – race & PA – speaker system all reversed, retired.

11. City where you’ll see German book a holiday (9)
BUCHAREST

BUCH german for book & A & REST- holiday

13. Current government incredibly masterful (4,6)
GULF STREAM

What a lovely clue, if somewhat errant surface, G(overnment) & MASTERFUL* incredibly

15. Magazine vendor saving the covers (4)
ELLE

Covers removed from (s)ELLE(r)

17. Complicated taste was prominent (7)
TANGLED

TANG – taste & LED

19. Slow boat departed with mixed load for the east (7)
GONDOLA

GON(e) – departed – with the “e” replaced by a mixed LOAD*

20. Job, Simpson’s first away from Springfield? (4)
DUTY

S(impson) removed from DU(s)TY springfield

21. Heavy metal fan ate sausage sandwiches back in queue (10)
HEADBANGER

Back of (queu)E inside HAD – ate & BANGER – sausage

23. Try to catch Pedro illicitly trapping birds (9)
EAVESDROP

AVES is the biological classification for birds inside PEDRO* illicitly

26. More vintage wine left over, to be returned (5)
OLDER

RED = wine & L(eft) & O(ver) all reversed

27. Part of pistol engineer knocked off (6)
STOLEN

Hidden inside piSTOL ENgineer

28. Don’t fuss about mud brought back into shelter (3,4)
LET RIDE

DIRT reversed inside LEE – shelter

DOWN
1. Ruler‘s honest face (12)
STRAIGHTEDGE

STRAIGHT – honest & EDGE – face

2. Bone someone you like in back of Chevy? (6)
CARPAL

PAL – someone you like – at the rear of CAR – a Chevy say. I assume Chevy was chosen to make you think of US terms for the boot.

3. Miserable place in Wales renovated completely (9)
WHOLESALE

HOLE – a miserable place – inside a renovated WALES*

4. Copy part of 18 (4)
CRIB

18 is nativity and certainly you usually see a crib in such scenes.

5. Police officer failing hard GCSE is fired (10)
DISCHARGED

DI – police officer & a failing [HARD GCSE]*

6. Darling dog that’s partly eaten an antimacassar (4)
NANA

Think Peter Pan, hidden in eateN AN Antimacassar

7. Ultimate ruin worried both sides in court (8)
WATERLOO

ATE – worried & R&L – both sides – all in WOO – court

12. Woman cross after free hair set malfunctions (3,6,3)
THE FAIRER SEX

[FREE HAIR SET]* malfunctioning & X – cross

14. Diversion, husband going the wrong way by traffic light (3,7)
RED HERRING

RED – a traffic light say & H(usband) & ERRING – going wrong

16. Old Peruvian laughs loudly, having secret schemes (2,7)
IN CAHOOTS

INCA – old peruvian & HOOTS

18. New York hosts busy accommodating four for Christmas (8)
NATIVITY

IV – four inside AT IT – busy – all in N(ew) Y(ork)

22. Bird shot dead by comedian (6)
GODWIT

GO – shot & D(ead) & WIT – comedian

24. Very large egg for one person (4)
SOLO

SO – very & L(arge) & O – egg shaped

25. Old man will lose vitality (4)
PALL

PA’LL – dad will

 

21 comments on “Independent 11,500 by Filbert”

  1. I’m assuming the ‘disappointment yesterday’ is the ladies’ football rather than the Hoskins puzzle, flashling 😉

    I don’t know how Filbert is keeping the standard so high whilst producing at such a rate. This was another super crossword and quite a wake up for a Monday morning. Tons to like inc GULF STREAM, GONDOLA, DUTY, CARPAL, WHOLESALE, NANA, WATERLOO, RED HERRING and the delightful GODWIT. Chevy does two jobs to my mind – the successful ‘boot’/’trunk’ misdirection but also a contextual justification for ‘in back of’ which I’d recognise as a US phrase.

    Thanks Filbert and flashling

  2. Thanks, Filbert and flashling! A nice puzzle and an excellent blog!

    CARPAL
    Or a misdirection towards a word meaning ‘bone’ in another sense?

  4. The usual fun struggle to complete this. My only misgiving is that I cannot see ‘edge’ = ‘face’ in 1d. Surely an edge is the boundary between two faces. Did check in Chambers thesaurus but no luck there either.

  5. Not taxing. Lots to entertain, from AVES to ANTIMACASSAR. Loud hoots for WATERLOO, RED HERRING, GULF STREAM, and PALL above all, and the clue for 2d which was excellent. I’m with PostMark@1 around ‘in back of’, although I’d be on the back seat, not in the boot. And I had a Chevy. 1936 sedan. Back seat like a lounge room. Thanks flashling and Filbert.

  7. For a change (for me anyway), a Filbert in which no clue needed explanation, so thank you for that, and to Flashling for the blog of course. Having got German A-level, I took far too long to see BUCHAREST – d’oh! Disappointment from the WWC somewhat offset by the wonderful victory of KJT in the WAC.

  9. Thanks Filbert and flashling

    I’m another who queried the synonymy of face and edge – pace Sofamore @ 6, I think one is seen from above while the other is seen from below.

    And geometers talk of polyhedra having x faces and y edges.

    Chambers Thesaurus doesn’t give equivalence in either direction.

  11. Simon S@9
    STRAIGHTEDGE
    checked if ‘to edge’ meant ‘to face’ in some sense. Couldn’t locate anything.
    Someone may have clarity on this.

  13. KVa@12 Maybe it’s idiomatic. A cabbie sits in the front of the car and the customer sits in the back but you could also put something ‘in the back of’ meaning the boot although you would be more likely to do something ‘in the back of’ meaning the seat.

  15. Sofamore @6. Like Simon said, cliff face and cliff edge are very different. I could stand at the cliff edge (but wouldn’t) for example. Again, the edge is the boundary between two faces, if you image the land leading to the cliff as a face. Also as Simon mentions, a cube for example has 6 faces and 12 edges.

  16. Chambers has for face: 6. the edge of a cutting tool, etc
    I feel like a cad for pointing it out, because if solving I certainly would have gone eh? too

  17. Filbert@16 Thanks for popping in-and for the excellent puzzle.
    I hadnt heard of LET RIDE so I lazily put in LET LIVE
    Silly me.

  20. Thanks Filbert. I got to this late but I still wanted to register my delight with this crossword. I needed a word finder for WATERLOO but all else fell into place. My top picks included GULF STREAM, ELLE, GONDOLA, DUTY, HEADBANGER, EAVESDROP, and WHOLESALE. DUTY took awhile because I was misled by the TV show, The Simpsons, which is set in a town called Springfield. (I wonder if that was deliberate on Filbert’s part.) Thanks flashling for the blog.

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