Independent No. 11,507 by Filbert

by

I’ve been offered a piece of advice a number of times over the years,  which has generally stood me in good stead:

“Never get on a ship until you know where it’s going”.

So it came to pass that when the lovely Quirister asked if anyone could cover her Tuesday Indy slot I jumped at the chance. Then the cold fish of reality slapped me full in the face…it was Tuesday,  and of course my nemesis: Filbert.

It’s debatable whether Filbert grids are routinely harder than others, but this is a setter who’s thinking I most often find it hard to “tune into”. Thankfully today I seemed to get my mental receiver dialed in just right, and actually I think I might be getting there with them as a setter.

As one would expect from a setter of this standard,  there are some tricky parsings in the mix, but also some very playful delights. 5a, 9d and 15d being the stand-outs for me.

No obvious theme or Nina that I can see.  There are some words between the lines but I can’t discern any connection or message.

Thanks to Filbert for the grid, and Quirister for the extra slot. Hope you had a nice break.

Surface definitions  in the clues are underlined.

ACROSS

1. Writer filling dictionary made a start (6)

OPENED

Writer [PEN] filling [inside] dictionary [OED]

5. Part of Manchester that sounds suitable for Cockney’s poker game? (7)

OLDHAM

Sounds like “Hold ’em” with the dropped ‘H’

10. Dollar one lost in American’s car (4)

BUCK

“I” removed from BUICK

11. Foolish shot by Surrey’s tail-ender (5)

GOOFY

Shot [GO] by [OF] Surrey’s tail-ender [Y]

12. Noise from animal at home that’s piercing all right (4)

OINK

At home [IN] that’s piercing all right [OK]

13. Senior covered with juice at school, tricked with a lemon? (4,1,3)

SOLD A PUP

Senior [OLD] covered with juice [SAP] at school [UP]

14. Work in tech with oxotic people (6)

ETHNIC

Anag. IN TECH

15. Professionally qualified cleaner wants stool picked up (9)

CHARTERED

Cleaner [CHAR] wants stool picked up [‘TERED’ sounds like TURD]

17. Black dog let out indiscreetly (4)

BLAB

Black [B] dog [LAB =Labrador]

18. Sore from always carrying children (4)

ACHY

Always [AY] carrying children [CH]

19. Untruthful, popular, Conservative, cycling minister (9)

INCORRECT

Popular [IN] Conservative [C] cycling minister [anag. RECTOR]

20. Young Scot’s story with hidden booty? (6)

LASSIE

Story [LIE] with hidden booty [ASS]

22. Forbidden drink, son finishes playing darts (8)

OUTSHOTS

Forbidden [OUT] drink [SHOT] son [S]

In the game of Darts, outshots are the three dart throws a player needs to finish their leg. This is made more complicated by the last dart having to be on s double or the bullseye.

25. Sprite and doughnut for 24 (4)

HOBO

Sprite [HOB] and doughnut [O]. Links to 24d: TRAMP

26. Scud shed tears after introduction to Sid (5)

SWEEP

Shed tears [WEEP] after introduction to Sid [S]

27. Some massive Alsatians butchered young cattle (4)

VEAL

Hidden word: massive Alsatians

28. English toy poodle’s coat tangled in cactus (6)

PEYOTE

Anag. of English [E] and TOY in the outer letters of Poodle [PE]

29. Article in crib possibly a bed cover (6)

CANOPY

Article [AN] in crib [COPY]

DOWN

2. Don briefly embraces Latin underworld boss (5)

PLUTO

Don briefly [PUT ON] embraces Latin [L]

3. Type of crocus which lord first saw on honeymoon? (5,4)

NAKED LADY

Cryptic reference to the “wedding night”

4. Flipping dog one had to extract from a hole (3,2)

DIG UP

Dog [PUG] one had [I’D] flipping [turned over]

6. Priest’s assistant remained behind collecting dues regularly (3,6)

LAY READER

Remained [LAY] behind [REAR] collecting dues regularly [DE]

7. Hot dog with no pee forbidden drink (5)

HOOCH

Hot [H] dog with no pee [POOCH]

8. Beggars admission of failure as a Tinker? (9)

MENDICANT

Tinker is a (fairly anachronistic) term for a travelling person who would carry out small odd jobs and repairs. Hence: ” MEND I CAN’T “

9. Propose new brewery worker makes waste disposal unit (6-7)

POOPER SCOOPER

Propose new [anag PROPOSE] brewery worker [COOPER]

15. Excited spaniel who listened to papa (4-1-4)

COCK-A-HOOP

Spaniel who listened to [sounds like = COCKA HOO] papa [P]

16. Grooming kit to work on frisky setter having tail clipped (6,3)

TOILET SET

Work [TOIL] on frisky setter having tail clipped [anag. SETTER]

17. Live event broadcast including house music (9)

BEETHOVEN

Live [BE] event broadcast [anag. EVENT] including house [HO]

21. White covered by this now yellow (5)

SNOWY

Hidden word: this now yellow

23. Question Charlie with sunhat on (5)

TOPIC

Charlie [C] with sunhat [TOPI] on

24. Tread right in stuff (5)

TRAMP

Right [R] in stuff [TAMP]

19 comments on “Independent No. 11,507 by Filbert”

  1. Thanks, Filbert and Leedsclimber!

    Saw some connected words
    GOOFY, PUP, LAB, LASSIE, HOBO (The Littlest Hobo), PLUTO, LADY and the TRAMP, PUG (in DIG UP), COOPER, HOOCH (Turner and HOOCH), COCKER, SNOWY (Tintin), BEETHOVEN, Alsatians, Spaniel, dog ( in clues)…must be more.

    COCK-A-HOOP
    I think Cocker Spaniel is being referred to. Probably, the blog says the same thing.

  3. ETHNIC
    Should the def be ‘with exotic people’? Not sure.

    NAKED LADY
    And a play on ‘lord’ and ‘lady’.

  4. The theme is dogs and associated equipment. In addition to KVa, I have DIG ( the dog ) and SWEEP ( within the SOOTY threesome of puppets ) and POOPER SCOOPER for equipment.

    Thank you Filbert and Leedsclimber.

  5. Tuesday is theme day. I didn’t spot them all by any means. Yes, the blog should have COCKER, not COCKA and the ORRECT part of 19a is a cycling of RECTOR rather than just an anagram. Finished this in record time for a Filbert. Maybe the theme led to easier clueing than normal?

  6. Not everyone in Oldham will see themselves as part of Manchester. I wondered whether hanging coats or having a hard wick were suitable for poker, but the numeration was wrong anyway.

  7. Smashing fun, thanks Filbert and Leedsclimber.

    Hovis @5 – somehow I remained completely oblivious to the theme while tackling this but it was still towards the quicker end of the Filbert-solving-time spectrum for me.

    Now that I’m aware of the theme, I suspect the surface readings for 21d and 24d are intended to be suggestive of canine behaviour too.

  8. Thanks both. Only narrowly failed to complete unaided, having reversed the opening vowels in PEYOTE, an unknown for me. Spotted the dogs early on, which helped to confirm some including TRAMP, where ‘tamp’ seemed unlikely to mean anything. Reassuring to have the entertaining POOPER SCOOPER to hand in case required

  10. Petert@6 suggests that not everyone in Oldham will see themselves as part of Manchester. There is good reason for that because Oldham is not part of Manchester. Part of the county of Greater Manchester, yes, part of the city of Manchester, no. A bit pedantic? Possibly, but adding the word ‘Greater’ before Manchester in the clue would not have demeaned it and would have made a, let’s be honest, pretty ordinary clue, just slightly better.

  11. …or maybe this “Tinker” is more famous:
    https://www.enidblyton.net/famous-five/five-run-away-together.html
    ‘The Sticks have a dog called Tinker, a very stinky little dog that the gang start to call Stinker, much to Mrs Stick’s annoyance. And as Timmy positively hates that dog and wants to attack it every moment he gets, Mrs Stick threatens to poison Timmy someday. Sure enough, one day Edgar takes food out to Timmy…and George, in a panic, rushes out, snatches it away, and offers to Tinker instead. Then it’s Edgar’s turn to snatch the food away!’

  12. Very enjoyable, particularly liked COCK-A-HOOP and MENDICANT among many fine clues.
    Our bloggers interpretation of INCORRECT is er… incorrect. It’s IN plus C plus RECTOR with the last two letters cycled to the front. The blog interpretation would be an indirect anagram.
    Thanks Filbert and LC

  13. Thanks Filbert. I missed COCK-A-HOOP, a foreign term to me, otherwise this was smooth sailing especially for a Filbert crossword. Good clues as usual including BUCK, CHARTERED, PEYOTE, and CANOPY. Thanks Leedsclimber for the blog.

  14. Thanks Filbert and Leedsclimber.

    Nobody has mentioned the black lab in BLAB, the toy poodle, the frisky setter or the grooming kit as further theme associations

    And surely the definition for 10a is dollar not car as underlined.

  15. I thoroughly enjoyed this, but although most of it went in quite nicely for a Filbert, I got very bogged down at the end (NHO TOPI nor the darts term). Got there in the end!

    Thanks both.

  16. @leedsclimber as I or someone remarked when I swapped and got a Nimrod then a Bannsider who was just as bad, no good deed goes unpunished.

  17. It’s a day late but I (Joyce) only finished it this morning. Bert and I find Filbert’s puzzles a bit ‘obscure’ in terms of some synonyms or definitions. This one was no exception and I have to admit that it wasn’t my cup of tea.

    The darts term was not in Chambers so needed a word search and a check online. I am not sure how anyone could have solved 17d from the definition. To me, Beethoven is a ‘composer’ not ‘music’ but maybe I am missing something. I am not into dogs and have never heard a labrador called a ‘lab’ but it was in Chambers which was something!

    Apart from thanking S&B, I’d like to end on a positive – I did like 9d.

  18. B&J @17: In the US labradors are often called labs e.g. “I have a black lab, I have a chocolate lab”. I too wondered about Beethoven but I rationalised it by thinking “I’ll play some music, I’ll play some Beethoven”.

  19. Thanks Tony Santucci – I take your point about ‘music’ but the definition is still too vague as far as I am concerned. It’ll be interesting to compare notes with Bert. He is in a refuge tonight somewhere in France without a phone signal or wi-fi.

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