We missed blogging Filbert last week as we swapped with Quirister.
If we haven’t already checked the setter’s name before we start solving, we can normally identify a Filbert puzzle. There are often some ‘tenuous’ synonyms in our opinion although just lately we seem to be more on the setter’s wavelength.
However, there were a number of clues which we weren’t happy with today and would welcome other opinions. The definitions in 11ac and 21d are dubious (in our opinion) and we may well be missing something in 13ac. 7d was in our view a bit ‘clunky’. However, on the plus side we liked 22ac and the surface reading of many others, including 1ac and 23d.
Hidden (‘with early and late crops’) in promiseD ROUGH Time
I (one) in or ‘collected by’ CHoPPER (helicopter) missing or ‘dropping’ o (over)
CAST (shed) A (American) NETS (clears as in earns)
sPRANG (jumped) without first or ‘starting’ letter
An anagram (‘engineer’) of BORED TUNNELS around E (Spain). Does ‘experienced’ really mean ‘under ones belt’?
Well…….. a bridge could be an overpass. A ‘pass’ in Bridge (the card game) is used when you say that you will not win any tricks. Not being aficionados of the game, we are not sure whether Filbert wants us to think of this as a cryptic definition, clue as definition or double definition!
KITS (small furry animals CH (children) – we initially thought ‘pictures’ was superfluous, but apparently ‘kitsch’ can refer to art etc
D (departs) ROVER (dog)
An anagram (‘forms’) of GIRL and UCAS
OUTSTANDING (not yet dealt with) LarcenY (first and last letters only or ‘case’)
THe ROW (the argument) without or ‘saving’ e (energy)
An anagram (‘badly’) of COPS TREAT
W (with) inside or ‘cutting’ YET (still) + RE (on) E (last letter or ‘end’ of table)
SPOT (notice) LIT (drunk)
A homophone (‘mentioned’) of DOC (medic) – dock leaves are traditionally used to ease the pain from stinging nettles although a quick check on-line seems to indicate that they don’t really work.
OBS (old boys) CURE (smoke)
Double definition where a ‘monkey’ is £500
OR (gold) inside or ‘hoarded by’ THEIST (person who believes)
C (century) AS IN (which means) O (nothing)
An anagram (‘scattered’) of NINA’S PIGS
E (earth) inside or ‘covered by’ PLANTS (vegetation) – the definition alludes to the fact that the other planets may not have any vegetation. However, we are not sure that the surface reading works.
A Spoonerism of WHITE (milky) RAIL (bar) – you probably have to be of a ‘certain age’ to remember the ‘Milky Bar kid’.
An anagram (‘made silly’) of TORY HOWARD
PEEL (rind) WE’Re (we are) missing last letter or ‘mostly’ around or ‘bagging’ TO. A Peel Tower is a small fortified keep.
BUS (public transport) IN mESS without or ‘losing’ m (millions)
O (old) plus an anagram (‘wobbly’) of GUT OR followed by W (weight)
CRY (shout) STALl (stop) missing or ‘dislodging’ L (learner)
The answer is hidden (‘out of’) and reversed (‘on the counter’) in crimplenE IS ENOrmous. We checked the definition of a ‘suit’ in Chambers as we weren’t happy about the answer. A suit is defined as a a number of articles made to be worn together or matching trousers or skirt plus a jacket. A ‘onesie’ though is by definition a one-piece!
GET (to understand) GO (complicated game)
G (grand as in 3d) RIT (ritardando – slowing down in musical notation)
OVERPASS
My thinking matches yours.
You PASS when you don’t want to bid. You bid too rarely or you PASS too much—->OVERPASS.
UNDER ONE’S BELT
In a way, it means experienced, I think. More exactly ‘having in one’s possession’ but
‘experienced’ could be acceptable.
ONESIE
There is one ‘cut’ hanging loose. Not clear of its purpose. Is onesie a suit cut?
I have no knowledge.
PLANETS
Though clear, it makes an odd reading as the blog points out.
Thanks, Basilisk and B&J!
I think if you bid too rarely you must pass a lot. I don’t have a problem with that.
I liked ONESIE and thought of it as an animal suit in the same way a tiger suit is.
OVERPASS
Looks like a Clue-as-def as well as one Cryptic def+a def. Interesting clue.
(I can say I agree with the blog in this regard).
UNDER ONE’S BELT was odd, I agree and PLANETS was clunky but in a fun kind of way. My only gripe is RIT in GRIT because I didn’t know it and couldn’t find it. Thanks B&J and Filbert.
Well, I liked OVERPASS, PLANETS & ONESIE (is a ‘birthday suit’ a suit?).
ONESIE: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/onesie has ‘2. One-piece adult loungewear jumpsuit.’ The surface may be alluding to tailoring and cutting.
UNDER ONE’S BELT: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/under_one%27s_belt has ‘Already done; within one’s experience; practiced.’
I liked OVERPASS & PLANETS, too
ONESIE
Probably, ‘cut (on the counter) out of’ is one chunk of hidden & reversal indicator.
As FrankieG says, there are other examples of one-piece suits – jump suit, boiler suit. Perhaps the defining character of a suit is that the bottom matches the top? I can’t say the nature of suits is something I have thought about much.
Also as others have indicated UNDER ONES BELT makes more sense if you think of having experienced, rather than being experienced. I think PLANETS was my favourite.
On the whole very enjoyable.
Like others I think a ONESIE as a suit is legit in that it covers the whole body. I can’t however quite square “UNDER ONES BELT” with experienced, surely it’s “a part of one’s experience”, I can’t see how they are directly interchangeable. ROVER for dog is very dated, they all have rather grand human names now!
THROW, DOCK, GRAND,CASINO, CRYSTAL and GRIT were my picks.
Thanks Filbert and B&J.
We got on fine with this, finding it at the easier end of Filbert’s difficulty range. Maybe it was a bit clunky in places but we didn’t notice at the time. No real favourite(s), though.
Thanks, Filbert and B&J.