Independent 11,635 by Filbert

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We have a Filbert to blog today.

Whether we are becoming more ‘tuned’ to this setter or whether he is not using so many rather obscure definitions, we are not sure. Whatever the answer we were able to finish the puzzle apart from 6ac pretty quickly. We then looked long and hard at 6ac, even searching in Chambers for the answer (too many to trawl through as it happened) before the penny finally dropped – rather like the ball I would have dropped had it been passed to me (Joyce blogging today).

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Most unusual storing data setting for Amazon, say (10)
RAINFOREST

RAREST (most unusual) around or ‘storing’ INFO (data)

6. Ball beats me! (4)
PASS

Double definition

10. Clear screen (3)
NET

Double definition

11. Object‘s engineers battle time and cost (11)
REMONSTRATE

RE (Engineers) MONS (battle) T (time) RATE (cost)

12. Bandage major laceration on Tuesday (8)
TUBIGRIP

BIG (major) RIP (laceration) on TU (Tuesday)

13. Penny slept with tartan blanket (5)
PLAID

P (penny) LAID (slept with)

15. Work always covering term time for school inspectors? (4,3)
OPEN DAY

OP (work) AY (always) around or ‘covering’ END (term)

16. Stretch things as far as possible, tailor’s suggestion? (3,2,2)
TRY IT ON

Double definition with the second one also being cryptic

17. Navy uniform in stock provides chest brace (7)
STERNUM

RN (Navy) U (uniform) in STEM (stock)

20. Cub leader has grease around head (7)
LIONESS

A reversal (‘around’) of OIL (grease) + NESS (head)

22. Tenants denied outside access (5)
ENTER

rENTERs (tenants) missing first and last letters or ‘denied outside’

23. Speculative citizen swaps an ace for nothing (8)
NOTIONAL

NaTIONAL (citizen) with ‘a’ (ace) being swapped for O (nothing)

25. Old rich Tories drunk on power (11)
PREHISTORIC

An anagram (‘drunk’) of RICH TORIES after P (power)

26. Fix geometric ratio with any number (3)
PIN

PI (geometric ratio) and N (any number as used in mathematics)

27. American drunkard turns to fighting dog (4)
TOSA

A reversal or ‘turn’ of A (American) SOT (drunkard)

28. Only a balloon, thank goodness (4,2,4)
JUST AS WELL

JUST (only) A SWELL (balloon)

DOWN
1. Called and spoke (4)
RUNG

Double definition

2. Maybe burgle independent theatre, committing offence (7)
INTRUDE

I (independent) NT (theatre as in National Theatre) RUDE (committing offence)

3. Instead of proposed refund it swapped bad apples (9,5)
FORBIDDEN FRUIT

FOR (instead of) BID (proposed) and an anagram (‘swapped’) of REFUND IT

4. Promise not to be unfaithful again? (7)
REMARRY

A cryptic definition but not a particularly good one in our opinion

5. Spades also remove the stones from play area (7)
SANDPIT

S (Spades) AND (also) PIT (remove the stones from)

7. Mother in AA not losing love for the hard stuff (7)
ADAMANT

DAM (mother) in AA and NoT losing ‘o’ (love). We had to check the definition – adamant is a name applied by the ancients to various hard substances. It is also an obsolete term for diamond, the hardest substance although there is no indication in the clue that we are looking for an ‘old’ meaning.

8. Son has one meal after another, then seconds, showing determination (10)
STEADINESS

S (son) DINES (has one meal) after TEA (another meal) + S (seconds). This clue made up for 4 down.

9. Cyclops a touch poorly beginning to suspect bug (14)
STAPHYLOCOCCUS

An anagram (‘poorly’) of CYCLOPS A TOUCH + S (first letter or ‘beginning’ to suspect)

14. Pro bottles shot in deep trap (7,3)
LOBSTER POT

An anagram (‘shot’) of PRO BOTTLES

18. Dishes from Lent essentially ashes? (7)
ENTREES

lENt (middle or ‘essential’ letters only) TREES (ashes?)

19. Fellow setter out cycling shows spirit (7)
MANITOU

MAN (fellow) I (setter) and OUT with the last letter moved to the front or ‘cycling’

20. Burning carbon slowing down in novel analysis (3,4)
LIT CRIT

LIT (burning) C (carbon) RIT (slowing down – musical notation)

21. Illustration needs a little help, Max Ernst reflected (7)
EXAMPLE

Hidden in (‘a little’) and reversed (‘reflected’) in hELP MAX Ernst

24. A river that’s partly blue, almost indigo (4)
ANIL

A NILe (‘river that’s partly blue’) missing the last letter or ‘almost’

 

8 comments on “Independent 11,635 by Filbert”

  1. ADAMANT
    Collins has this for ‘adamant’:
    any extremely hard or apparently unbreakable substance

    Thanks Filbert and B&J!
    Top faves: FORBIDDEN FRUIT and SANDPIT.

  2. I am full of admiration for our bloggers’ daily vocab: TUBIGRIP, TOSA and MANITOU took some dredging from the memory banks and I’m pleased to say I am completely unfamiliar with STAPHYLOCOCCUS. Fortunately, the suffix is common enough and I had enough crossers to work my way backwards to the first few letters. ANIL, I have encountered before, though only in crosswords.

    RAINFOREST (nice current surface), REMONSTRATE (neat use of MONS), OPEN DAY (fun def), STERNUM (ditto), PREHISTORIC (super surface), STEADINESS (very humorous story being told) and ENTREES (delightful use of ‘ashes’) deserve highlighting though I could easily double that list.

    Thanks Filbert and B&J

  3. Like our bloggers, I found this comparatively gentle for Filbert. But no doubt the more puzzles one sets, the harder it is to obscurify(?) the clues. Much enjoyed anyway, so thanks Filbert and B&J.

  4. ADAMANT is an interesting word. It’s mainly used figuratively as an adjective now but was originally a noun and the adjective form was adamantine. I don’t think the definition Filbert has used here is obsolete, just uncommon.

    I agree this was towards the easier end of the scale for Filbert, but no less inventive or enjoyable for that. Thanks, F & B & J.

  5. I didn’t know the bug – nor the suffix – so got my Ls and Cs mixed up, possibly with some vague association with tuberculosis leading me to put the C first. A typically inventive and enjoyable puzzle from one of my favourite setters – my picks were the same as PostMark.

    Thanks both.

  6. The STAPHYLO- prefix comes from the Ancient Greek (staphule), meaning “bunch of grapes” As does the -COCCUS suffix (kokkos), meaning “grain, seed”
    Often followed by aureus, which is Latin for “golden”. A very pretty etymology for such an ugly customer.
    Didn’t know that PLAID could be a “blanket” – oed.com has ‘2.b. A piece of such material used as a blanket or bed-covering.’
    Thanks F & B&J – no golden or diamond anniversaries today.

  7. Thanks both. I agree this was an easier Filbert than some, but that was not my initial thinking, until like a good piece of cheese I got on a roll. The bug was always going to be my LOI and so it proved, but at least it was a good educated guess. Agree that REMARRY doesn’t quite work – it felt about right once I had some crossers, but certainly not before.

  8. Thanks Filbert for excellent clues like PLAID, LIONESS, REMARRY, STEADINESS, LOBSTER POT, and MANITOU. I failed with the nho TUBIGRIP, PASS, NOTIONAL, and the clever SANDPIT. Thanks B&J for the blog.

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