Independent 11,668/Filbert

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Filbert is quite the regular in the Indy at the moment. He is a setter who can move the difficulty level up and down according to the brief – and the brief for a Monday Independent puzzle has typically been for something not too taxing. Which is what this turned out to be, for me at least.

Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed

definitions are underlined

Across

1 Popular delicacy not touched
INTACT
A charade of IN and TACT.

4 Cycle rickshaw collecting man from the mosque?
CLERIC
Hidden in cyCLE RICkshaw.

9 Rain slightly slants to the left
SPIT
A reversal (‘to the left’) of TIPS.

10 Walker on water has think about tricky task
POND SKATER
An insertion of (TASK)* in PONDER. The insertion indicator is ‘about’ and the anagrind is ‘tricky’.  I normally only do links for birds, but these little insects can do cool things, so here‘s a picture of one.

11 New car on end of drive gets transparent cover
CORNEA
(CAR ON E)* with ‘new’ as the anagrind.

12 Vote for DeSantis, perhaps showing a little negativity?
ELECTRON
If you voted for the US Republican, you might ELECT RON, and of course an ELECTRON is a small, negatively charged particle.

13 Peculiarity disguised by wise nerds
WEIRDNESS
(WISE NERDS)* with ‘disguised by’ as the anagrind.

15 Prize boxer gets hit hard
BELT
A dd.

16 Use drugs to take part in school sport?
DOPE
A charade of DO and PE.

17 Fats Waller treated, removing small cataract
WATERFALL
(FAT[S] WALLER)* with ‘treated’ as the anagrind.

21 Protecting dress, mother getting on rubber glove
MARIGOLD
An insertion of RIG in MA and OLD. The insertion indicator is ‘protecting’.

22 Hard-headed wife interrupts scrap
SHREWD
An insertion of W in SHRED. The insertion indicator is ‘interrupts’.

24 Power behind cooker to sort out in advance
PREARRANGE
A charade of P, REAR and RANGE.

25 Very little pressure creates leak
WEEP
A charade of WEE and P.

26 Tinker sounded gong
MEDDLE
Aural wordplay (‘sounded’) for MEDAL. Having the homophone indicator in the middle can lead to two answers; but here they are of different word lengths, so only one is possible.

27 A pain at night hurting more around noon
SNORER
An insertion of N in SORER.

Down

1 Naughty child learning to beg
IMPLORE
A charade of IMP and LORE.

2 That thing in bronze is a Greek god
TITAN
An insertion of IT in TAN. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.

3 Last to leave the ship bemused at panic
CAPTAIN
(AT PANIC)* with ‘bemused’ as the anagrind.

5 Protected from demolition, like Pisa’s tower
LISTED
A dd.

6 Criticise and complain, bloody food
ROAST BEEF
A charade of ROAST and BEEF. Not everybody likes it bloody, but chefs will tell you that’s the best choice.

7 Fidel’s friend given radical cigar
CHEROOT
A charade of CHE [Guevara] and ROOT. ‘Radical’ refers to the √ symbol that is used to denote square or other mathematical roots.

8 Ken short of stature?
UNDERSTANDING
A dd cum cd.

14 Carpet salesman, fellow breaking free
REPRIMAND
A charade of REP and MAN inserted into RID. The insertion indicator is ‘breaking’.

16 Maid with rag smeared picture
DIAGRAM
(MAID RAG)* with ‘smeared’ as the anagrind.

18 Whale’s back behind ship coming from China, say
EASTERN
A charade of E for the final letter of ‘whale’ and ASTERN.

19 Ratio initially reversed in Carnivora, e.g. wolves
LOW GEAR
Hidden reversed in CarnivoRA EG WOLves.

20 Rancher’s pen is pink, containing hint of red
CORRAL
An insertion of R in CORAL. The insertion indicator is ‘containing’.

23 One in eight perhaps quarrelsome type?
ROWER
A dd.

Many thanks to Filbert for this Monday’s puzzle.

14 comments on “Independent 11,668/Filbert”

  1. CAPTAIN for the surface, ELECTRON for ‘a little negativity’ and SNORER for the def as well. Too easy. Thanks Pierre and Filbert.

  2. BELT is of course the correct answer to 15A but I couldn’t see it at 5 a.m, so put WELT which sort of makes sense imho as ‘welt’ = hit hard and abbreviation for welterweight. No? Oh all right then. Thanks Filbert and Pierre.

  3. Very Mondayish: I felt I had to doublecheck the name of the setter after my first pass through left a largely completed grid.

    INTACT, SPIT, ELECTRON, SHREWD, SNORER and CAPTAIN are my favourites today in a puzzle that probably was over, as Sofamore suggests, a little too swiftly – but I only complain a tad because I enjoy Filbert’s work so much. No complaints from me at him being the floating regular.

    Thanks Filbert and Pierre

  5. Very enjoyable. For BELT, I had the first definition as “Prize boxer gets”. I see FrankieG said the same whilst I was typing.

  7. It’s really impressive that Filbert can produce a very Monday-ish puzzle without any apparent loss of clever misdirection and PDMs. I thought BELT was outstanding, because it’s not hard, but the surface is both smooth and neatly misleading. “Prize [which] boxer gets” (as per FrankieG and Hovis) was never on my radar as a def until I got it from the second half.

    INTACT, CAPTAIN, ELECTRON, SNORER and REPRIMAND were all lovely, LISTED and UNDERSTANDING produced a smile and LOW GEAR’s definition was quite subtle.

    Thanks Pierre and Filbert

  8. This was the first time I’ve managed to complete the crossword without any help.

    12A. Electron was my favourite.

  9. Well done Peedubz!

    This was typical fun from Filbert, with my LOI CORNEA going in satisfyingly once I stopped thinking ‘new car’ was giving me NKA at the end.

    Thanks Pierre & Filbert.

  10. Hadn’t heard of a cataract WATERFALL or the term radical for a mathematical ROOT. (Unlikely I’ll remember that until I’ve seen it another 3 or 4 times). I doubt 17a could have been anything else and CHEROOT was obvious even if not entirely parsed

    Other than those all went in perfectly.

    Peedubz @8 – Congrats!! Good feeling isn’t it? I managed to complete my first ever Indy cryptic using a printout and pencil during lockdown 1, and came here to express my pleasure at having done so. I do them daily on the online app now and I can’t say that it would be too often that I feel 100% confident of having all the correct answers until I see the confetti come down.

    Thanks to Filbert for toning down the toughness and to Pierre for filling in the gap in my GK.

  11. I agree what people are saying about this being on the easy end of the spectrum. I’ve often been defeated by Filbert.

    Incidentally, Chambers gives radical to mean a root in any sense. I remember from O-level biology that a radical can be a root produced by a germinating seed.

  12. As far as I remember all the meanings of radical come from radix Latin for root. Just think radish to remember.

    Lovely Monday crossword – much more restful than Grunniad which I was less fond of.

    Loved the use of cycle not indicating switching letters from one end to other. Really foxed me.

    Thanks Filbert and Pierre

    And congratulations peedubz

  13. You’ve got a little Foxes and Filbert (Street) vibe going on there Matt. So much more charming than King Power Stadium, isn’t it?

    An excellent puzzle.

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