Filbert on Wednesday 2 weeks running? Was expecting Eccles to be honest, not a complaint, just surprised.
Duncan is away so you’ve got me filling in, can’t see anything theme-wise, just seems a good standard puzzle which wasn’t quite as brain busting as some have been. Thanks Filbert.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | GRAVEL |
Road surface dangerous with learner on it (6)
|
| GRAVE – dangerous & L(earner) | ||
| 4 | ARTEFACT |
Something made in that cafe traced back (8)
|
| Hidden reversed in thaT CAFE TRAced | ||
| 10 | APPARATUS |
Soldier wears appropriate American kit (9)
|
| PARA – soldier in APT – appropriate & US | ||
| 11 | TODAY |
Dorothy returned always before bedtime (5)
|
| DOT – Dorothy reversed & AY – always | ||
| 12 | ICE |
Reserve in friendly not starting (3)
|
| A decapitated (n)ICE | ||
| 13 | HARP ON ABOUT |
Bore audience with Marx, then steal away (4,2,5)
|
| HARPO (marx) & NAB – steal & OUT – away | ||
| 14 | NEPALI |
Highlander taking European friend through part of UK (6)
|
| E(uropean) & PAL – friend all in NI a part of the UK | ||
| 16 | SETTLER |
Home-maker left feeding dog (7)
|
| L(eft) in dog breed SETTER | ||
| 19 | BATHING |
Sailor recalled terrible night in the sea (7)
|
| Well I don’t bathe in the sea! AB reversed & terrible NIGHT* | ||
| 20 | BARTOK |
Musician‘s skill on bass not bad (6)
|
| Bela BARTOK Hungarian composer & pianist. B(ass) & ART – skill & OK – not bad | ||
| 22 | CRESTFALLEN |
Dejected crowd initially remain totally stuck in Slough (11)
|
| C(rowd) & REST – remain & ALL – totally in FEN – slough, muddy area | ||
| 25 | LEE |
Calm side with eleven in prime positions (3)
|
| 2,3 and 5 are the first 3 primes so in prime positions eLEvEn | ||
| 26 | ROBOT |
Worker never affected by nasty smell in trash (5)
|
| BO nasty whiff in ROT | ||
| 27 | DOT MATRIX |
Cook prepared tart mix, printing method (3,6)
|
| DO – cook as in cooking the books & [TART MIX]* prepared | ||
| 28 | DEWY-EYED |
Naive exploit crossing river ending in tragedy (4-4)
|
| WYE – a river &end of (traged)Y all in DEED – exploit | ||
| 29 | WHEELS |
Car with parts replaced at last (6)
|
| W(ith) & HEELS, heels can be replaced by cobblers using a last | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | GOALIE |
Leave a pound, that is for saver (6)
|
| GO – leave & A & L – £ – pound & IE – that is | ||
| 2 | AT PRESENT |
11 tennis administrators consider an injury (2,7)
|
| 11 is “today”, ATP governing tennis body & RESENT | ||
| 3 | EARTH |
Planet core’s hot all the way down (5)
|
| HEART – core with H(ot) moved to the bottom | ||
| 5 | RESPONSIBILITY |
Slip in sobriety affected business (14)
|
| [SLIP IN SOBRRIETY]* affected | ||
| 6 | EXTRACTOR |
Two appearing in film having a mutual fan (9)
|
| EXTR[A] & [A]CTOR | ||
| 7 | AUDIO |
Sound from Abbado, perhaps lacking volume at the start (5)
|
| CLAUDIO Abbado was an Italian conductor, you need to remove CL – centilitre – small measure of volume – from that. Not at all obvious how you’d cold solve that | ||
| 8 | TOY STORY |
Republican not in Conservative’s right-wing film (3,5)
|
| R(epublican) removed from TO(r)Y’S – conservative’s & TORY – right wing | ||
| 9 | STARTING HANDLE |
Crank‘s maiden name? (8,6)
|
| Well a maiden name would be one’s first surname – name – “handle” | ||
| 15 | ARISTOTLE |
Alexander’s Greek tutor trained tsar to lie (9)
|
| [TSAR TO LIE]* trained | ||
| 17 | LOOM LARGE |
With left coming in, can Maggie seem important? (4,5)
|
| LOO – can, toilet & L(eft) in MARGE – maggie | ||
| 18 | OBSCURED |
Sob uncontrollably, better out of sight (8)
|
| SOB* uncontrollably & CURED – better now | ||
| 21 | XERXES |
King of Persia the other king raised (6)
|
| SEX – a bit of the other & REX – king all reversed | ||
| 23 | ELBOW |
Intestine looped around bend (5)
|
| BOWEL – LBOWE – ELBOW | ||
| 24 | NEATH |
Husband supports tidy Welsh club (5)
|
| NEAT – tidy & H(usband) |
Goodness, this setter manages to keep the bar high – and then leaps it every time. Another fizzing puzzle with tons of invention. And a delightful set of surfaces and images therein. I was held up for ages on LOI WHEELS. It doesn’t matter how many London gangster movies I watch (not many tbh), I never think of car = wheels and I was sure the W was ‘parting’ or being inserted into something.
I could tick so many as favourites – but that would make for a very long post – so, trying to winnow it down to favourite favourites, I end up with GRAVEL, APPARATUS, TODAY, HARP-ON-ABOUT, BATHING, CRESTFALLEN, GOALIE, EARTH, EXTRACTOR and TOY STORY. Which is still a long list.
My only teensy raised eyebrow was at the repetition of insertion of left = L in two intersecting clues for SETTLER and LOOM LARGE but that’s probably because I solved those two consecutively.
Thanks Filbert and flashling
Thanks Filbert and flashling!
Top faves: HARP ON ABOUT, DOT MATRIX, BATHING, STARTING HANDLE and XERXES.
Today is World Environment Day. I was looking for a theme related to this.
Unable to make many connections. EARTH, GRAVEL, DEW, ICE, BATHING, sea… Can’t see any climate change-related words. So…
As usual, I will be proved wrong quite soon.
Second time in a week that a ‘mutual A’ has appeared, though don’t remember seeing it before. Excellent, so thanks Filbert and Flashling.
All about wavelengths.. n this was ok for me. Didn’t see how ELBOW worked, but flashling sorted that.. only saw the “mutual A” after the fact but I’m OK with that.. took a while for my favourite Marx brother to fall into place also.. agree with blog re “audio”, thankful for the crossers n Mr G for confirmation… otoh spotted the “prime” thing early on, which just goes to show that old dogs can learn new tricks, and I was unaware that Aristotle was Alexander’s tutor.. every day a school day..
Thanks Filbert n flashling..
Also WHEELS last in for me, having tried to think of a car manufacturer that would fit. Removing CL to get AUDIO was clear enough, but I couldn’t see why it was a volume. Thanks flashing for the explanation.
I so wanted 21d to be P+ELVIS = PELVIS. Maybe next time…
Thanks Filbert and the aforementioned flashling.
Thanks both. I tend only to reveal the setter’s identity part way in, and my suspicion this was Filbert was right today, as it became the usual experience of feeling a long way short of succeeding before things gradually come together. Apart from AUDIO which went in unparsed, and WHEELS wherein the construction was too clever for me to justify initially, I got there as before and enjoyed doing so, however even knowing by experience what a STARTING HANDLE is does trouble me a little.
What a good day it has been for crosswords and this was up there with the best of them. Thanks
TFO@6. I feel old remembering my cars with chokes and carburettors.
At least you didn’t need the man with the flag. Although I do remember some of my neighbours using a starting handle.