Independent 11,806 by Filbert

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The prolific Filbert has this week’s random spot on Monday available here

I quite often struggle when solving Filbert and today is no different, over to you

ACROSS
1 LEAD TO THE ALTAR
Make your wife a metal finger, to recover from injury on pitch (4,2,3,5)
LEAD – a metal & TOT – finger as in “just a finger of whisky for me” & HEAL – recover & TAR – pitch
10 ASPIRIN
Drug reduced dreaming (7)
Most of ASPIRIN(g)
11 GALLOWS
German gives permit for tree to swing from (7)
Lovely surface huh? G(erman) & ALLOWS
12 DIRE
End of round Fury fell (4)
Somewhat archaic to my mind meaning of fell. So end of (roun)D & IRE – fury
13 SPOT-WELDER
See tungsten from earlier – one sticks by melting point (4-6)
SPOT – see & W – Wolfram=Tungsten & ELDER
16 CARMENERE
Red Ferrari, say, Frenchman reversed into me (9)
A red grape or wine variety. CAR – Ferrari say & Frenchman RENE (think Allo Allo) reversed in ME
17 RARE
Neither seen nor done much (4)
Double def (ish) Done – cooked
18 SCOT
Northerner races just outside London, missing the start (4)
Racecourse ASCOT missing the opening letter
20 EMACIATED
Most soldiers on special duty came back wasted (9)
Most of DETAI(L) – special duty & CAME all reversed
24 ANABAPTIST
Satan a bit silly admits quiet Protestant (10)
P – quiet musically in a silly [SATAN A BIT]*
25 HAIL
Dictator’s healthy cold shower (4)
Sounds like HALE – healthy
27 POSTDOC
PhD still researching clubs at the end of office party (7)
POST – office & DO – party & C(lubs)
29 ALLEGED
Waiting for proof purely for one editor (7)
ALL – purely & EG – for one & ED(itor)
30 PANTOMIME HORSE
Two in costume metamorphose in plays (9,5)
A playing [METAMORPHOSE IN]* cutely misleading fodder
DOWN
2 EMPEROR
Wasting time, harden gold sovereign (7)
T(ime) removed from (t)EMPER – to harder & OR – gold heraldically. Is an emperor a sovereign?
3 DORM
Where those who board get off? (4)
Cryptic def about sleep and boarding schools
4 OMNIPRESENT
Broadcast on Prime transmitted everywhere simultaneously (11)
[ON PRIME]* broadcast & SENT – transmitted
5 HOG
Keep to yourself, through avoiding every other character (3)
Alternate letters of tHrOuGh
6 ALL-TERRAIN
Change wet clothes left for rides in the country (3-7)
L(eft) in ALTER – change & RAIN – wet
7 TO ORDER
Communist radical picked up as requested (2,5)
RED – communist & ROOT – radical all reversed
8 ROSARY
Alternative to a ‘sorry’ which penitent might say? (6)
[A SORRY]* alternatively
9 BARDIC
Local gumshoe that’s heard of a poet (6)
BAR – local, pub & sounds like DICK – private eye, gumshoe
14 THE BAY STATE
MA cleared out Turkish auctioneer’s gallery (3,3,5)
MA is the code for Massachusetts which is The Bay State. A cleared out T(urkis)H & auction site EBAY’S & TATE gallery
15 WESTWARD HO
Waste littered road in which seaside town? (8,2)
WASTE* littered & R(oa)D in WHO/which, although the town does have an exclamation mark at the end !
19 COARSEN
Dull Conservative retains seat (7)
ARSE – seat inside CON(servative), sadly some of the more arsy did.
21 TEAR-GAS
Will it make one within orbit run? (4-3)
Cryptic def, I think, can’t see any wordplay but there might be,
22 DELUDE
Con escaped bottom first (6)
ELUDED, bottom letter moved to the start
23 CAMP UP
Exaggerate about medium dog that’s really small (4,2)
C(irc)A & M(edium) & PUP – small dog
26 ALSO
American orchestra in London too (4)
American & the L.S.O. – famous orchestra
28 CHI
X installed by techie (3)
Hidden in teCHIe

15 comments on “Independent 11,806 by Filbert”

  1. 2d EMPEROR: VR – Victoria (I, the first and only) Regina was also known as Victoria Imperatrix, as we learned recently here (@4 & @6).
    I’d nho 16a Carménère. Nor had oed.com, but Wikipedia has.
    Thanks F&F – F

  2. Last few took me as long as whole of rest of puzzle (bottom rh corner)

    Liked a lot. NHO of Carmenere – I put in carnelian tentatively and then forgot to check if correct when it was holding me up

    Thanks Filbert (again! Lots of puzzles) and flashsong

  3. Ah Carménère is a Red Wine. Originally grapes from Bordeaux region but now almost exclusively from Chile.

    I just came back to look for parsing of tear-gas. A bit flimsy – I can see nothing apart from cryptic definition.

  4. Liked LEAD TO THE ALTAR, THE BAY STATE and TEAR-GAS (I can’t see any WP but I liked it anyway).

    Thanks Filbert and Flashling!

  5. Re TEAR GAS: I think it’s (sort of) a double cryptic definition. Orbit = eye socket, and tear gas makes your eyes run; and its effect is to make those within its range (orbit) run away.

  6. Very nice. Tricky for a Monday but doable with only DORM holding out obstinately, even though I knew it was something to do with sleeping. ASPIRIN, CARMENERE, RARE, ANABAPTIST, HALE, POSTDOC, HOG, ALL-TERRAIN and ROSARY is my long list of likes with the delightful CAD PANTOMIME HORSE as favourite clue.

    Thanks Filbert and flashling/sing/song

  7. Good to hear you struggled, flashing. My first Filbert, and I needed nearly 20% help, even though carmenere was the only nho. Will see how I go next time, thanks both.

  9. Also struggled with this and well beaten. Had absolutely no idea about 1a, the seaside resort or the state, but I do now. A very good grid as usual when all is revealed. Liked ROSARY and DELUDE. Thanks flashing and Filbert.

  11. Thanks both. Feeling very self-congratulatory having solved unaided, as it was a proper struggle. Not knowing W for Tungsten delayed SPOT WELDER. DIRE was nearly my first in, but became nearly my last as I couldn’t justify the definition but I guess it is in the sense of ‘one fell swoop’?….and therefore just as old.

  12. I had to research the Massachusetts name. I struggle with even the state abbreviations. Why is it the Bay State? I enjoyed the crossword though, especially PANTOMIME HORSE. Thanks to Filbert and Flashling.

  13. Excellent stuff even though I didn’t do well with 1ac even after I’d filled in _ E _ D TO THE ALTAR… the red mist came down n the metal part of the clue disappeared into the ether.. I thought 21dn as Quirister@5… I also jumped the gun with 6dn going all-weather with predictable results.. more haste less speed seems to work best with Filbert as there are often some layers.. which made me suspicious of 11ac n 12ac, but crossers confirmed quickly enough… the red wine was more difficult to confirm as Collins refused to accept it, but it had to be… have always delighted in a pantomime horse, so…
    Thanks Filbert n flashling (comes up in my autospell along with Quirister et al)

  14. Mainly tough but fair. I do think the Bay State is a pretty tough bit of GK for Brits. I wouldn’t expect US solvers to know that Hertfordshire is the County of Opportunity!

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