This puzzle is available to solve online or download here.
Hi everyone. I thought this was a typically superb puzzle from Filbert, not as hard as he can be so perfect for the Sunday slot. If you skim the clues again now you will see how difficult the “cutting business” was for me to pick out highlights – they just keep getting better and better. With so much choice your selection may well differ, but I have gone for LATCH (6a), FAIREST (3d), TAPAS (7d), IT SEEMS (18) and RIDER (21d). Thanks Filbert!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | Unionised workforce’s failure inevitable, according to Spooner (4,5) |
| SHOP FLOOR — A spoonerism of (… according to Spooner) FLOP SURE (failure inevitable) | |
| 6a | A little parcel at Christmas fitting through the door (5) |
| LATCH — Part of (a little) parceL AT CHristmas | |
| 9a | Judge female guitarist’s figure? (7) |
| SHERIFF — SHE (female) + RIFF (guitarist’s figure?) | |
| 10a | Supporting weight, primate flipped foot in front (7) |
| FOREPAW — FOR (supporting) + backwards (… flipped) W (weight) and APE (primate) | |
 |
|
| 11a | Jumper affected teacher’s sleep (13) |
| STEEPLECHASER — An anagram of (affected) TEACHER’S SLEEP | |
| 13a | Nearly everyone frequently flying (5) |
| ALOFT — Without the last letter (nearly) ALl (everyone) + OFT (frequently) | |
| 14a | Visiting sea-eagles east of very small Highland town (9) |
| INVERNESS — IN (visiting) + ERNES (sea-eagles) to the right of (east of) V (very), all followed by S (small) | |
| 17a | Oxford University set off, rowing boat (9) |
| OUTRIGGER — OU (Oxford University) + TRIGGER (set off) | |
| 19a | Cutting business, also changing name (5) |
| SALON — An anagram of (… changing) ALSO + N (name) | |
| 20a | Promising crisp commercial due to collect Oscar (13) |
| FORESHADOWING — FRESH (crisp), AD (commercial) and OWING (due) taking in (to collect) O (Oscar) | |
| 24a | Speak to tot on ship (7) |
| ADDRESS — ADD (tot) + RE (on) + SS (ship) | |
| 25a | Gastroenterologist finally writes about American’s terrible wind (7) |
| TWISTER — The last letter of (… finally) gastroenterologisT + WRITES anagrammed (about) | |
 |
|
| 26a | Really regret returning boulangerie’s bread? (5) |
| EUROS — SO (really) and RUE (regret) going backwards (returning) | |
| 27a | Greek building standard so concerning (9) |
| PARTHENON — PAR (standard) + THEN (so) + ON (concerning) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Indifferent Ringo at the back accompanying Help! (2-2) |
| SO-SO — The last letter of (… at the back) RingO next to (accompanying) SOS (help!) | |
| 2d | Scream after at least a dozen balls go too far (9) |
| OVERSHOOT — HOOT (scream) after OVERS (at least a dozen balls) | |
| 3d | I sleep with nothing on, like Snow White (7) |
| FAIREST — I + REST (sleep) underneath FA (with nothing on) | |
| 4d | Seed half of cricket pitch, with time before the summer (9) |
| OFFSPRING — OFF (half of cricket pitch) with SPRING (time before the summer) | |
| 5d | Abundant clothes left in sack (5) |
| RIFLE — RIFE (abundant) surrounds (clothes) L (left) | |
| 6d | Fuzz trimmed on top by pop star makes greyhound cross (7) |
| LURCHER — bLUR (fuzz) without its first letter (trimmed on top) by CHER (pop star) | |
| 7d | Bites from bug, alas, on vacation (5) |
| TAPAS — TAP (bug) + AlaS on removal of its inner letters (on vacation) | |
| 8d | Novel iron ship crosses without capsizing (7,3) |
| HOWARDS END — HARD (iron) plus SEND (ship) goes around (crosses) the reversal of (… capsizing) WO (w/o: without) | |
| 12d | Misleading surface of clue a game, shortly to be unravelled (10) |
| CAMOUFLAGE — Without the last letter (… shortly) OF CLUE A GAMe is to be anagrammed (unravelled) | |
 |
|
| 15d | American term over with changes made around November (9) |
| VERMONTER — An anagram of (… with changes made) TERM OVER around N (November) | |
| 16d | Inform closers for delicate negotiation, take pounds off? (9) |
| ENLIGHTEN — The end letters of (closers for) delicatE negotiatioN + LIGHTEN (take pounds off?) | |
| 18d | Endless sex bores couples, apparently (2,5) |
| IT SEEMS — Endless SEx goes into (bores) ITEMS (couples) | |
| 19d | Beastly little sister carrying bag back from beach (7) |
| SWINISH — SIS (little sister) + WIN (bag) + the last letter of (back from) beacH | |
| 21d | Celebrity demands free housing for ever (5) |
| RIDER — RID (free) plus the outer letters of (housing for) EveR | |
| 22d | A contrary stance for moralist (5) |
| AESOP — A + the reversal of (contrary) POSE (stance) | |
| 23d | Bishop smuggled cases of grain (4) |
| BRAN — B (bishop) + RAN (smuggled) | |
Top faves: SHOP FLOOR, FORESHADOWING, FAIREST, IT SEEMS, RIDER and AESOP.
Thanks Filbert and Kitty.
Great puzzle for a Sunday. One quibble: Inverness was granted city status in 2000. Thanks Filbert and Kitty.
Thanks for that Kitty. I particularly needed explanation of HOWARD’S END. It didn’t help that I’d initially put ‘Howard’s Way’. Which tells you all you need to know about my level of literary sophistication.
But otherwise, as you say, just challenging enough for a Sunday morning.
Liked 2d CAMOUFLAGE – full of crossword terms, and that picture is brilliant – a tree with eyes and a moustache! 🙂 Thanks F&K
Seeing Filbert as setter usually elicits a groan from me, as I am rarely on his wavelength. For some reason, today’s offering was right in my wheelhouse, and I was for once able to appreciate why so many bloggers and commenters sing his praises. One of my favorites of the year. Many thanks to Filbert and to Kitty for explaining HOWARDS END, which stumped me.
This was a great puzzle. I’m amazed that Filbert has remained original, inventive and witty even while accelerating to about one puzzle a week. FOREPAW, FORESHADOWING, TWISTER, SO-SO, FAIREST, IT SEEMS particular gems today, but particular praise for the crossword-referential CAMOUFLAGE (even if I’m annoyed that I didn’t get to it first while setting as Chameleon!).
It took me ages to unravel 18a and 12d. I think I’ve become too reliant on the G’s anagram helper.
I should have seen 7d sooner as I’m stuck in tapasland (unaffected by flooding, I’m relieved to say), but I never touch the stuff myself.
Thanks Filbert for the brain teasing and Kitty for the ever colourful blog.
Thanks both. For me, this was a welcome relief after yesterday’s bewildering experience….coincidentally, in Saturday’s Methuselah puzzle, the gateway clue was ONLY CONNECT – I still don’t understand why it was defined as ‘never miss’, but I believe the expression originates from the novel HOWARDS END.
[@TFO 8 – connect can mean to successfully hit or strike, so if e.g. a boxer’s fists “never miss”, then logically they “only connect”. Sorry for the confusion]
Thanks Filbert for a great set of clues with my top picks being INVERNESS, TWISTER, EUROS, PARTHENON, SO-SO, FAIREST, and RIFLE. I needed outside assistance for the nho LURCHER, as well as HOWARDS END and CAMOUFLAGE. Thanks Kitty for the blog and the illustrated FOREPAW.
Excellent!