The puzzle is available to solve online or download here.
Hi everyone. Filbert once again provides us with plenty of entertainment and a bit more challenge than some Sunday picnics of the past. My last in was 22a, PAUSE BUTTON, after correcting a NE/EN transposition in the Danish flag. I found I had left a couple of bit of parsing for blog time too. (I’m a parse-as-I-go type of girl, but on blogging days I know I’ll be coming back to each clue so can be a bit more relaxed.)
It was such a nice way to end, I think I will choose the 22a “show freezer” as my clue of the day, but I had a lot of choice in that department. 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 | Decadent holiday starts with Jeff losing case (6) |
| EFFETE — FETE (holiday) starts with jEFf without outside letters (losing case) | |
| 4a | A newspaper’s covering gendarme’s troubles (8) |
| AFFLICTS — A + FT’S (newspaper’s) surrounding (covering) FLIC (gendarme) | |
| 10a | Cheap supermarket by habit stocking one sort of biscuit (9) |
| GARIBALDI — ALDI (cheap supermarket) by GARB (habit) containing (stocking) I (one) | |
| 11a | Simple coming back through Cambridge via Newmarket (5) |
| NAIVE — Hidden in reverse inside (coming back through) CambridgE VIA Newmarket | |
| 12a | Talk German equally (3) |
| GAS — G (German) + AS (equally) | |
| 13a | Adrian’s muscly boyfriend Clark tangled with a yobbo (5,6) |
| ROCKY BALBOA — An anagram of (… tangled …) CLARK with A YOBBO. I’ve never actually watched any of this franchise, so I had to take the definition (well, not the muscly part – I don’t live under a rock!) on trust: Adrianna “Adrian” Pennino is Rocky’s girlfriend and later wife | |
| 14a | Win gold for old coach (6) |
| LANDAU — LAND (win) + AU (gold) | |
| 16a | Concerning condensation reported late (7) |
| OVERDUE — OVER (concerning) + DUE, which sounds like (… reported) DEW (condensation) | |
| 19a | Massive cuckoo feeds little bird, start of contrition? (7) |
| TITANIC — ANI (cuckoo) goes into (feeds) TIT (little bird) plus the first letter of (start of) Contrition | |
| 20a | Mike tries developing good qualities (6) |
| MERITS — M (mike) + TRIES anagrammed (developing) | |
| 22a | Show freezer a year on, full of good rump (5,6) |
| PAUSE BUTTON — PA (a year) and ON containing (full of) USE (good) and BUTT (rump) | |
| 25a | Our usual base turned clear (3) |
| NET — TEN (our usual base – the base of the decimal number system) revered (turned) | |
| 26a | Table set with candles, bread and wine, cook heard? (5) |
| ALTAR — A homophone of (… heard) ALTER (cook – cook the books, for instance) | |
| 27a | Criminal acted alone mostly, according to reports (9) |
| ANECDOTAL — An anagram of (criminal) ACTED ALONe without the last letter (mostly) | |
| 28a | Half fat separates before long in tea (4,4) |
| EARL GREY — Half of GREase (fat) is inside (separates) EARLY (before long) | |
| 29a | Starmer entered for bike race (6) |
| KEIRIN — KEIR (Starmer) + IN (entered for) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Grip plum, having bitten a third off (6) |
| ENGAGE — [gre]ENGAGE (plum) on removal of the first third (having bitten a third off) | |
| 2d | Bob Marley among others in castle, initially (3,1,5) |
| FOR A START — No, not an acrostic! RASTA (Bob Marley among others) in FORT (castle) | |
| 3d | Murphy’s one to argue against getting up (5) |
| TUBER — REBUT (to argue against) reversed (getting up, in a down entry). A murphy is a potato | |
| 5d | Helpful woman just not the same after my dog exploded (5,9) |
| FAIRY GODMOTHER — FAIR (just) followed by OTHER (not the same) after MY DOG anagrammed (exploded) | |
| 6d | Attend new Hamlet, say, halfway through Lear (4,2,3) |
| LEND AN EAR — N (new) and DANE (Hamlet, say) in the middle of (halfway through) LEAR | |
| 7d | Shin up branch following child’s lead (5) |
| CLIMB — LIMB (branch) following Child’s first letter (lead) | |
| 8d | Notice son in terror kept rising and sinking (8) |
| SEESAWED — SEE (notice) + S (son) + AWED (in terror) | |
| 9d | Find your bottle – chance new dog has swallowed beer? (5,2,7) |
| PLUCK UP COURAGE — LUCK (chance) which PUP (new dog) has swallowed + COURAGE (beer?) | |
| 15d | Flag seen in Copenhagen and Borgen all over the place (9) |
| DANNEBROG — An anagram of (… all over the place) AND BORGEN | |
| 17d | Work schedule marked up, one sets off (9) |
| DETONATOR — ROTA (work schedule) and NOTED (marked) reversed (up) | |
| 18d | Break from work initially suits head servant (8) |
| STOPPAGE — The first letter of (initially) Suits + TOP (head) + PAGE (servant) | |
| 21d | Lifted German’s fruit loaf that’s one pound lighter (6) |
| STOLEN — STOL[l]EN (German’s fruit loaf) with one fewer L (that’s one pound lighter) | |
| 23d | Absolute crackpot whose head has gone (5) |
| UTTER — nUTTER (crackpot) missing the first letter (whose head has gone) | |
| 24d | Picture from life-drawing class includes good elbow (5) |
| NUDGE — NUDE (picture from life-drawing class) includes G (good). A fresh take on a classic construction. I appreciated that the wordplay for this didn’t allow BARGE as an answer, which so often happens! | |
“Take Courage” was the strap line for Courage Best Bitter, though I’m not sure it is still around?
ANI was a new one (19ac), seems it’s a sinister black parrot look-alike.
EFFETE (1ac), raised a ?, but it’s certainly correct, in the guise of “useless”. On which note, how is GOOD=USE, in 22ac?
I assume, “no good” = “no use”, but I’m not a fan of this type of equivalence, wherein it relies on one word being replaceable by another only in a specific context.
I wasn’t convinced by, “before long” = EARLY, 28(ac), either.
Filbert is always good value, this one not quite as flowing as usual.
Thank you, Fil + Kitty.
Thanks both. A typical experience with a Filbert puzzle, experiencing moments of high self-doubt, yet the finish line did eventually appear. I was slow to see ALTAR mainly because I had guessed wrongly at ‘Danneborg’ instead of DANNEBROG which does feel pretty niche, even though I have spent a day in Copenhagen during which by entire chance we saw the Danish queen and President Macron before enjoying an eye-waveringly expensive beer.
Totally agree with you Kitty, the show freezer is top choice for me too. Worth it for the aha moment alone.
Filbert Sundays are really something to look forward to .
Strewth – ‘Adrian’s muscly boyfriend’ was not a def that was ever going to make sense to me. I was not paying enough attention back in the mid 70’s. And NHO the DANNEBROG either. Or the ANI. LOI was PAUSE BUTTON where, even with all the crossers, I could not work out what was going on: a very deceptive definition. I enjoyed the fun surface for FAIRY GODMOTHER, the smoothness of ANECDOTAL and the even smoother hidden in NAIVE.
Thanks Filbert and Kitty
For 22a oed.com has good as “Advantage, benefit; point, sense; use, utility.” Not only…
“a. In negative, interrogative, and conditional contexts. — 2004 It’s no good getting yer knickers in a twist. S. Quigley, Run for Home (2005) viii.” …but also
“b. In affirmative contexts. — 2009 She tried to make me see the good of an education. I. Weiss, Looking Back ii. 9″
[15d: It’s a shame the Indy doesn’t do italics, but I liked yours for Borgen, Kitty – I must watch the latest series.] Thanks F&K.
Not painfully difficult, although I think I did have to reveal five letters (for EFFETE, PLUCK UP COURAGE, DANNEBROG, and DETONATOR). On that note I learned new words again.
I like 5d FAIRY GODMOTHER’s cluing, and 22a PAUSE BUTTON’s “show freezer” was sneaky. For 2d I parsed “Bob Marley among others” as A STAR, which hopefully isn’t wrong, but I concede to the fact that RASTA is definitely a better fit.
Thanks Filbert for this moment of entertainment and Kitty for the blog.
Cracking puzzle. 11 across might even be true if they’ve finally finished the roadworks on the A14.
FrankieG@5
The POED, 1768, has (on page 33): [B]
One authorised colour of the Jolly Roger is black.
On page 96, [W], it is written: One authorised colour of the Jolly Roger is white.
I shall therefore cite the Piratical Official Englandish Dictionary, to justify that BLACK = WHITE.
As @6 Strobelite I also had A STAR for 2d having not spotted RASTA which is of course much better but nevertheless no more correct.
Not knowing the Danish flag name I had transposed the a and the o which sounded equally plausible. For ambiguous unchecked lights I think they could be clued better to make it obvious which should be where.
Loved PAUSE BUTTON purely for the definition, it had to be that but I needed the blog for the USE justification and had same quibbles then as @1 E.N.Boll&.
Nho FLIC for gendarme, I loosely associated this with Herr Flick from Allo Allo but wasn’t convinced.
It had to be titanic but ani = cuckoo was a total internal jorum.
Loved the PAUSE BUTTON and the puzzle too. Thanks Filbert.
Having seen it referred to frequently recently, I checked out the link on fifteensquared to the etymology of this meaning of Jorum https://www.fifteensquared.net/2025/02/20/jorum-in-urban-dictionary/. Perhaps this will one day be another meaning of the word added to the dictionaries.
In this context though, wouldn’t ANI be part of the part of the wordplay, and the Jorum be the whole answer? I don’t think Titanic would qualify as an unlikely-sounding word.