The puzzle is available to solve online or download here.
Happy Easter to you all. I found this tricky: it took me the kind of time I would expect to spend on a Thursday or Saturday rather than a Sunday. The usual Filbertian excellence, making it enjoyable as ever – 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 | Relief, partner’s rewound programme of course (8) |
| SYLLABUS — Reversal of (… rewound) SUB (relief, as a stand-in) and ALLY’S (partner’s) | |
| 6a | Money left on account Emily’s closing (6) |
| LEGACY — LEG (on) A/C (account) + EmilY’s closing letter | |
| 9a | Wicket taken by bowler? That’s unbelievable (4) |
| WHAT — W (wicket) + HAT (bowler?) | |
| 10a | Dry balls on toilet seat fabric (5,5) |
| LOOSE COVER — SEC (dry) and OVER (balls) by (on) LOO (toilet) | |
| 11a | Italian’s colourful sweet selection – buy one to eat there in Rome (6) |
| GELATI — GET (buy) I (one) taking in (to eat) LA (there in Rome) | |
| 12a | Facing work, assert it’s boring (8) |
| OPPOSITE — OP (work) + POSE (assert); IT’s entering (boring) | |
| 14a | Knee-bend in training, lunge once fit (12) |
| GENUFLECTION — An anagram of (in training) LUNGE ONCE FIT | |
| 17a | Spooner’s trying to sell publican stake in western, perhaps (8,4) |
| HITCHING POST — A Spoonerism of PITCHING (trying to sell) HOST (publican) | |
| 20a | Write about match in shade of poet’s beautiful boat (3-5) |
| PEA-GREEN — PEN (write) around (about) AGREE (match) | |
| 22a | Time global warming stopped, agreed wise man on the radio (3,3) |
| ICE AGE — Sounds like (… on the radio) AYE (agreed) plus SAGE (wise man) | |
| 23a | Land after air manoeuvres providing cover for marines (5,5) |
| TERRA FIRMA — AFTER AIR is anagrammed (manoeuvres) around (providing cover for) RM (marines) | |
| 25a | Bond hot on the heels of every other character in Volante (4) |
| OATH — H (hot) after (on the heels of) every other character in vOlAnTe | |
| 26a | 3 barks from the back yard (6) |
| SLEEPY — PEELS (barks) backwards (from the back) + Y (yard). 3d, LETHARGIC | |
| 27a | A hundred American lawyers in Utah look sharp (3,1,4) |
| CUT A DASH — C (a hundred) + DAS (American lawyers) in UTAH | |
| Down | |
| 2d | Lord piled up roughly cut grass for cattle (6) |
| YAHWEH — In reverse (piled up, in a down entry) HEW (roughly cut) and HAY (grass for cattle] | |
| 3d | Without zip, teach girl knots (9) |
| LETHARGIC — TEACH GIRL is anagrammed (knots) | |
| 4d | Piper, say, keeps playing tune one loaded (11) |
| BILLIONAIRE — BILLIE (Piper, say) holds (keeps) ON (playing) and AIR (tune) | |
| 5d | Crow finally finds the way from France (4,3) |
| SHOW OFF — The last letter of (finally) findS + HOW (the way) + OF (from) + F (France) | |
| 6d | Delete third of the longest sentence in story (3) |
| LIE — This is an instruction to delete the third letter of LI[f]E (the longest sentence) | |
| 7d | Good thing winners inflict brilliance (5) |
| GLOSS — G (good) + LOSS (thing winners inflict) | |
| 8d | The universe’s response if the speed of light goes up (8) |
| CREATION — REACTION (response) if C (the speed of light) goes up to the top of the word | |
| 13d | Most powerful pair on tandem dashed around island (11) |
| PREDOMINANT — PR (pair) + an anagram of (… dashed) ON TANDEM around I (island) | |
| 15d | For instance, punching total thug as a benefit (2,3,4) |
| TO THE GOOD — EG (for instance) going inside (punching) TOT (total) and HOOD (thug) | |
| 16d | Starry arrogance not just for show? (8) |
| SIDEREAL — SIDE (arrogance) + REAL (not just for show?) | |
| 18d | Unbranded cognac Irene guiltily wraps up (7) |
| GENERIC — CognaC IRENE Guiltily contains in reverse (wraps up) the answer | |
| 19d | American 4’s marbles (6) |
| AGATES — A (American)+ GATES (4: 4d, BILLIONAIRE) | |
| 21d | Bush second, his defeated opponent claims (5) |
| GORSE — S (second), which GORE (his [Bush’s] defeated opponent) collects (claims) | |
| 24d | Young to be given the chair (3) |
| FRY — Two definitions | |
Quite an enjoyable puzzle. Excellent blog (both as usual).
Particularly liked GENUFLECTION, HITCHING POST, ICE AGE, LIE and GORSE.
FRY
The second def is shown as US slang in Chambers.
Thanks Filbert and Kitty.
I found this hard but I persevered and it was worth it although I needed some electronic help and some of the parsing eluded me. I must remember ‘la’ is there in Rome and LOOSE COVER which I’ve nho. Perhaps they can be warmed up in the UK winter? The anagrams were very cleverly disguised for me but that’s because Filbert is so good at what he does. The Spoonerism was very good when a lot of the time they can be very bad and I liked the PEA-GREEN boat when the penny dropped. Also liked the link between 4d and 19d, the hidden GENERIC and my best on ground would be YAHWEH because the surface was tricky. For me, at least. Thanks Kitty and Filbert.
Didn’t find it too hard but challenging in parts, particularly the Spoonerism with the unexpected (at least to me) definition. I got GENUFLECTION straight away (even though I would spell it with an X rather than CT but both are OK) and AGATES led me to BILLIONAIRE and the rest fell reasonably quickly. Always appreciate Filbert’s crosswords.
As kids in the 50s we played marbles a lot (and very competitively), and an agate was one term for a marble (along with doog, tor, and other arcane slang). How geologically apt, I thought on doing 19d. But, wiki tells me, agate is not a type of marble at all! Oh well, it was a nice puzzle, ta Filbert and Kitty.
Easter Sunday, but not an Easter Funday, for me.
Which is to say, I had a right old struggle with this Filbert.
Not sure why, one of my go-to setters, but I was not on his wavelength today.
I think it’s fair to say, tougher than yer average Filbert?
Enjoyed the LOOSE COVER surface, 10(ac); a fitted fabric coverall to “refresh” a tired old sofa or chair, and “toilet seat” was a nice misdirection of the type that dare not mention its name. I liked the Spoonerism, HITCHING POST, 17(ac), too.
In fact, it’s all good stuff. All the surfaces are, as usual, delightful. Lovely blog.
Dumb solver. Thanks, Fil & Kitty
I thought this was a delightful start to Easter Sunday. Super surfaces and such clever cluing – but Filbert must get rather tired of my praising him to the heavens every Sunday so I shall keep this one brief and highlight LEGACY, GENUFLECTION, LETHARGIC, CREATION and the grim but brilliant FRY as my top picks.
Thanks both
Thanks both. Also tougher than the average picnic for me, a result of which being I have yet to look into exactly who YAHWEH may be. Needed help with SIDEREAL – first resort an online thesaurus which did not list side as one of the 80+ synonyms for arrogance
TFO@7 Re SIDE: I agree. That was also one of my awkward solves.
I’m familiar with “somebody putting on ( or out) a side”, meaning pretending to be something they’re not, usually self-aggrandising, which might stretch to arrogance, but it’s not compelling for me. Perhaps the bridge is “showing off”, but it’s a rickety one.
I agree with those who says this was on the difficult end of the scale. Only completed it with a lot cheating.
TFO@7: YAHWEH is a Hebrew word for God, similar to Jehovah.
Cracking puzzle, as usual from Filbert. Not many write-ins and a fair amount of tricky parsing on top of the need, in my case, to stare long and hard at the left side of the grid before the answers eventually came.
Mainly enjoyed this but thought the second def for fry was distasteful.
Incidentally, am I missing something in 13d? PR, TANDEM and I is only 9 letters. The numeration is 11. I think ON must be part of the anagram fodder.
Re comment 11 absolutely. There is no need for that.
A strange puzzle for me, in that while well-written, any excitement was very hard to find.
Thanks to Kitty for her blog, which seemed on the money to me.
Thanks all for your comments. Dormouse @12, I will correct 13d when I am back home and in front of my computer tomorrow. Oh, make that today. Time to sleep!
I nipped away at this during snatches of alone time during an Easter filled with family obligations (mostly pleasant ones). I had attributed my struggles to the disjointed nature of my solve today, so it’s good to hear that others found it difficult.
A bit late now, but anyway I’ve edited 13d to add the missing ON in the anagram fodder. Thanks to Dormouse for the correction.