Filbert has been seen regularly on Sundays recently in the Independent cryptic crossword series, so it is a pleasure to see him again midweek.
Tuesday is theme day for Independent puzzles. Today we focus on cars and some more robust vehicles.
The grid contains a number of car manufacturers, car models and car types, plus some vehicles used by the Army and recovery companies.
We have:
MERCEDES (manufacturer),
MINI (manufacturer, currently owned by BMW),
Dodge DART [1959 – 1976],
TOW TRUCK (vehicle used in car recovery from breakdowns),
TANK (Army vehicle),
Chevrolet CORVETTE [1953 – present]
DODGE (manufacturer, currently owned by Stellantis).
Ford ESCORT (model name used by Ford for many years),
CONVERTIBLE (style of car),
Alvis STALWART (amphibious military truck used by the British Army from 1963 to 1993).
Toyota COROLLA [1966 – present day]
SALOON (style of car), and
Ford CAPRI [1968 – 1986 in Europe]
In the clues we have reference to
Ford Granada [1972 – 1994 in Europe],
Honda Jazz [1983 – 1986 and 2002 – present day]
Jaguar (manufacturer, currently owned by Tata Motors),
Volkswagen Beetle [original design dates back to the 1930s. It has been in and out of production since then]
Hyundai (manufacturer,)
Tesla (manufacturer), and
Citroen (manufacturer, currently owned by Stellantis)
Finally we have Saab (a former car manufacturer) reversed to form BAAS.
I suppose DRIVEN could also be associated with the theme.
I am definitely not an expert on cars, trucks and tanks, so feel free to correct anything I have mentioned. There may well also be something I have missed in either the grid or the clues.
It always takes me a while to solve a Filbert puzzle and this was no exception. The grid built up steadily but slowly. My last one in was CODSWALLOP
Filbert is very good at misdirection with lateral thinking sometimes required to identify the definition within his clues, but that’s part of the challenge.
The use of SUFFOLK for a breed of sheep was something I also came across a couple of days ago in a Financial Times Sunday crossword.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Lady in Granada gives way on motorway letting queen in (8)
MERCEDES (Spanish [Granada] female name) (M [motorway] + CEDES [gives way]) containing (letting … in) ER (Elizabeth Regina; queen) M (ER) CEDES |
| 6 | Daughter with cleavage determined to succeed (6)
DRIVEN (determined to succeed) D (daughter) + RIVEN (split; cleavage) D RIVEN |
| 9 | Turn round in one mile, baby (4)
MINI (small; baby) (IN + I (Roman numeral for one] + M [mile]) all reversed (turn round) (M I NI)< |
| 10 | 24 wanting icy centre of Halifax fenced off (10)
DEFICIENCY (SUM [entry at 24 down] wanting [lacking]; less than complete ) Anagram of (off) ICY and I (middle letter of [central] halIfax) and FENCED) DEFICIENCY* |
| 11 | American from the east that’s scary, no? (6)
YANKEE (generally, to British people, an inhabitant of the United States [American], although more precisely, a citizen of the New England States, or an inhabitant of the northern United States, as opposed to the southern) (EEK [that’s scary] + NAY [no]) all reversed (from the east) (YAN KEE)< |
| 12 | Official repeatedly touching rope (2,6)
ON RECORD (recorded in an official document; official) (ON [touching] + RE [with reference to; about; touching] giving ‘repeatedly touching’) + CORD (rope) ON RE CORD |
| 14 | Couple back in traffic, vehicle pulling ahead? (3,5)
TOW TRUCK (North American term for a breakdown truck, especially one able to TOW another vehicle) TWO (couple) reversed (back) contained in (in) TRUCK (to traffic) T (OW T<) RUCK |
| 16 | Cistern smelled awful without opening (4)
TANK (cistern) sTANK (smelled awful) excluding the first letter (without opening) S TANK |
| 18 | Jazz reversing makes sudden jump forward (4)
DART (sudden forward movement) TRAD (TRADitional jazz, a style of early 20th century jazz which originated in New Orleans, characterized by improvisation against a regular rhythmical background) reversed (reversing) DART< |
| 19 | Navy 8? Well, I’ll be given security check shortly (8)
CORVETTE (Naval ESCORT [entry at 8 down] vessel specially designed for protecting convoys against submarine attack) COR (gosh!; well I’ll be!) + VETTEd (given security check) excluding the final letter (shortly) D COR VETTE |
| 21 | Rue Lilt spraying all over a bespoke suit (8)
TAILLEUR (a woman’s tailored suit; bespoke suit) Anagram of (spraying) RUE LILT containing (all over) A T (A) ILLEUR* |
| 22 | 6 26s keep swapping sides in street (6)
CATTLE (ANIMALs [plural of entry at 26 across] that can be DRIVEN [entry at 6 across] across open country, e.g. CATTLE drives in the USA or Australia) CASTLE (fortress; keep) with the S, first letter of Street replaced by T last letter of streeT [swapping sides of StreeT]) to form CATTLE CATTLE |
| 23 | Rubbish head of MOD’s defence work replaced by Conservative (10)
CODSWALLOP (rubbish) mOD’S with the first letter [head of] M replaced by [replaced by] C [Conservative] + WALL (a form of defence) + OP (opus; work) CODS WALL OP |
| 25 | Swedish manufacturer returned calls from 5D, say (4)
BAAS (sounds [calls] you may hear from a SUFFOLK [entry at 5 down], a breed of sheep) SAAB (Swedish security and defence manufacturer, but no longer a car maker) reversed (returned) BAAS< |
| 26 | Obsessive about one’s Jaguar or Beetle, perhaps (6)
ANIMAL (both Jaguars and Beetles can be classified as ANIMALs. insects are a subset of ANIMALs) ANAL (obsessive) containing (about) I’M (I am; one’s [?]) AN (IM) AL |
| 27 | Article that’s clear about not drinking Ouzo? (8)
ANISETTE (both Ouzo and ANISETTE are anise flavoured drinks) (AN [indefinite article] + [I SEE {that’s clear}]) containing (about) TT (teetotal; not drinking) AN I SE (TT) E |
| Down | |
| 2 | It’ll pluck hair, from ear and lip to nuts (8)
EPILATOR (an electrical appliance consisting of a metal spiral head that rotates at high speed, plucking unwanted hair) Anagram of (nuts) EAR and LIP TO EPILATOR* |
| 3 | Sports equipment always delivered, and sometimes 6A (7,4)
CRICKET BALL (a piece of sports equipment) CRICKET BALL (bowlers deliver the BALL and a CRICKET BALL is often DRIVEN [entry at 6 across]; always delivered and sometimes driven) CRICKET BALL |
| 4 | Duke flipped for one party trick (5)
DODGE (a trick) D (duke) + (E.G. [example gratia; for example] + DO [party]) reversed (flipped) D (OD GE)< |
| 5 | County cricket side turns up in bad mood (7)
SUFFOLK (English county) (OFF [one of two sides in cricket, the other being the ON side]) reversed [turns up; down entry]) contained in (in) SULK (a bad mood) SU (FFO<) LK |
| 6 | One paints new car door taupe on the outside (9)
DECORATOR (one who paints) Anagram of (new) CAR DOOR and TE (first and last letters of [on the outside] TaupE DECORATOR* |
| 7 | Strong feeling Hyundai reliably inspires (3)
IRE (anger; strong feeling) IRE (hidden word in [inspires] hyundaI REliably) IRE |
| 8 | Show yellow Tesla opens with key (6)
ESCORT (to guide; to show) ESC (ESCape key on a keyboard) + OR (in heraldry, the tincture gold or yellow, indicated in engraving and chiselling by dots) + T (tesla; the derived SI unit of magnetic flux density) ESC OR T |
| 13 | Faulty Citroen BX valves in odd places that can be changed (11)
CONVERTIBLE (can be changed) Anagram of (faulty) CITROEN and BVLE (letters 1, 3, 5 and 7 [in odd places] of Bx VaLvEs) CONVERTIBLE* |
| 15 | University well laid out with path, mad being 6A there (2,3,4)
UP THE WALL (mad as a result of being DRIVEN [entry at 6 across] there) U (university) + an anagram of (laid out) WELL and [with] PATH U P THE WALL* |
| 17 | Reliable good guy, two thirds of the time right? (8)
STALWART (resolute; reliable) ST (saint; good guy) + ALWA (4 of the 6 [two thirds of] letters of ALWAys[{every} time; all of the time]) + RT (right) ST ALWA RT |
| 19 | Petals round bun in California (7)
COROLLA (the petals of a flower collectively, forming an inner floral envelope) (O [round character] + ROLL [bun]) contained in (in) CA (California) C (O ROLL) A |
| 20 | Posher bar with tinned potato? (6)
SALOON (an area in a public house, quieter and more comfortably furnished than the public bar; posher bar) ALOO (potato, in Indian cookery) forms the centre of [tinned; contained in] the word SALOON. I don’t think the letters S and N are clued specifically in the wordplay SALOON |
| 22 | Best state south of Massachusetts, an island (5)
CAPRI (reference the Italian island of CAPRI) CAP (do better than; best) + RI (Rhode Island, a US state south of the state of Massachusetts) CAP RI |
| 24 | Problem a few people reported (3)
SUM (problem) SUM (sounds like [reported] SOME [a few people]) SUM |
I needed the blog to understand DEFICIENCY where I had mistakenly seen ‘wanting’ as link word and so could not understand the def. That aside, a slow but steady solve with MERCEDES and YANKEE being my final entries. As our blogger says, plenty of misdirection.
I took ‘tinned’ in SALOON to indicate that ALOO was surrounded by SN, being the chemical symbol for tin.
Faves inc MERCEDES, ON RECORD, CATTLE, CODSWALLOP, EPILATOR, SUFFOLK, DECORATOR, CONVERTIBLE and SALOON.
Thanks Filbert and duncan
Wonderful. Simply wonderful.
Seemed impenetrable at first and then slowly each and every clue was understood and its ingenious construction admired.
The theme, right up my street, an added bonus.
Thanks all.
PostMark @ 1
SN for tin makes much more sense than the parsing I suggested in the blog, where I said that the S and N weren’t referenced at all!
My favourite clue is CRICKET BALL because (a) I spent too long thinking of a homophone for ‘always,’ that worked, and (b) initially I had ‘bats’ thinking driven mad. Lovely puzzle as already mentioned. Thanks duncan and Filbert.
I parsed SALOON as Postmark @1 – and also had it as one of the theme entries: SALOON cars being a generalisation.
Thank you to duncanshiell and Filbert for an enjoyable puzzle.
Great to have my favourite regular setter on an extra day. Spotted the theme early which helped a lot especially with the last one in SALOON. I spotted the SN (tin) coating when justifying why it was right.
I think I liked most of this really hard to pick favourites. ANIMAL and BAAS (after considering if there was a cricket term aeki) come to mind.
Thanks Duncan and Filbert.
Somehow missed the theme completely, but now you mention it I’d rather have a Daimler Dart thanks.
I was about to give up in despair when one or two clicked. Didn’t get DRIVEN until near the end so trying to think of DECORATOR (the 6 I did have) ANIMALs didn’t help.
Thanks Filbert and duncan.
Sloppy setting/editing at 22A.
Should have specified 6A (cf 25A which specifies 5D).
The unsuffixed 6 might have lead some to think “Well it can’t be a 6 clue because there are two of them so perhaps it’s got something to do with VI”
owm @ 8
The convention is that if a clue references a solution going in the same direction, as in 22A, it is not necessary to specify A or D: conversely, if a clue references a solution heading the other way then the direction must be specified, as in 25A.
Thanks both. In the main, a very enjoyable struggle, and a few things to hopefully retain for future use. DEFICIENCY SUM is a new concept to me, although I’m unsure why SUM is needed in the clue for 10 if we accept wanting as a synonym for deficiency. I entirely accepted CRICKET BALL but the slightly resentful fan of the sport based on yesterday’s events now feels a ball in cricket is always delivered, but a cricket ball is not necessarily, as it can be thrown, caught, changed(!) etc. as a separate action.
[And tampered with TFO@10. Who’s our next test opponents? Oh, yes…]
What gsolphotog @2 said. I’ll add my favourites — MERCEDES, DRIVEN, ANISETTE, EPILATOR (despite the painful sounding surface), and CONVERTIBLE. I spotted the theme early & it helped me solve several clues. CRICKET can be added to the list of cars; it was an (unsuccessful) American car from the 1970’s. Thanks duncanshiell for the blog.
One of those puzzles I couldn’t get on with. Possibly didn’t help I’m a non-driver/