Filbert on top form today
As ever with this excellent setter, we’ve got some delightful surfaces combined with elegantly economic cluing. I found this a shade less tricky than Filbert can sometimes be, but perhaps that’s just because I had an especially good night’s sleep after the departure of our final Christmas guests. Whatever the reason, I especially enjoyed the prime number sequence in OASES, the human pope struggling with sin in ONE-UPMANSHIP and Sodom’s banana crop.
My top pick, however, has to go to SOCHI, if only because it reminded me that, in the build-up to the 2014 Winter Olympiad, when there was a great deal of controversy about whether Russia would be a welcoming place for foreign gay athletes, BBC News ran an item which included a comment from Sergei Lavrov, then (and still) the Russian foreign minister. Except that the automated subtitles dubbed him “the gay lover of the Russian foreign minister”. Still makes me laugh.
Moh’s happy new year cruciverbial hardness scale rating: Calcite
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BOATHOOK |
Crooked pole musketeer shortened in novel (8)
|
| ATHO[s] (one of the three musketeers in the Dumas novel, shortened) inside BOOK (novel) | ||
| 5 | REEBOK |
Antelope‘s smell masked by even nastier one (6)
|
| BO (smell) inside (masked by) REEK (even nastier smell) | ||
| 9 | REMINDER |
Jog about with bodyguard (8)
|
| RE (about) + MINDER (bodyguard). The definition seems grammatically a little off to me – the connection between jogging one’s memory and getting a reminder is clear enough, but can a jog be a reminder? Chambers doesn’t quite give a definitive answer but maybe someone can supply a plausible case where the two are interchangeable | ||
| 10 | CANNON |
Gun shot that ricochets to hit second target (6)
|
| Double definition, the second referring to a shot eg in billiards, where the cue ball strikes one ball and then a second to score points | ||
| 12 | OASES |
Watering holes in prime spots along road, she sees (5)
|
| Second, third, fifth, seventh and 11th letters (in prime spots) in rOAd ShE seeS | ||
| 13 | PHONE CALL |
Ring Spooner’s dropping down from pine tree? (5,4)
|
| Spoonerism of ‘cone fall’ | ||
| 14 | TORA TORA TORA |
Three peaks followed by a war film (4,4,4)
|
| TOR (peak) + A three times. Tora! Tora! Tora! is a 1970 film about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 | ||
| 18 | ALL AND SUNDRY |
Everyone‘s bags in laundry switched at the start (3,3,6)
|
| Insertion of LANDS (bags) in ALUNDRY (laundry with its first two letters switched) | ||
| 21 | NO WORRIES |
Today trucks not starting? That’s OK (2,7)
|
| NOW (today) + [L]ORRIES (trucks not starting) | ||
| 23 | SOCHI |
Winter Olympics venue incredibly cold with hail (5)
|
| SO (very) + C + HI (hail). Sochi hosted the Winter Olympics in 2014 | ||
| 24 | ENOUGH |
Canteen ought to accommodate as many as required (6)
|
| Hidden (to accommodate) in canteEN OUGHt | ||
| 25 | DOMINATE |
Party at home hosted by friend’s boss (8)
|
| DO (party) + insertion (hosted by) of IN (home) in MATE | ||
| 26 | SIERRA |
Chain I blunder into when reversing (6)
|
| Insertion (into) of I ERR (I blunder) into a reversal of AS (when) | ||
| 27 | SMUGNESS |
Dragon losing a head, showing complacency? (8)
|
| SM[a]UG (the name of the dragon in The Hobbit, without the A) + NESS (head) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BARTON |
Lowly lord keeps Tesla in farmyard (6)
|
| BARON (the lowest rank of the British peerage, so ‘lowly lord’) around T (keeps Tesla). A barton is primarily (though not only) a West Country term for a large farm or small manor rather than a farmyard as such, though in Thomas Hardy’s wonderful Christmas poem ‘The Oxen’ it might arguably refer to a barn. However, Chambers does give the single definition ‘a farmyard’, so I can’t quibble. Except to make the heretical point that Chambers isn’t always right | ||
| 2 | ALMOST |
Just about time to support charity that’s collected nothing (6)
|
| T (time) beneath (to support) ALMS (charity) around O (that’s collected nothing) | ||
| 3 | HANDS-DOWN |
Crew eat as if it’s a picnic (5-4)
|
| HANDS (crew) + DOWN (eat), definition hinting at ease of achieving or accomplishing something | ||
| 4 | ONE-UPMANSHIP |
Human pope struggling with sin, trying to be better (3-9)
|
| Anagram (struggling) of HUMAN POPE SIN | ||
| 6 | ELATE |
Make happy story up with treasure at the end (5)
|
| Reversal (up, in a down clue) of TALE (story) + E (last letter of treasure) | ||
| 7 | BUNGALOW |
Cork area, cheap house that’s typical in Ireland (8)
|
| BUNG (cork) + A (area) + LOW (cheap) | ||
| 8 | KING LEAR |
Broken ankle curtailed girl’s play (4,4)
|
| Anagram (broken) of ANKLE GIR[L] (curtailed girl) | ||
| 11 | GO DOWN A STORM |
Bananas grown at Sodom are happily taken up … (2,4,1,5)
|
| Anagram (bananas) of GROWN AT SODOM | ||
| 15 | ARRESTING |
Very noticeable Mark’s inside with his feet up (9)
|
| [m]AR[k] {mark’s inside letters) + RESTING | ||
| 16 | SAUNDERS |
Associate of French commandos hides below (8)
|
| Insertion (hides) of UNDER (below) in SAS (Special Air Service, so commandos), definition referring to Jennifer Saunders, comedic partner of Dawn French | ||
| 17 | BLOWHOLE |
Punch weed, catching left nostril that suddenly spurts (8)
|
| BLOW (punch) + insertion (catching) of L inside HOE (weed, as a verb) | ||
| 19 | SCRAPE |
Fix electronic stuff that’s discarded, swapping parts (6)
|
| E (electronic) + SCRAP (stuff that’s discarded) switching places (swapping parts) | ||
| 20 | PIXELS |
Small screen parts taken up by EastEnders’ Lexi Pearce (6)
|
| Hidden reversal (taken up) in eastenderS LEXI Pearce | ||
| 22 | ROGER |
King and I upset, queen understood (5)
|
| R (Rex, king) + reversal (upset) of EGO + R (Regina, queen) |
For me, this puzzle was just as tricky, and just as enjoyable, as Filbert always is. Went for a walk with two-thirds done and returned to fill the remaining third. Loi was CANNON which came to mind very early but which I couldn’t parse for the life of me. Now I see the explanation in the blog it seems so ridiculously easy. And for SAUNDERS I needed help. The commandos turned out to be English. Oh well. Thanks for the blog MOH and thanks Filbert.
SAUNDERS beat me. Nice clue though.
BARTON was new to me and didn’t know bungalows were typical in Ireland. Also put a ‘?’ against 9a.
My experience was just the same as Hovis’s.
Thanks Filbert and moh
Re 9, “Give me a jog” is a phrase I use from time to time.
Both Chambers and the OED list JOG as a noun meaning a push or nudge, the latter certainly having a possible meaning as a reminder.
Great stuff but come to expect that from Filbert. Not as hard as he can be or I am getting better? Hopefully the latter. Dry January may also explain it.
Initially disregarded SAUNDERS as not being a word before the penny dropped for it to be my last one in.
Couldn’t parse SCRAPE but that was because I had crap as the stuff thrown away.
Lots to like here but special mentions to SAUNDERS and the anagram of GO DOWN A STORM
Thanks Filbert and MOH
Another great puzzle. BOATHOOK and hence BARTON (which I didn’t know but had to be right) were last in.
OASES, ALL AND SUNDRY, SAUNDERS, ONE-UPMANSHIP all reqarding to work out, as ROGER would have been, but I needed the blog to see EGO, as I’d been using the letters all wrong for the wordplay.
Thanks both. I would rate this a great deal higher on the MOH than 3. When BUNGALOW is clued as ‘typical in Ireland’ I wasn’t detecting too much generosity. Needed help to get to BOATHOOK, by checking the Musketeer names, which enabled the nho BARTON. SAUNDERS involved great misdirection, and robbed me of many minutes in my life I shall not get back.
Thanks Filbert. I found this tough & I needed the ‘check button’ to solve the last few. I didn’t bail, however, because there are always nuggets of joy to be had in a Filbert crossword. I particularly enjoyed NO WORRIES, ONE-UPMANSHIP, BUNGALOW, & SCRAPE. Thanks moh for parsing, I had no hope of understanding SAUNDERS without the blog.