The puzzle is available to solve online or download here.
Hello everybody. Another quality Filbert puzzle and an enjoyable trouble-free solve for me. I can’t think of anything to add – can’t even settle on a favourite clue, though not from lack of choice. 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 | Frank works in a gallery, retired in a sense (8) |
| STRAIGHT — ART (works in a gallery) reversed (retired) in SIGHT (a sense) | |
| 6a | Only son with acne wanting face wiped (6) |
| SIMPLY — S (son) + pIMPLY (with acne) needing its first letter removed (wanting face wiped) | |
| 9a | Wee half-way through good Spielberg film (6) |
| MIDGET — MID (half-way through) + G (good) + ET (Spielberg film) | |
| 10a | King on walkabout making little sense (8) |
| RAMBLING — R (King) + AMBLING (on walkabout) | |
| 11a | Where we live, every hotel opens annoyingly late (2,3,5) |
| AT ALL HOURS — AT OURS (where we live), ALL (every) plus H (hotel) is inside (opens) | |
| 13a | Wish you were with younger woman? (4) |
| MISS — A double definition | |
| 14a | Noel made pretty clever electronics during joint postgrad courses (5,9) |
| WHITE CHRISTMAS — HI TECH (clever electronics) in (during) WRIST (joint) + MAS (MAs: postgrad courses) | |
| 17a | Doctor says no physical treatment for problems (14) |
| PSYCHOANALYSIS — Make an anagram of (doctor) SAYS NO PHYSICAL | |
| 19a | Broadcast beginning with piano duet (4) |
| PAIR — AIR (broadcast) preceded by (beginning with) P (piano) | |
| 21a | With diversions, outdo urban one-way system (10) |
| ROUNDABOUT — An anagram of (with diversions) OUTDO URBAN | |
| 23a | Attendee at meeting developing career, full of pep (8) |
| RACEGOER — An anagram of (developing) CAREER containing (full of) GO (pep) | |
| 24a | Modest expedition led by Conservative (6) |
| CHASTE — HASTE (expedition) led by C (Conservative) | |
| 25a | Angry husband very happy when learner driver vanishes (6) |
| HEATED — H (husband) + E[l]ATED (very happy) when L (learner driver) goes (vanishes) | |
| 26a | Article in French newspaper that’s refreshingly sharp (8) |
| LEMONADE — A (article) in LE MONDE (French newspaper) | |
| Down | |
| 2d | Fool admits going round new places sharing culture (4,5) |
| TWIN TOWNS — TWIT (fool) and OWNS (admits) surrounding (going round) N (new) | |
| 3d | Nurse fish with twisted tail (5) |
| ANGEL — ANGLE (fish) with the last two letters swapped (with twisted tail) | |
| 4d | Get everything out of tower that’s going up (3) |
| GUT — TUG (tower) reversed (that’s going up, in a down entry) | |
| 5d | Hard, taking hour from start to finish (7) |
| THROUGH — TOUGH (hard) containing (taking) HR (hour) | |
| 6d | Somewhat inexpert heads of Spectre each botched assassinations? (11) |
| SEMISKILLED — The first letters of (heads of) Spectre Each + MIS–KILLED (botched assassinations?) | |
| 7d | Guy silences husky relatives (9) |
| MALEMUTES — MALE (guy) + MUTES (silences) | |
| 8d | Estate Volvo’s unique character, alongside Sierra (5) |
| LANDS — L (Volvo’s unique character – The other letters in “Volvo” are repeated) + AND (alongside) + S (Sierra) | |
| 12d | Sorting out her hair and mood, a pain in the arse? (11) |
| HAEMORRHOID — An anagram of (sorting out) HER HAIR and MOOD | |
| 15d | Wrong since exposed by cycling clergyman (9) |
| INCORRECT — Without outer letters (… exposed) sINCe by RECTOR (clergyman) on cycling its letters round | |
| 16d | Attacked when seconds at duel ordered (9) |
| ASSAULTED — AS (when) + S (seconds) + AT DUEL anagrammed (ordered) | |
| 18d | Nervous about Tesla’s gearbox position breaking transmission (7) |
| NEUTRAL — NEURAL (nervous) around (about) T (tesla) | |
| 20d | Secretary brought over card with dispatch (5) |
| APACE — PA (secretary) reversed (brought over) + ACE (card) | |
| 22d | Child in Scotland showing AI lowered mental ability (5) |
| BRAIN — BAIRN (child in Scotland) moving AI lower in the word (showing AI lowered) | |
| 24d | Turning and pushing piece starts to annoy Magnus Carlsen terribly (3) |
| CAM — Initial letters of (starts to) Annoy Magnus Carlsen anagrammed (terribly) | |
Agreed, a very nice puzzle, well clued; I particularly liked MIDGET and SEMISKILLED. I didn’t know the expression AT ALL HOURS in this sense; aldo didn’t know CAM and this spelling of MALEMUTE. Thanks Filbert and Kitty!
Another great puzzle from Filbert. AT ALL HOURS, BRAIN, WHITE CHRISTMAS all good.
Excellent puzzle and a matching blog of high quality.
As Kitty says, it’s difficult to pick faves.
Still trying to mention a few special ones: STRAIGHT, WHITE CHRISTMAS, PSYCHOANALYSIS (reads like an extended def),
SEMI-SKILLED, LANDS and INCORRECT.
Thanks Filbert and Kitty.
Loved this (no surprise there). Pleased to complete without cheats, although I had to check ‘malemute’ was a word.
RACEGOER my favourite and I liked ‘Noel made pretty.’ Thanks Kitty and thanks Filbert.
Enjoyably smooth. Thanks Filbert and Kitty.
Reliably good. I loved 11(ac), from personal experience, of which I will say nowt.
“what time do’yer call this….getting back AT ALL HOURS?!”
It took me ages to correctly spell ” HEMAROID”, so it was certainly a pain in the arse!
This puzzle was not a pain in the arse.
Loved it, yet on some clues, hated it. Which is good setting, of course.
Big thanks, Fil & Kit
As already said above, another great puzzle from Filbert.
Failed to parse Volvo which annoyed me as I had a string of three 240 Estates through my working life as a photographer.
Loved all of them as much as this puzzle:)
Thanks all.
Much quicker than usual for a Filbert. I even had time to do some housework in the time I put aside. Only delay was a foolishly entered BAIRN which was corrected once I couldn’t think of a word for the middle crossing answer.
Always hard to pick favourites with Filbert as everything is usually brilliantly clued but off the top of my head favourites were THROUGH, SEMISKILLED, AT ALL HOURS, MISS and LANDS.
Thanks Kitty and Filbert
Took a while for me to get going today but eventually completed with just one error – I’d put SIMPLE instead of SIMPLY for 6A. That’s the second Filbert in a row I’ve been out by one letter – last week it was APPALLATION instead of APPELLATION
Btw this is my first comment – been wanting to do so for ages but decided to finally bite the bullet today
Thanks Kitty & Filbert.
Enjoyed this. SIMPLY is top fav.
2d, typo?, ANGLE (verb, fish) twisting tails.
Jamie@10. No fear. I didn’t admit it , but I got
APPELACHIAN (sic) wrong too.
Don’t hold back on postings. It’s more fun than the crosswords!
And don’t worry about making a dumb post. I do it regularly. Posters are nice folks.
IanB
Well, that was a stupid post 😉
Hovis@13
I concur. I am brown bread.
Thanks Filbert for essentially a clinic in writing good clues. This seemed difficult at first but I got there in the end except for a few errors in the NE. My FOI, PSYCHOANALYSIS, was my COTD. Other favourites included MIDGET, RAMBLING, PAIR, LEMONADE, and MALEMUTES. Thanks Kitty for the blog.
Thanks all, and welcome Jamie @10. And thank you ilippu @11 for spotting my typo – now corrected.