Independent 9,794 by Filbert

by

The nutty Filbert seems to have hit rock bottom today.

I found this rather tough to be honest, it took a while to get going. There’s a quite blatant recuring theme of bottoms in various guises and other mini themes.

Not sure about the def in 2 dn – I’m sure someone can help.

Thanks Filbert

completed grid

Across

1 Dividing pound from fellow’s working capital (6)
LONDON
ON (working) inside L – pound & DON – a fellow

4 Basically, here in row 15 (2,6)
AT BOTTOM
Row 15 is the bottom line

10 Pitcher’s taunt having thwarted Ruth’s hit? (1,3,3,4)
I GOT YOU BABE
Baseball and the player BABE RUTH cryptically leading to the song

11 Back from travel after success in exam (3)
AGO
A – good pass in exam & GO – travel

12 Large inflatable nipple burst by the German comic (8)
ZEPPELIN
ZE – comically how Germans pronounce THE & a burst NIPPLE*

13 Services for caravan wheel in its current condition (5)
OASIS
Cryptic def & O – wheel shape & AS IS – current condition

15 Extremely racy novel arrangement might make Austen rich (10)
RAUNCHIEST
[AUSTEN RICH]* in a novel arrangement

18 Wanting pair bagging a couple of Oscars? (4)
POOR
2 x O(scar) inside PR – pair

20 Main Oscar choices whittled down (4)
ARCH
Inside oscAR CHoices

21 Tease hip Republican with comedy skin piercing (10)
HYPODERMIC
[HIP R(epublican) COMEDY]* teased

23 Outspoken bright young whippersnapper (5)
SONNY
Sounds like SUNNY

24 Vibration limited by plane manufacturer’s absorbent coat (8)
BATHROBE
THROB in the plane maker BAE

27 Source of iron rule in strictly secular school? (3)
ORE
A secular school would have O – zero R(eligios) E(ducation)

28 Story of modern life in England: Uber all over the place (5,6)
URBAN LEGEND
[ENGLAND UBER]* all over the place 

29 1a (19 only) caught by anybody playing Irish anthem (5,3)
DANNY BOY
End (19 – derriere) of (londo)N inside ANYBODY* playing

30 Chap engaged in ogling? Not half (6)
LECHER
Half of CH(ap) inside LEER &lit I guess.

Down

1 Put down face up (4)
LAID
DIAL face reversed “up” in a down clue

2 Marriage ring like the piggy-wig’s? (5)
NOOSE
Well the pig has a ring O in its NOSE. Not overly convinced by the definition, either rather cynical or a meaning I’m not aware of, I’ve not got my online dictionaries working at present.

3 Big event for sports college, and sound equipment’s power’s down (8)
OLYMPICS
POLY – college & MICS – sound equipment with the P(ower) moved down

5 Get fitter, time drops (5)
TRAIN
T(ime) & RAIN drops

6 Fur upset environmental group (6)
OCELOT
Reversed ECO & LOT for group. Never knowingly seen ocelot fur though

7 Agent finally managed second class disguise (9)
TRANSFORM
End of (agen)T & RAN – managed & S(econd) & FORM – class

8 Lunatic shows off behind lorry (10)
MOONSTRUCK
MOONS – shows off behind & TRUCK

9 Effigy stuffed with vile contents lit up with shame (8)
GUILTILY
Contents of (v)IL(e) & LIT reversed both stuffed in GUY – effigy

14 Arm policeman with soldiers blocking minor thoroughfare (10)
BROADSWORD
D(etective) S(ergeant) & W(ith) & O.R. – soldiers all in a B – ROAD – minor road

16 ‘Endless Buns’: study on doughnut researchers’ relaxed attitude (9)
UNCONCERN
endless (b)UN(s) & CON – study & C.E.R.N. – the physicists under Geneva who look after a giant torus

17 Identification marks (8)
SPOTTING
Double defintion

19 Rider cycled here without hard seat (8)
DERRIERE
RIDER* cycled & a not H(ard) (h)ERE

22 ‘Sirrah, go’ said sweet … (6)
SYRUPY
Sounds like Sirrah & PEE – “go”

24 … old Hindu gentleman, initially blaming archaism on deficient text (5)
BABOO
B(laming) A(rchaism) & a deficient BOO(k)

25 Beeb’s unending concerts, originally with Henry Wood (5)
BEECH
BEE(b) & C(oncerts) & H(enry)

26 Enter Germany where 5 leaves across river (4)
ODER
D for Germany replacing V for five in OVER – across

15 comments on “Independent 9,794 by Filbert”

  1. this was hard, but fascinating. There’s  so much going on I can’t link it together. Oscars night, for a start and (SONNY and) CHER (I got you babe) won with MOONSTRUCK.

    LECHER seems relevant to Cher but BATHROBE (Harvey Weinstein) cant be there by accident.

    Richard Burton and “BROADSWORD calling DANNY BOY” in Where Eagles Dare.

    DANNY BOY is the LONDON (DERRIERE) homophone.

    ZEPPELIN and OASIS is the same row.

    Phew!

    Thanks Filbert & flashling, great start to the week (I dont want nice gentle stuff, personally)

  3. Many thanks for the blog flashling!

    With regards to 2d, there is a quote “Marriage is a noose” from Don Quixote; maybe that’s the intended justification here?

  4. Thanks flashling

    Re 2dn, under NOOSE Chambers has:

    “2. A snare or bond generally, esp (joc) marriage”

  7. I gave this about my usual Monday Indy length of time and got half way or so, then went to the electronics to get moving again.  I really enjoyed it while being very glad of a substantial leg up in quite a few places.  (BABOO was new to me and I was more than a ball toss away from I GOT YOU BABE.)

    Did fail to understand ODER, which is annoying.  I think I’ve missed a few of the substitutey ones lately – must do better.

    I liked ORE and the nicely told URBAN LEGEND, as well as the clever LECHER.  Also thought that TRAIN was neat, and chuckled and hmmed at the “doughnut researchers” in UNCONCERN.  Lovely!

    Was slightly dubious about NOOSE – not the definition, but because surely the ring is at the end of the piggy wink’s nose.

    Very clever stuff – a bit too clever for me today, but I will keep trying.

    Blatant theme?  I missed that too.  Bottom marks for me.

    Thanks Filbert and Flashling.

  8. Always found your puzzles hard in the other place, Filbert, and I obviously haven’t improved since then.

    Got into a tangle with the parsing of 29a (silly, now that I see how it works), likewise with 14d.

    Tried valiantly to get something from The Owl and The Pussycat to work for 2d but that piggy had the ring at the end of his nose – not in the middle!

    25a was crying out to be PROMS until it simply couldn’t be and I missed the relevance of DOUGHNUT in 16d.   Didn’t spot the theme – of course.

    Ho hum – at least I got the grid filled and I really did like 10a.

    Thanks Filbert and thanks also to Flashling for coming to my aid.

  9. Thanks flashling, all commenters, baerchen for reliably (if not quite – there’s one more Oscar winner lurking to make a pretty odd couple with Cher) getting to the, er, bottom of what is a rather motley collection of connections.

    If only noseo was a thing – but it must go through his nose too, mustn’t it?

     

  11. Wow that was tough fare for a Monday. Well over the hour before I was left with BAB_O and tried a couple of letters before hitting the right O. Good fun though and satisfying when the clues yielded to my mental onslaught. I knew what I was looking for at 14d but it still took almost to the end to assemble the men the cop and the b-road into the correct order. Started with LAID Mand I GOT YOU BABE, and finished with BABOO. Was unsure for ages whether 29a was DERRY AIR or DANNY BOY. The bottom of my grid was mooning for ages! Thanks Filbert and Flashling.

  14. Many thanks filbert, quite a hard solve and as usual I missed most of the things Baerchen picked up on. Fun stuff.

    Many thanks Flashling, especially for noose and hypodermic, which I failed to parse correctly

  15. Too tough to be enjoyable for me, and not helped by being unable to spell HYPODERMIC and thinking the song was I SEE YOU BABE.

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