We only seem to come across Filbert once a month, and we have only blogged one of his previous puzzles – but from past experience, we knew we were in for a bit of a challenge today.
…and a challenge it certainly was! It was apparent early on that there was a theme, and as we progressed we realised how crafty Filbert has been in introducing the theme at 7 21 into six other clues, sometimes as synonyms and sometimes as part of the wordplay.
There was a lot of head-scratching over various ingenious misdirections (e.g. the ‘d’s in 19), but in the end it was a very satisfying solve, with no unusual words (although Bert hadn’t come across 9d before) and some innovative definitions.
An anagram of WHOSE SINS (anagrind is ‘model’) round or ‘including’ BUSh (without the last letter or ‘no tail’)
CAP (Dutch cap – contraceptive – ‘protection against kids’) ON (worn)
A homophone (‘noises made by’) of INN (pub) SPECTRE (ghost)
UK RAIN (‘downfall for Scots among others’) E (European)
CHAI (tea) round or ‘bagging’ PAT (butter)
ENC (‘herewith’, as in an enclosure in a letter) ODE (poem)
An anagram of CHARGE (21down) AT – anagrind is ‘service’ (7 down)
Double definition – 1- ‘Successfully serviced’ (7down+d) – as in animal breeding, 2- ‘charged’ (21down+d). We weren’t sure about this but Chambers Thesaurus has ‘charged’ for a ‘pregnant pause’.
MY STICk (‘criticism of setter’) without the last letter or ‘little excessive’
PIES (‘half-time snacks’) in ROT (rubbish) – the clue suggests that PIES should be outside ROT, but ‘on the contrary’ puts it the other way round
An anagram of NEAR (anagrind is ‘broke’) after VAT (tax) reversed or ‘misdirected’
STAR’S (hero’s) HELL (terrible suffering)
G (good) after or ‘putting an end to’ THIN (slight)
It was a disastrous blunder for the LIGHT BRIGADE (‘these men in service’ -7down) to be told to ‘charge’ (21down)
HeIDI (Swiss girl) without the ‘e’ (English) round or ‘adopting’ N (new)
I in or ‘bottled by’ WATER (drink) – a waiter might benefit from a higher service charge (7 21)
An anagram of IS LOAN and C U (initial letters of ‘credit union’) – anagrind is ‘arranged’
I (one) + X (ten) and C (a hundred) divides NEATLY (precisely) into three pieces. We thought that the definition was ‘three or so’ at first but then why 3? It could be any number but then realised that the Roman numerals X and C do split ‘neatly’ into three pieces.
Double definition
SERmon (‘lecture on sin’) without ‘mon’ (Monday) + VICE (sinning)
CUStomers (first three letters or ‘a third of’) with ACE (‘missed service’ – 7down) outside or ‘about’
R (last letter or ‘foot’ of ‘Caesar’) in or ‘poking through’ an anagram of SPECIAL – anagrind is ‘new’
DIN (racket) SET (arranged) round or ‘charged (21down) with’ NE (Tyneside) R (middle letter or ‘heart’ of ‘restaurateurs’)
T (last or ‘final’ letter of ‘concert’) in an anagram of ROADIES – anagrind is ‘shivering’
When KNITWEAR is finished it is ‘cast off’ (removed from the needles)
Hidden (‘a little’) and reversed (‘erected’ in a down clue) in ‘cupoLA SURE Provides’
G E (first and last letters or ‘case’ of ‘gangrene’) by CHAR (lady who cleans)
GALS (girls) reversed or ‘upset’ round or ‘hiding’ AT
PG (‘film the kids saw with mum’) round RAN (smuggled)
V (victory) O (over) TED (Ted Heath)
Very tricky puzzle very well blogged. thanks all.
My favourite was STAR SHELL, and I enjoyed the themed clues.
I could not parse 24d.
New for me was SPIRACLE.
Thanks B+S
A satisfying struggle. Clever use of the gateway clue, such as for PREGNANT and LIGHT BRIGADE and tricky parsing for others such as INSPECTOR and INEXACTLY, which was very neatly done.
Thanks to Filbert and B&J
Quite a struggle today. We needed help but no actual cheating – an anagram solver for SPIRACLE and a wordfinder to suggest PREGNANT. We noticed the inconsistency in that 19ac had 7d 21d whereas all other gateway references just had 7 21 and thought there must be a reason for it – very crafty! And some of the other uses of the gateway were most ingenious too.
Interestingly it was realising that 16ac had to be CARTHAGE after getting CHARGE for 21dn that alerted us to what was going on. But it was some of the non-themed entries that we liked most – INSPECTOR and INEXACTLY among them.
Thanks, Filbert and B&J.
Not for the first time I lost my ‘fight’ with Filbert.
Even after three sittings I missed out on four in the SW.
One of them being 24d, never thought of PG – and I don’t blame myself for not finding 18d.
But this was a really good crossword with no particular CoDs [looks like the name of a disease].
The 7 21 idea was very nice (and reminded me of some things Paul did last Saturday).
Hard but satisfying.
I just wondered why Filbert used ‘Caesar’ for the foot-poking 9d.
Many thanks to Bertandjoyce & Filbert.
Sil@5: “I just wondered why Filbert used ‘Caesar’ for the foot-poking 9d.” A bit of misdirection maybe, to make us think we had to use the Latin for ‘foot’ as part of the wordplay?
Thanks to Bertandjoyce and Filbert
Top notch.
I wasn’t sure that “put an end to” in 28 really instructs us to place a “g” after “thin”, but perhaps it does.
I thought I may be missing something in 29 as the first 4 words seem almost redundant, but perhaps not.
I took 9 to be referencing Caesarian deliveries.