Filbert is quite the go-to guy in the Independent at the moment. He has been a very positive addition to the growing list of Indy setters, and I enjoyed teasing this one out.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Head off for war with grim enthusiasm
ARDOUR
A charade of [W]AR and DOUR.
4 Flying high in the cloud?
UPLOADED
A charade of UP and LOADED, with the definition referencing computer files stored in the cyberspace ‘cloud’.
10 Doctor takes a break
GAP
An insertion of A in GP.
11 Poser brewed artisan beer
BRAIN-TEASER
(ARTISAN BEER)* with ‘brewed’ as the anagrind.
12 Hunting fish could pay regularly on Hebridean island
BARRACUDA
A charade of BARRA and CUDA for the odd letters of CoUlD pAy.
13 Swiss town right inside a mountain
BERN
An insertion of R in BEN. Ben Nevis, for example.
15 First album causing Norwegian band to split
ALPHA
An insertion of LP in A-HA, the Norwegian synth-pop band formed in Oslo in 1982 which is possibly more famous in crosswordland than real life.
17 Criminal dreads witness, one that’s spoken to
ADDRESSEE
A charade of (DREADS)* and SEE.
18 Part of bottom niece doesn’t show i.e. cheek
INSOLENCE
A charade of INSOLE and N[IE]CE.
19 Coat annually applied to outside of ship
PARKA
An insertion of ARK in PA for per annum.
21 Born and died in poverty
NEED
A charade of NEE and D.
22 Man entering London Marathon’s home straight first?
MEDALLIST
A charade of ED inserted into MALL followed by IST for ‘first’; and a cad.
25 Sunbeam best exploited in deep space
SUBBASEMENT
(SUNBEAM BEST)* with exploited as the anagrind. This word looks odd to me without a hyphen.
26 Shot Marcelo blocks in the middle
LOB
Hidden in MarceLO Blocks.
27 College servants returned girl’s telescope
SPYGLASS
A charade of GYPS reversed and LASS. GYPS used to be ‘college servants’ at Cambridge; nowadays the term is just used for the communal kitchen at the end of the corridor, I think.
28 Dislike Britain disappearing in a rain-cloud
ANIMUS
A NIM[B]US
Down
1 Letters rearranged to find the solution
ALGEBRA
A cd. x² + y² = z², and all that. (x=3, y=4 and z=5, since you ask. Pythagorean right-angled triangles, for example.)
2 Doctor boxing athlete’s drug up would be one
DOPER
An insertion of EPO reversed in DR. EPO is erythropoetin, a prescribable drug for treating anaemia, but also implicated in a number of doping scandals. Lance Armstrong springs to mind. Another cad.
3 Best sort of bun fit for purpose?
UNBEATABLE
A charade of (BUN)* and EATABLE. The anagrind is ‘sort of’.
5 Rub nettle inside legs for a stinging sensation
PINS AND NEEDLES
An insertion of SAND and NEEDLE in PINS.
6 Frank‘s running around gym
OPEN
An insertion of PE in ON.
7 Pharmacist perhaps treated depression, taking over
DISPENSER
(DEPRESSI[O]N)* with ‘treated’ as the anagrind.
8 Lower classes are furious about new muddle
DERANGE
A charade of DE for the lowest socio-economic classes (the classification is a bit outdated these days) and N inserted in RAGE.
9 Herbal painkillers, all wholly positive
NATURAL NUMBERS
A charade of NATURAL and NUMBERS in their anaesthetic sense. NATURAL NUMBERS are all positive numbers from 1 to infinity. Bit of maths in the puzzle this morning.
14 Italian granny eats fresh pie a lot
NEAPOLITAN
An insertion of (PIE A LOT)* in NAN.
16 Attractive fellow succeeding Elizabeth, wow
POSTER BOY
A charade of POST, ER and BOY. Boy, that crossword was a toughie.
18 Part of quotation is estimated charges
IONISES
Hidden in quotatION IS EStimated.
20 Mediterranean resort opposed to English filling beaches on vacation
ANTIBES
A charade of ANTI and an insertion of E in B[EACHE]S.
23 One is very critical of religion
ISLAM
A charade of I and SLAM.
24 Unconverted traveller‘s cheques Emma and you sell finally
SAUL
The final letters of ‘cheques’, ‘Emma’, ‘you’ and ‘sell’. The Apostle Paul was formerly known as Saul of Tarsus prior to his conversion to Christianity, which took place on the road to Damascus; hence ‘unconverted traveller’.
Many thanks to Filbert for the start to the Independent puzzling week.
Excellent. Particularly liked the brewing poser (great surface), the pie-eating granny and the unconverted traveller.
Thanks, Filbert and Pierre.
Thanks, Filbert and Pierre!
Liked UPLOADED, MEDALLIST, SUBBASEMENT (the point about the absence of hyphen noted. I liked the definition a lot), UNBEATABLE and NATURAL NUMBERS and SAUL.
NATURAL NUMBERS
I think ‘wholly’ indicates that these numbers are integers.
SAUL
Liked the explanation in the blog a lot (in addition to the definition).
A typically buzzing Filbert puzzle to stimulate the Monday mind. Very enjoyable. Defeated by the NATURAL bit of 9d – it’s a phrase I’ve seen but it’s not a field I know so I couldn’t make the leap. And I couldn’t parse the MALL/ED combo in MEDALLIST – the first is GK but not for me and I only spot a random chap’s name when backparsing with hindsight.
Favourites included BRAIN TEASER, BERN, PARKA, ALGEBRA, UNBEATABLE, PINS AND NEEDLES and NEAPOLITAN. My only slight eyebrow raise was in an otherwise splendid clue – INSOLE as ‘part of bottom’ was sort of justified by the smile at surface and neat deletion but, without ‘shoe’, it felt a bit of a stretch.
Thanks Filbert and Pierre (with a special smile for your ambigous ‘cad’ reference following Lance Armstrong.
Superb, tough-ish, witty and entertaining i.e. SUBBASEMENT, ALGEBRA and NATURAL NUMBERS which are my tops. Couldn’t parse MEDALLIST. It went in easy enough with the crossers. The Mall is new knowledge. Thanks to Pierre (always an excellent blog) and Filbert.
Nice to have a working printer again. Filbert is always a favourite of mine and this didn’t disappoint. Learnt a new meaning for “gyp” and the drug ESO. Despite being a mathematician, ALGEBRA was one of my last ones in (Pierre, your example doesn’t really illustrate any rearrangement of letters – changing the subject of a formula may be better). I agree (as just about always) with KVa about “wholly”. Some include zero as a natural number but I never do.
Like PostMark, I felt that “bottom” for “insole” was a bit weak but the surface made up for this. I’ll add ANTIBES to the list of great clues.
The appearance of Filbert used to panic me, but no longer – until his next toughie, no doubt! I fairly breezed through this and thoroughly enjoyed it. But surely BERN at 13A is a city not a town – and the capital at that. Thanks Filbert and Pierre.
I thought this excellent with clever, witty wordplay throughout.
Took me a while to get started and establish a decent foothold but it eventually all came together smoothly if not rapidly.
I particularly liked ALPHA (I’d say the band are very well known but I’m a music fan) DOPER, PINS AND NEEDLES and ANTIBES but could have mentioned several more.
Many thanks to Filbert and Pierre for a top puzzle and blog.
Thanks both. MEDALLIST stood out for me, and I learned a few other things, hopefully of future use, though ‘gyps’ in SPYGLASS seems very niche and a little elitist
Thanks Filbert for a superb crossword. I managed to complete this w/o outside help so it was either on the easier end of Filbert’s spectrum or maybe I’m getting on this setter’s “wavelength.” In any event I had many favourites including UPLOADED, INSOLENCE, ANIMUS, NATURAL NUMBERS, SAUL, NEOPOLITAN, and ANTIBES. I thought the latter three had great surfaces. I could not fully parse MEDALLIST so thanks Pierre for the help.
Hovis @5 – The drug is actually EPO as correclty pointed out in the blog, giving DOPER rather than DOSER had the drug indeed been ESO.
When I started this a day late after taking 2 days to horribly fail with Brunels slog on Sunday I felt like I was going to have another miserable time. Nothing was going in, but after I cracked a few the rest went in pretty good time for me.
A good work out at exactly the kind of level I enjoy.
Thanks to Filbert and Pierre.
Rather excellent surfaces throughout with ARDOUR and PINS AND NEEDLES getting distinctions (although accommodating EPO seemed a stretch too far, but just a quibble).
I liked ALPHA 🙂