Our third and final blog this week – it’s Filbert today.
We enjoyed this puzzle and are warming to Filbert’s style. Our favourite clue was probably 23d for bringing back memories of a classic film.
Occasionally we have a theme on Saturdays, but we can’t see anything here – are we missing something?
GaLA DRAGS (is boring) missing or ‘bar’ one ‘a’ (American)
SAS (Special Air Service – ‘commandos’) HAY (‘dance in the country’)
PRO (for) DUCT (channel) I (one) ONLINE (‘streamed’)
I (newspaper) after or ‘backing’ YE (you) MEN (people)
POSIT (conjecture) sharing the ‘t’ or ‘overlapping’ with TRON (’80s sci-fi’ – a reference to the 1982 film)
A homophone (‘listen to’) of SINK (founder)
EXTRACt (cutting) missing the last letter or ‘almost’ + OVER (finished)
TOUCH (move) + an anagram (‘dislocated’) of GONAD
Hidden (‘hosted by’) and reversed (‘from behind’) in surprieS SIKh
A Spoonerism of BASE (immoral) COOK (chef)
FAB (‘like the Beatles’ – known as ‘The Fab Four’) LED (were first)
An anagram (‘transfer’) of JAILED MOB DUE IN
If homeless one might have to resort to sleeping IN a TENT
A clue-as-definition: TOR (hill) in MO (second) IST (first) – a motorist would have to drive up a hill in a low gear
An anagram (‘pants’) of NEARLY round or ‘putting away’ C (Charlie – in the phonetic alphabet or as a slang term for cocaine)
Double definition
Cryptic definition – the ‘keys’ being islands
A reversal (‘up’ in a down clue) of PINS (legs) + PET (darling)
A reversal (‘turned’) of US (America) + N (new)
F (force) TWO (couple) in SHIRK (bunk)
Alternate or ‘regular’ letters of pAiNtEd round or ‘gripping’ NEMO (fictional submariner created by Jules Verne)
An anagram (‘managed’) of TO FURNISH round or ‘housing’ AuctioneeR (missing the middle letters or ’emptied’)
If you CYCLE LANE by moving the last letter to the front you get ‘elan’
ONAN (man who refused to father children – from the Bible) + a reversal of NOD (consent)
DUE (expected) DOM (Dominic Cummings perhaps – do we have to be reminded of him?) round or ‘stopped by’ K (king)
A homophone (‘announced’) of SEAMAN’S (rating’s)
R (runs) after BRIAn (‘very naughty boy’ – from the Python film ‘Life of Brian’) missing or ‘wanting’ the ‘n’ (name)
bOUT (fight) missing or ‘losing’ the first letter or ‘head’
Enjoyable and entertaining. Thanks for the blog. I needed help with the parsing for a couple of clues esp 9a. Tops for me are ARCHIPELAGO and CYCLE LANE with ticks also for SIEMENS and DODGE. Put a smile on my face. Thanks Filbert.
Very enjoyable. Some nice deceptive clues. For example, the ‘fancy’ in 1a and ‘manufacturing’ in 9a both suggested anagrams at first. Fortunately, I saw the light fairly quickly on these. I’m from the generation that talked about mhos for impedance but siemens did take over sufficiently long ago that I was aware of the change. I bet a few solvers thought about a certain Dr. Finlay when solving 21a.
SAS are not synonymous with ‘commandos’.
Apart from that, steady work… I did enjoy the 400 yottawatt generator, even though I had to look up yottawatt.. I would echo Sofamore@1 with admiration forARCHIPELAGO..
Thanks Filbert n Bertandjoyce
Lucky B&J for getting to blog another fizzing Filbert. A setter on top form with a whole box of tricks to unleash upon us. Hard to pick a list to commend, there are so many. I’ll go with PRODUCTION LINE, EXTRA COVER, TOUCH AND GO, FABLED, MOTORIST (podium), ARCHIPELAGO (COTD), SNIPPET, SHARON FRUIT (podium), DUKEDOM and BRIAR. Splendid job.
Thanks Filbert and B&J
Another admirable puzzle from Filbert. FABLED and BRIAR were my favourites, which probably shows my age.
Especially liked 3d DODGE – “Kansas city to get out of?” – for the idiom:
‘colloquial (originally and chiefly U.S.). 1965– to get (the hell, heck) out of Dodge: to leave, esp. quickly; to flee.’
Does that make it &lit?
Thanks F & B&J
Thanks both. BRIAR was new to me but went in once I identified the non-Messiah The parsing for ON AND ON was beyond me as I mistakenly settled for seeing the reversal of “no DNA”
TFO@7
In fact, NO DNA, NO! repeatedoy makes it an &lit 🙂
Could not parse it either.
Fine puzzle, thanks Filbert, and Bertandnoyce.
I had no way in to this until I reached the SE corner. Got there in the end but had no idea of the parsing of PRODUCTION LINE or EXTRA COVER.
Rather fond of POSIT meets TRON myself.
Hovis @2, 21a, yes indeed.
Thanks Filbert and B&J.
Anyone else finding the online Indie crossword even more annoying than usual the last couple of days? If I switch tabs to search for something or let the phone sleep, when I come back it kicks me back to the menu screen, and quite often after sitting through the pointless black screen non-advert all I get is a white screen. As I don’t have a printer I am tempted to give up on it altogether…
beery hiker@10.. certainly more sensitive to going off site, n returning to start menu.. no white screen.. yet
beery hiker @10
I found that to be the case using the latest Safari browser so switched to Firefox instead which solved the annoying problem of being thrown out of the crossword into a white box.
Hope that helps.
beery hiker @10 Firefox works fine for me too.