Good morning everyone.
Do not adjust your set; it’s a double helping of me this weekend. Unless you’ve just woken up to the sound of “I got you babe“, in which case it’s Saturday and you’ve got bigger issues to worry about.
Today’s Filbert was a pleasure to complete and I got into a rhythm with the solve quite early on. Certainly not a common experience with this solver.
I’m nominating 19a for pun clue of the week. Very nice.
Definitions are underlined
ACROSS
1 Child’s organiser contains letters about assembly (10)
PARLIAMENT
Child’s organiser [PARENT] contains [around] letters [MAIL] about [backwards]
7 Strike before 12 breaks record (4)
LAMP
Before 12 [AM] breaks [inside] record [LP]
9 Telephone book diminished (6)
BLOWER
Book [B] diminished [LOWER]
10 Painter opens wine, just the thing for painting? (8)
PORTRAIT
Painter [RA] opens [inside] wine [PORT], just the thing [IT]
11 Old British car gives mojo to spy (6,6)
AUSTIN POWERS
Old British car [AUSTIN] gives mojo [POWERS]
13 Knot steadies New Yorker’s hood (4,4)
EAST SIDE
anag. [“knot”] STEADIES
14 Firework you shouldn’t have inside according to daughter (6)
PETARD
You shouldn’t have [TA] inside according to [PER] daughter [D]
15 City spread jokes about Pep’s termination (6)
SKOPJE
anag. [“Spread”] JOKES about [around] Pep’s termination [P]
17 Sort of rubber star wears still wet in odd places (8)
SILICONE
Star [ICON] wears [inside] still wet in odd places [STILL WET]
19 Presumably all female cult are changing terminology (12)
NOMENCLATURE
Presumably all female [NO MEN] cult are changing [anag. CULT ARE]
22 Spectator’s running after large rugby player, having lost his head (6-2)
LOOKER ON
Running [ON] after large [L] rugby player, having lost his head [HOOKER]
23 Spoilt child claims Chad’s inside India (6)
BHARAT
Spoilt child [BRAT] claims [around] Chad’s inside [HA]
24 Song that guy heard (4)
HYMN
Homophone “that guy” = HIM
25 How’s saving weight significant on a cheap holiday? (10)
HOSTELLING
How’s saving weight [HOWS] significant [TELLING]
DOWN
2 Friend throughout the year (4)
ALLY
Throughout [ALL] the year [Y]
3 Spooner’s noticed stolen goods in case (7)
LAWSUIT
Spoonerism of SAW LOOT
4 Sortie with no parking, couples cycle (3,6)
AIR STRIKE
With no parking, couples cycle = PAIRS TRIKE
5 Stretch of Devon river full of vessels (7)
EXPANSE
Devon river [EXE] full of [around] vessels [PANS]
6 Body temperature approximately (5)
TORSO
Temperature [T] approximately [OR SO]
7 Party girl ate nuts (5,2)
LARGE IT
anag. [“nuts”] GIRL ATE
8 Watch driver graduate before summer starts (10)
MAINSPRING
Graduate [MA] before summer starts [IN SPRING]
12 Madonna beds German philosopher and later Roman general (4,6)
MARK ANTONY
Madonna [MARY] beds [around] German philosopher [KANT] and later [ON]
14 Tasty drink brought over on a board (9)
PALATABLE
Drink [LAP] brought over [backwards] on a board [A TABLE]
16 Squash blood under shoe (7)
PUMPKIN
Blood [KIN] under shoe [PUMP]
17 Old pictures on loan guarded by security service (7)
SILENTS
On loan [LENT] guarded by [inside] security service [Secret Intelligence Service = SIS]
18 Dock where dog follows rat (7)
CURTAIL
Dog [TAIL] follows rat [CUR]
20 Governor thanked for hiding PM faced with revolting Americans (5)
NORTH
Hidden word clue [“hiding”] GOVERNOR THANKED
Frederick North, Lord North – Wikipedia
21 Wet seed that’s no good (4)
RAIN
Seed that’s no good [GRAIN]
It’s a bit arty-farty to call a cryptic crossword, a thing of beauty….but I’m going to.
A schoolday on a Sunday? ( 14ac) I had always thought that “hoist with his own PETARD”, from Hamlet, meant something like “the hangman’s strung up on his own gallows”, viz, poetic justice, or a backfire. Today I found, it’s actually “a bomb-maker blown skyward by his own bomb (or firework)”.
A great clue, as they all are, in this gem of a puzzle. Every surface reading is artful, not fartful.
How Filbert does it every time, I just don’t know.
Big thanks, Mr F ( and again, Leedsclimber – I second your emotion).
I was trying SALENTO for a while at 17D – SALENTO is the location of the Grotta dei Cervi (aka Deer Cave) containing prehistoric paintings – but once the last letter (given by 25A) was in place everything made sense:)
All in all found this one tough, took me nearly twice as long to parse everything correctly but got there in the end (apart from parsing CUR & TAIL back to front).
BTW the only reason my name shows up in the leaderboard online is because I use “Pencil Mode” first before committing my final answers, I suspect the same applies for the others as well. Have had a couple of wrong answers in the past after clicking “Check Puzzle”, bringing the score down to between 97% or 99% but the bonus points from completing quickly seem to negate the lost points. Doesn’t seem fair but I doubt anyone really cares, right?
My faves: NOMENCLATURE, AIR STRIKE, BHARAT and CURTAIL.
Thanks Filbert and Leedsclimber.
slyzspyz @2:
I don’t think you’re at all alone in that. I’ve also suspected some people even use bots to complete the grids as my phone’s keypad doesn’t seem to allow fast typing.
I’ve been trying to improve my completion time to average under 15 minutes of late, so I’m forcing the timer to start by typing something in at the beginning. Any occasion I get the time bonus is an extra little treat.
Thanks Leedsclimber and Filbert
Really liked nomenclature. No quibbles and lots of smiles
Filbert up to the usual high standard. NOMENCLATURE, NORTH and MARK ANTONY were my favourites. Thanks to setter and blogger.
Typically smooth and not too tricky, as befits a Sunday. Though LOI, SILENTS, took far longer than it should. I guess it’s a dated term for starters and I’d suspect (with no proof whatsoever!) that ‘silent pictures’ or ‘silent movies’ is the slightly more common phrase. I can’t imagine the pop icon spends much time on the Indy website – but, were she to visit, she might not thank our setter for 12a!
Faves today inc PARLIAMENT for the ‘child’s organiser’, PORTRAIT for the surface, NOMENCLATURE for the laugh, HOSTELLING for its cunning disguise of a simple charade aligned with a very credible surface, EXPANSE and MAINSPRING for the smoothness which is also there in PUMPKIN though the image is somewhat grim.
Thanks Filbert and Leedsclimber
Leedsclimber @4
15 minutes? Wow! I probably average about an hour, think my record is 30min 🙁
Another brilliant puzzle by Filbert. Impossible to single out a favourite clue, superb from start to finish.
That was right up my street. No particular favourites today, since all were smooth and enjoyable.
slyxspyz@8, same here! I usually get there – or pretty close to there – in the end though, and that’s good enough for me.
Thanks both
There is another way, slyxspyz – I print it off, then take it back to bed to complete, with a pot of tea and no time constraints or targets at all. Perfect.
Agree with all about this one. Thanks to Filbert and Leedsclimber
Thanks both. I Got You Babe was No.1 when I was born, so I’m not desiring of the Groundhog Day experience, any more than I welcome my nearly thirty years of parenting being summarised as child organising in PARLIAMENT
slyzspyz@2 + 8. For all of us tortoise-solvers out here, thanks for the honest reveals.
I would struggle to even write the letters into the grid, with the solutions in front of me, in the time some solvers seem to take to complete!
Like your good self, maybe, an hour is my target time; personal best, 19 minutes; personal worst…… let’s not go there.
This one took me 57 minutes, ( I’m not anally retentive – the download version throws it up when I complete. ) That apparently earned me ? 55,000 points? on a 100%.
You’ve encouraged me to join the competition.
Bottom place, here I come.
I always print puzzles out so I’m unaware of the time thingy. Frankly I always try to be sure I’ve got the clue completely sussed before entry. Maybe it’s just being a blogger for 15 years thing. I don’t see the point of setting a bot to solve to claim the top spot.
Anyway as a Phil I liked the intro LeedsClimber and thanks filbert as always
Like ENB@1 I now know the correct meaning of PETARD. For some reason I thought it was one of those contraptions used to throw things at castle walls. Lovely puzzle. I don’t get scores recorded but I’m very happy if I can complete over 90% without help in about an hour. If it goes on longer I’m afraid I just reveal. Full of admiration for those who do it quicker. Thanks Filbert and leedsclimber
SIS is so secret I’d not heard of it.
I’m sure some folk do puzzles on one browser then type the solution in as fast as possible on another. Anyone who does Smartle on the Indy puzzles site will know what I mean. Personally not bothered by how long, I just like to know the why’s and wherefors.
Thanks Filbert and Leedsclimber.