The Independent crossword site has now been updated to show the correct puzzle.
We have a puzzle from Bluebird today, Thursday, a day when there is sometimes a theme in the clues or the grid.
My first thoughts on this were a sense of deja vu where the clues referred to ‘offer’ as a hitman and floor as a homonym for ‘flaw’. Both of these appeared in an Independent puzzle I blogged last week.
There was theme using various meanings and associations of the word POTTER (entry at 19 across). There were allusions to people and things, some of which were referenced by homonyms of other grid entries.
I was impressed by the intricacy of the wordplay of some of Bluebird’s clues. I enjoyed solving this puzzle.
I liked the surface for SHRUG (4 across) given the difficulties faced by Welsh rugby recently.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Without complaining, Saint Columba’s left to take in attentionseeker’s utterance (5)
STOIC (uncomplaining in suffering; without complaining) (ST [Saint] + C [first letter of [leftmost; ‘s left]) containing (to take in) OI (a cry uttered by someone seeking your attention) ST (OI) C |
| 4 | Act embodying a lack of conviction within Welsh rugby (5)
SHRUG (a gesture expressive of doubt, indifference, lack of conviction) SHRUG (hidden word in [within] welSH RUGby) SHRUG |
| 7 | Hello Dolly’s opening is screened (3)
HID (concealed; screened) HI (hello) + D (first letter of [opening of] Dolly) HI D |
| 9 | One nun takes the top off friar ‘for a laugh‘ (2,3)
IN FUN (for a laugh) I (Roman numeral for one) + (NUN containing [takes] F [first letter of {top} Friar]) I N (F) UN |
| 10 | Perhaps Spooner and his American agent cry (9)
BEDFELLOW (colleague; in the clue Spooner is presented as a colleague of his American agent) Reverend Spooner would pronounce BEDFELLOW as FEDBELLOW (FEDeral agent of the Federal Bureau of Invesigation) + BELLOW (cry) BEDFELLOW |
| 11 | Colonel Mustard, say, or Reverend Green? (10)
SERVICEMAN (A Colonel is a rank in the Army [one of the armed services]) SERVICEMAN (a Reverend preaches at a service) SERVICEMAN |
| 12 | Accumulation of dirt close to canal (4)
POOL (an underground accumulation [in the pores of sedimentary rock] of petroleum or gas) POO (excrement;’ dirt) + L (last letter of [close to] canaL) POO L |
| 14 | Cool woman with a whistle? Hers gets blown (7)
REFRESH (cool) REF (REFeree; woman with a whistle) + an anagram of (gets blown) HERS REF RESH* |
| 17 | Sportswoman to portray Queen Elizabeth on stage? (6)
PLAYER (sportswoman) PLAY (portray on stage) + ER (Elizabeth Regina; Queen Elizabeth) PLAY ER |
| 19 | 8, 31, 12 17, 26 21, or 6 29 24, reportedly? (6)
POTTER (each of the people or items referred to by the entries or homonyms of [reportedly] the entries listed could be considered to be POTTERs) DAWDLE [8 down]: move slowly [POTTER {busy oneself in a desultory way}] HARRY [31 across]: reference the HARRY POTTER books and films POOL PLAYER [12 across, 17 across]: POTTER of balls BEER TRICKS [26 down, 21 down] taken together sound like [reportedly] BEATRIX [reference BEATRIX POTTER {1866 – 1943}, English author] GREY SON PERRY [6 down, 29 across, 24 down] taken together sound like [reportedly] GRAYSON PERRY [born 1960], English artist whose skills include POTTERy POTTER |
| 20 | Place to unwind – or not (7)
TORONTO (city [place] in Canada) TO + an anagram of (unwind) OR NOT TO RONTO* |
| 22 | Choice rump steak’s middle left until last (4)
RARE (excellent; choice) REAR (rump) with the first letter of the central pair EA [middle left] E moved to the end [last] to form RARE RARE |
| 23 | Friend with depression – worried before date – did tremble (10)
PALPITATED (trembled; did tremble) PAL (friend) + PIT (depression) + ATE (worried) + D (date) PAL PIT ATE D |
| 27 | Rubbish musical instrument Charlie brought round for one raising money? (9)
COLLECTOR (one raising money) (ROT [rubbish] + CELLO [musical instrument] + C [Charlie is the international radio communication codeword for the letter C]) all reversed (brought round) (C OLLEC TOR)< |
| 28 | No parking in London suburb that’s close to the centre (5)
INNER (close to tne centre) pINNER (London suburb) excluding (no) P (parking) INNER |
| 29 | Boy George’s intro removed from Karma Chameleon? (3)
SON (boy) SONg(Boy George [born 1961], lead singer of Culture Club sang a SONG called Karma Chameleon) excluding (removed from) G [first letter of [intro] George] SON |
| 30 | Waiting on a vacant driveway (5)
READY (waiting) RE (with reference to; on) + A + DY (letters remaining in DrivewaY when the central letters rivewa are removed [vacant]) RE A DY |
| 31 | Badger runs right through grass (5)
HARRY (badger) (R [runs] + R [right]) contained in (through) HAY (grass cut for fodder) HA (R R) Y |
| Down | |
| 1 | Cracking cross is finished by Souza’s opener for the Blades (8)
SCISSORS (cutting instrument with two blades) Anagram of (cracking) CROSS IS + S (first letter of [opener] Souza) SCISSOR* S |
| 2 | Volunteer hitman? (5)
OFFER (volunteer) OFFER (killer; hitman, based on the American meaning of off [to kill]) double definition OFFER |
| 3 | In control of one’s movements south to get to Africa and Antarctica? (10)
CONTINENTS (Africa and Antarctica are two CONTINENTS) CONTINENT (in control of one’s bladder and bowel movements) + S (south) CONTINENT S |
| 4 | Switch side of black sword (5)
SABRE (curved single-edged cavalry sword) SABLE (black) with L (left) changed to R (right) – switching sides SABRE |
| 5 | Celeb gets snapped here, in seaside town, with sweetheart (3,6)
RED CARPET (a strip of carpet put out for the highly favoured to walk on; a place where celebrities have their picture taken [snapped]) REDCAR (seaside town in the North of England) + PET (sweetheart) RED CAR PET |
| 6 | Dull, sadistic Christian? (4)
GREY (dull) GREY (reference Christian GREY, a leading character in the Fifty Shades trilogy written by E L James [born 1963]) double definition GREY |
| 7 | Movie auditorium assigned to screening number one (9)
HALLOWEEN (title of a film released in 1978 which extended into a franchise of 13 films) HALL (auditorium) + (ON [assigned to] containing [screening] WEE [urination; number one]) HALL O (WEE) N |
| 8 | Move like a snail or like a duck, half-twisted (6)
DAWDLE (move very slowly like a snail) WADDLE (move like a duck) with the first 3 [of 6, half] letters reversed [twisted] to form DAWDLE DAW< DLE |
| 13 | Repton’s head breaking into part of his supply for school member (10)
PARROTFISH (the collective noun for a group of fish is school, so a PARROTFISH is a member of a school) R (first letter of [head] Repton) contained in (breaking into) an anagram of [supply, derived from the word supple] PART OF HIS PAR (R) OTFISH* – either R could be the one contained |
| 15 | Diagram recorded fault with incomplete machinery (5,4)
FLOOR PLAN (diagram of the layout of a building) FLOOR (sounds like [recorded] FLAW [fault]) + PLANt (machinery) excluding the final letter (incomplete) T FLOOR PLAN |
| 16 | The tips of leaves and branches are blended for infusion (6,3)
HERBAL TEA (an infusion) Anagram of (blended) THE and LAB (first letters of [tips of] each of Leaves, And and Branches) and ARE HERBAL TEA* |
| 18 | Gracious solver would put up with setter’s latest boring material (8)
CORDUROY (a type of material) COR (Goodness me!; gracious!) + (R [last letter of {latest} setteR contained in [boring] YOU’D [solver would] ) reversed COR (DU (R) OY)< |
| 21 | Magic garment lifted around conjurer’s face (6)
TRICKS (acts performed by a magician; magic) SKIRT (garment) reversed (lifted; down entry) containing (around) C (first letter of [face] Conjurer) TRI (C) KS< |
| 24 | Quietly, mum spurns sherry for an alternative (5)
PERRY (a fermented pear juice; an alternative to sherry in that it is another drink) P (piano; quietly) + shERRY excluding (spurns) SH (be silent; be mum) P ERRY |
| 25 | Singer sung note (5)
TENOR (singer) TENOR (sounds like [sung] TENNER [banknote]) TENOR |
| 26 | Punter eschewing races to get a drink (4)
BEER (drink) BEttER (punter) excluding (eschewing) TT (reference the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy motorcycle races) BEER |
duncan – I am trying to comment without looking at your blog, having just solved a Filbert on the Indy site – and you have blogged a Bluebird. Not sure what is going on and have left a message for Ken on Site Feedback but believe he might be away
Rats! The independent site is giving a Filbert crossword from a year ago. Didn’t notice this (or remember doing it) until seeing this blog.
PostMark beat me to it.
PostMark@1 Hovis@2
Independent bloggers receive all the puzzles for the following week on the Friday before and this one by Bluebird is numbered 12079, so I think this is the puzzle that should be on the Indie crossword site.
I’ll put a note at the front of the blog and keep monitoring the Indie site to see if it changes.
I think I must have missed the Filbert puzzle last year as I completed it today with absolutely no sense of having seen any of the clues before. I look forward to doing the correct puzzle in due course.
Fixed now – PA put a rogue 0 in the file name
Well, one can’t really complain: an Indy BOGOF day! I enjoyed the Filbert earlier (and had no recollection of solving it) and now I’ve had the opportunity to solve a Bluebird too. And what a cracking puzzle. I enjoyed the themed reference, part from making the mistake of not realising that the first two were single references, rather than a pair. So, whilst I recognised the cue-man, Beatrix and Grayson as POTTERs, I was trying to work out whether there was a homophone of ‘Dawdle Harry’ or even – dirty trick though it would have been – ‘Eight Harry’ that would give me a nho ceramicist! Doh!
It was an intriguing theme idea, well executed and there is a slew of super clues scattered right through this puzzle. SHRUG, IN FUN, REFRESH, TORONTO, SON, GREY, HALLOWEEN, FLOOR PLAN, HERBAL TEA and CORDUROY are my big ticks – though I could have ticked more! HERBAL TEA is a nice extended def, I believe, and is cleverly worked to incorporate the innocent looking THE and ARE. And, after last week, I was delighted to spot OFFER.
Thanks Bluebird and duncan
Well, beggar me! Solved the Filbert ( with difficulty) and made a load of notes, like ” the Le Carre trilogy” for TERRACE, has been used before.
But, I wasn’t solving puzzles, back then, so that’s bloody spooky. So….on to a Bluebird.
To be fair, you could give me a crossword that I solved yesterday, and I would be none the wiser.
Old age……a curse and a blessing.
I came at at 2pm and it was the intended Bluebird. Quite enjoyed this some elegant clueing. The main difficulty was trying to find out what needed to be put into the HERBAL TEA.
As a rugby fan I agree with Duncan on SHRUG.
Cheers blogger and bluebird.
Thanks both. Really enjoyed this, although about a third of the clues proved difficult for me after initially sensing it would be over all too quickly. The POTTER device was great, however GREY was last one in, unaided by the unknown artist. BEDFELLOW was tricky as there was no obvious definition for reasons now understood.
I wish I had left it with the Filbert.
When “place” = Toronto; “one raising money”=Collector; and Cluedo characters are servicemen, for no other reason than being a Col. and a Rev., I’m afraid it’s all a bit off the mark.
Very PC with “woman with a whistle”, for ref. Nice misdirection,14(ac)
Gosh….got me again with “sportswoman”.( 17ac).
FLOOR PLAN. Zamorca in the FT today, got there first.
29(ac) SON, and 13(d), PARROTFISH, are the kind of contrived clues for a bland/ irrelevant solution that are not my thing.
Each to their own, and I am sure many solvers enjoyed this puzzle. And “the theme”.
Thanks for the blog, duncan
Too late to be seen, probably, but I think the blog missed the gist of the clue for BEDFELLOW: the definition is “Perhaps Spooner,” as in one who spoons (cuddles in bed).
Not too late for me mrpenney. That one puzzled me the most even after reading the blog. Thanks.
Staticman1@8 As someone who comes from Wales there’s not much else we can do at the moment. Thanks Bluebird and duncanshiell
It was 11766, 12 months ago today if anyone needs the blog. Like I do. Never got as far as Blubird.
Enjoyed the entertainment anyway. Thanks to all involved, whichever year 🙂
Only just got around to this. Is this the latest ever comment? I agree with mrpenny and in 22a the E that is moved is the middle of stEak.