A nice little nut of a puzzle that needed cracking
Some pleasing clues to get throughout the puzzle. Answers dropping in at a reasonable rate till near the end
Though I’m no fan of homophones I particularly liked 13A Myth/Miss when I finally understood (I had Myth in the grid from crossing letters + definition well before) and dimly remember the stories and the TV version with Bonnie Langford. Anyway that gets my favourite clue award.
The clue that gave me the lost grief, and last one in, was 27A. I was tying myself in knots trying to make something, anything fit the crossing letters and the weird clue before I finally twigged the last letter mechanism.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BEWARE |
Watch out for drone, possibly covering conflict (6)
|
| BEE (drone, possibly) around (covering) WAR (conflict) | ||
| 4 | RABBIT |
Did champ after overturning ban go on? (6)
|
| BIT (Did champ) after BAR< (ban, overturning). Shades of Chas’n’Dave | ||
| 9 | VAUDEVILLE |
Volvo in front with gold Cadillac for variety (10)
|
| V (Volvo in front) AU (gold) DEVILLE (Cadillac DeVille is a type of Cadillac) | ||
| 10 | OWED |
Everyone still unmarried, apparently not yet settled (4)
|
| O (zero) WED – so all single | ||
| 11 | METEOR |
Space traveller came across men circling Earth (6)
|
| MET (came across) OR (men, other ranks) around E[arth] | ||
| 12 | CATCH-ALL |
Derisory shout welcomes head of Harrow comprehensive (5-3)
|
| CAT CALL (derisory shout) around H[arrow] | ||
| 13 | MYTH |
Story Violet Elizabeth’s teacher read out? (4)
|
| Lispy homophone of “Miss” (i.e. her teacher) as said by V.E. (Ref. “Just William” books). | ||
| 15 | IMPOVERISH |
Six deliveries pinched by cheeky beggar (10)
|
| OVER (six deliveries) in IMPISH (cheeky) | ||
| 17 | SPONGE DOWN |
Was stinky private behind latrines finally clean with wet wipe? (6,4)
|
| PONGED (was stinky) OWN (private) after (behind) [latrine]S | ||
| 19 | SEEP |
Slowly pass through farm animals, taking hour (4)
|
| S[h]EEP | ||
| 21 | COLLIDER |
Particle accelerator‘s diameter limited by man digging rock out of tunnel (8)
|
| D[iameter] inside (limited by) COLLIER (man digging …) | ||
| 23 | AMAZED |
Mother returned father’s second last letter in shock (6)
|
| MA< (mother, returned) [f]A[ther] ZED [last letter] | ||
| 25 | VETO |
Refuse screen Oscar (4)
|
| VET (screen) O[scar] | ||
| 26 | ARCTIC HARE |
Racer I chat with training runner in the north (6,4)
|
| (RACER I CHAT)* AInd: with training. | ||
| 27 | SLEUTH |
Tracker mortgages will lose you most cash, ultimately (6)
|
| last letters (ultimately) of [mortgage]S [wil]L [los]E [yo]U [mos]T [cas]H Last one in. |
||
| 28 | MEADOW |
Cross it hurts catching end of nose, grazing spot? (6)
|
| MAD (cross) OW (it hurts) around (catching) [nos]E | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BRAVERY |
Underwear pretty good quality for soldiers, say (7)
|
| BRA (underwear) VERY (pretty good) | ||
| 2 | WEDGE |
Shape that has wide and thin side (5)
|
| W[ide] EDGE (thin side) | ||
| 3 | RIVERSIDE |
Bank opening much later for motorists, that is (9)
|
| DRIVERS (from motorists) + I.E. with D dropped down near the end (opening much later) | ||
| 5 | AGENT |
Help for actors to determine how old theatre is? (5)
|
| AGE NT (i.e. assess how old the Nation Theatre is) | ||
| 6 | BROCHURES |
Cherubs or other fliers? (9)
|
| (CHERUBS OR)* AInd: other. | ||
| 7 | TRELLIS |
State remains split by Republican framework (7)
|
| TELL (state) IS (remains) around (split by) R[epublican] | ||
| 8 | BLACKPOOL ROCK |
Fresh pollock OK, crab stick wrapped in plastic (9,4)
|
| (POLLOCK OK CRAB)* AInd: fresh. | ||
| 14 | HANG LOOSE |
British aboard tube are relaxed (4,5)
|
| Cryptic Def. referring to the strap hangers hanging from the ceiling of tube carriages. Edit: ANGLO (British) inside (aboard) HOSE (tube) which pleasingly makes a suitable secondary surface reading |
||
| 16 | VANDALISE |
Damage top and then remainder of suitcase (9)
|
| V[alise] (top of suitcase) AND [v]ALISE (bottom of suitcase) | ||
| 18 | PROWESS |
Daring female form given to front of ship? (7)
|
| Cryptic def. referring to the PROW (front of ship) in a female form (-ESS) instead of what we otherwise might call a figurehead | ||
| 20 | EYEBROW |
Hairy little job close to home, mate cutting tree (7)
|
| [hom]E BRO (mate) inside YEW (tree) | ||
| 22 | DRAFT |
Doctor behind early treatment (5)
|
| DR AFT (behind) | ||
| 24 | APHID |
Sap drinker in pub, breaking a hand (5)
|
| PH (pub) inside A ID (a hand) |
I found this slightly trickier than the usual Filbert – some very crafty defs like those for EYEBROW and AGENT and some very clever tricks like those in OWED, VANDALISE and VAUDEVILLE (I had to guess at the Cadillac – a remarkable spot by our setter). Lovely surfaces throughout. Faves inc BEWARE, CATCH ALL, MYTH, IMPOVERISH, SLEUTH, BROCHURES, BLACKPOOL ROCK and the aforementioned VANDALISE.
beermagnet, I think it’s ‘thin side’ giving us EDGE in WEDGE.
Thanks both
I had a similar feeling about the puzzle like PostMark@1.
My top picks: OWED, MYTH, WEDGE, HANG LOOSE, VANDALISE and PROWESS.
WEDGE
Could work as a CAD, I think.
Didn’t know the cadillac and only knew Violet Elizabeth from previous cryptics.
I reckon HANG LOOSE also has some wordplay: ANGLO inside HOSE.
KVa: I agree with you ref WEDGE being CAD.
I was struggling to make SHOCK = AMAZED in whatever conjugation/tense etc and came to the conclusion that ‘in shock’ must be the definition. Happy to be corrected!
Thanks Filbert, I always enjoy your saturdays and thanks too to beermagnet
Postmark: I can’t take too much credit for Cadillac knowledge – I only vaguely heard of a DeVille and certainly needed to check it before publishing the blog.
You’re right about EDGE (thin side) – that’s me doing scrappy notes then not thinking as I type them into the blog.
Hovis: I didn’t see that for HANG LOOSE. It must be the intended wordplay. Once I got the secondary surface reading I took it as enough
Doofs: Yes. Def. for AMAZED should be “in shock” – I will correct the underlining.
Thanks both. A typically challenging and satisfying encounter with Filbert. BLACKPOOL ROCK my favourite, simply for the reason I’m pleased it appears to have nationwide acknowledgement. Nice to see something other than ‘B’ or ‘BR’ for British in HANG LOOSE. In BRAVERY I took the definition to include ‘good’.