Filbert making their customary Sunday appearance.
I’m sure it’s me – probably something to do with having had a poor night’s sleep – but I found it rather harder than normal to get into gear for this one. A few of the parsings below have queries by them, and I’m always grateful for your suggestions.
But having said that I found a great deal to enjoy here, with some excellent surfaces, as we’d expect from this setter – particularly LAPDOG, the Speedo-wearing student swimming champ, the golf club-owning Republican (not sure who Filbert could have in mind here), GUNMETAL, the anagram for CARDINAL WOLSEY, OUTRE and, my COTD, the mummy’s boy bullfighter sin cojones.
Many thanks to Filbert.
Moh’s sleep-deprived cruciverbial hardness scale rating: Apatite
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | LAPDOG |
Little tyke Beverly Hills cops shot from behind (6)
|
| LAPD (Beverly Hills cops) + reversal (from behind) of GO | ||
| 4 | SCUPPERS |
Scotch back in barrels which the drink escapes from? (8)
|
| SCUPPER (scotch) + [barrel]S, for the drainage holes in a ship that allow seawater to drain away | ||
| 9 | SHORT IRON |
Republican in Troon, his new golf club (5,4)
|
| Anagram (new) of TROON HIS around R | ||
| 11 | REEVE |
Female ruff’s beak (5)
|
| Double definition – I was aware of the local official/magistrate (hence ‘beak’) known as a REEVE, but not of the female ruff, or sandpiper, being known by the same term | ||
| 12 | AFOREMENTIONED |
Area supervisors note ID with alterations written above (14)
|
| A + FOREMEN + anagram (with alterations) of NOTE ID | ||
| 14 | EXPORT |
Cautionary rating on English wine to send to France? (6)
|
| X (cautionary rating) on E + PORT | ||
| 16 | GUNMETAL |
Unsatisfied girl has bagged bronze for shooting (8)
|
| Envelope (has bagged) of UNMET inside GAL | ||
| 18 | ESPOUSED |
Did champion model speedos around university? (8)
|
| Anagram (model) of SPEEDOS around U | ||
| 20 | PRENUP |
Contract groom listened to in court (6)
|
| Soundalike of ‘preen’ + UP (in court, up before the judge) | ||
| 23 | CARDINAL WOLSEY |
Lord Chancellor is wary called on mobile (8,6)
|
| Anagram (mobile) of IS WARY CALLED ON | ||
| 26 | ADAGE |
Saw time on notice (5)
|
| AGE (time) on AD (notice) | ||
| 27 | GO WALKIES |
With old Golf pulled over, people needing the AA vanish (2,7)
|
| Reversal (pulled over) of W (with) O (old) G (Golf) + ALKIES (alcoholics, people needing Alcoholics Anonymous) | ||
| 28 | MATADORA |
Bullfighter with no cojones a bit yellow, mother admits (8)
|
| MA around (mother admits) A + TAD + OR (gold or yellow in heraldry), def: a female bullfighter | ||
| 29 | ORIGIN |
Doctor home after round where he started (6)
|
| RIG (doctor) + IN (home) after O | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | LASSA FEVER |
African bug left, because harmless? Not quite so (5,5)
|
| L + AS + SAFE +VER[y] | ||
| 2 | PHOTO OP |
Press engagement quiet band keeps to (5,2)
|
| P + HOOP around (keeps) TO | ||
| 3 | OUTRE |
Public touching not the done thing (5)
|
| OUT (public) + RE (touching/regarding) | ||
| 5 | CONSTRUE |
Infer fraud’s honest (8)
|
| CONS + TRUE. Construe and infer aren’t quite identical in meaning, but near enough for a crossword clue | ||
| 6 | PERFORMER |
Artiste first noted after agent given raise (9)
|
| FORMER (first noted – sort of, but I’m a bit unclear about the precise meaning here) after reversal (given raise) of REP | ||
| 7 | EVEREST |
At any time, cryptic set difficult challenge (7)
|
| EVER + anagram (cryptic) of SET | ||
| 8 | SEEK |
Comb for long-haired adherent caught (4)
|
| Soundalike (caught) of ‘Sikh’ | ||
| 10 | REEL |
Drive off without parking to keep looping around (4)
|
| RE[p]EL (drive off) without the P | ||
| 13 | CLAP EYES ON |
See incomplete clone, taking copy exactly (4,4,2)
|
| CLON[e] around (taking) both APE + YES | ||
| 15 | ROUNDHEAD |
Harry looked at text from Spooner, Charles’s old foe (9)
|
| Spoonerism of ‘hound read’, def referring to the 17th-century English civil wars between Charles I’s royalists and the parliamentarians or roundheads | ||
| 17 | TEENAGER |
One staying out later, probably after 12? (8)
|
| Cryptic definition – though I’m not sure why ‘later’ rather than simply ‘late’, or what ‘probably’ is adding | ||
| 19 | PEASANT |
Poor worker nice giving away pound (7)
|
| P[L]EASANT without the L | ||
| 21 | NESTING |
Removing eggs, e.g. nits spread after November (7)
|
| Anagram (spread) of EG NITS after N. Not sure I quite understand how the definition here relates to the solution – I know some birds sometimes remove eggs from their own nests to optimise the size of the clutch, but that doesn’t seem to me to be the correct interpretation here. Any better ideas welcome – see PostMark@1 | ||
| 22 | BLOW |
Knock black and blue (4)
|
| B + LOW (blue) | ||
| 24 | OILER |
Cargo ship‘s steam generator failing to start (5)
|
| [b]OILER without the B (failing to start) | ||
| 25 | FARM |
House with a lot of land, miles and miles (4)
|
| FAR (miles) + M (miles) |
NESTING is the practice of taking eggs from birds’ nests- a rather unsavoury form of collecting. I thought the ‘after 12’ element of TEENAGER was referring to teens being 13 and over though that clue did seem rather odd. I, too, was confused by the ‘noted’ in PERFORMER unless it is just a juxtaposition indicator like ‘seen’ etc
PERFORMER
FORMER
‘first noted’ in the sense of ‘first of two things mentioned’?
Thanks PostMark – I wasn’t aware of that meaning of ‘nesting’. A practice both unsavoury and (in the UK at least) illegal. The ‘after 12’ bit of the TEENAGER clue certainly refers to teens being at least 13, but that makes the use of ‘probably’ even harder to account for.
KVa – you may well be right (I know from experience that you usually are!) about FORMER, but if you are I’m still wondering why ‘noted’ when ‘first’ would seem to do the job by itself. Filbert isn’t normally a setter who adds words for the surface reading alone.
Loved PRENUP, both clever and droll. LOI. The blog has it as a charade (preen + up) which is fair enough but I think the clue can work as a CD or &lit. The surface conjures up such a comic image, of a groom in a perhaps subsequent divorce court, finding out about the contract. Or, I’m over-reading things, which is quite possible. Yet, otherwise the ‘listened to’ has no real role in the charade. Thanks MoH and thanks Filbert.