Another cracking Sunday puzzle from Filbert
As expected, we have a set of beautifully constructed clues with some delightful surfaces, of which my own favourites are the blandish men in 11ac, Mike wearing heels in the LE MANS race, the neat anagram for ADORING and the fancy bishop doing nothing. My joint top picks this week: MALINGER and TOYED. Thanks to Filbert.
Moh’s cruciverbal hardness scale rating: Calcite
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CLEMATIS |
Climber melted last ice with bit of muesli (8)
|
| Anagram (melted) of LAST ICE M (bit – first letter – of muesli) | ||
| 6 | CHICHI |
That woman sounded doubly pretentious (6)
|
| Soundalike of ‘she she’ (that woman doubly) | ||
| 9 | SKIDDY |
Small child having very weak grip (6)
|
| S + KIDDY (to me the spelling ‘kiddie’ seems more familiar, but I’m assured that both are acceptable), def referring maybe to tyres that have a weak grip on the road | ||
| 10 | EXACTING |
Difficult pretending to be someone else on X (8)
|
| ACTING (pretending to be someone else) after EX (as in the letter X) | ||
| 11 | BLANDISHMENT |
Guys that are fairly dull last to expect flattery (12)
|
| BLANDISH MEN (guys that are fairly dull) + T (last letter of expect) | ||
| 13 | PARAFFIN |
Fuel with nasty smell brought round by soldier (8)
|
| Reversal (brought round) of NIFF (nasty smell) after PARA (paratrooper) | ||
| 15 | ELEVEN |
Team with Pele but no wingers, well-balanced? (6)
|
| [p]EL[e] (Pele without the outer letters/wingers) + EVEN | ||
| 16 | LE MANS |
Mike wears heels for endurance race (2,4)
|
| M inside (wears) LEANS (heels) | ||
| 18 | UPSTAIRS |
One entertained by revolting celebrities on flight (8)
|
| UP (revolting, up in arms/rising up, perhaps) + STARS around I | ||
| 20 | CONFIDENTIAL |
Move lad with infection that mustn’t be passed on (12)
|
| Anagram (move) of LAD INFECTION | ||
| 23 | MALINGER |
Most of Mean Girls cast act poorly (8)
|
| Anagram (cast) of MEAN GIRL[s] | ||
| 24 | CUTTER |
Conservative, say, one reducing spending? (6)
|
| C + UTTER (say) | ||
| 25 | WEIGHT |
Force directed towards Earth pause when told (6)
|
| Soundalike (when told) of ‘wait’ | ||
| 26 | OVERRIDE |
Emergency control on the other side of bike? (8)
|
| OVER (on the other side of) + RIDE | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | LIKE BLAZES |
Fancy bishop does nothing with much passion (4,6)
|
| LIKE (fancy) + B + LAZES | ||
| 3 | MADRASA |
Friar spat regularly beneath cross in seminary (7)
|
| Alternate letters of [f]R[i]A[r] S[p]A[t] beneath MAD (cross) | ||
| 4 | TOYED |
Did flirt ruffle Daisy’s skirts with toe? (5)
|
| Anagram (ruffle) of DY (Daisy’s skirts, or outer letters) TOE | ||
| 5 | STEPSON |
Relative keeps walking (7)
|
| STEPS ON could mean keeps walking | ||
| 6 | CHARMLESS |
Cold tea left in canteen (9)
|
| CHAR (tea) + L inside MESS | ||
| 7 | INTENSE |
Profound how decimal system counts irrational number (7)
|
| IN TENS (how decimal system counts) + E (the irrational number known as e or Euler’s number, which carries on infinitely without repetition, like pi, and cannot be expressed as a simple fraction. At least, that’s what I’m told – I dare say the mathematicians among you might rightly quibble with my cack-handed definition) | ||
| 8 | HAND |
Worker delivered new parts (4)
|
| Insertion (parts) of N inside HAD (delivered – perhaps as in ‘she had/delivered a baby’) | ||
| 12 | PETROLHEAD |
Driving fan parking here at old ground (10)
|
| P + anagram (ground) of HERE AT OLD | ||
| 14 | FISTFIGHT |
Throwing couple of rights, initially fear punch-up (9)
|
| FI[r]ST (initially) F[r]IGHT (fear) both without R (throwing a couple of rights) | ||
| 17 | ADORING |
Very keen on Gordian knots (7)
|
| Anagram (knots) of GORDIAN | ||
| 18 | UNDERGO |
Bear short of energy (7)
|
| UNDER (short of) + GO (get up and go, energy) | ||
| 19 | AVIATOR |
Traveller first to arrive by way of height? (7)
|
| A[rrive] + VIA + TOR | ||
| 21 | NICHE |
Hospital in south coast resort attracting particular clientele (5)
|
| NICE (the southern French resort) around H | ||
| 22 | GALE |
Heavy blow toppled English prisoner (4)
|
| Reversal (toppled, in a down clue) of E + LAG (prisoner) |
Filbert’s usual classy performance, and very accessible.
I’m not sure about “HAD”, for delivered, in 8(d), HAND, I’m missing something. A brain, probably.
Impeccable, from setter & blogger, hats off, Fil and moh
I was also a bit confused with ‘had’ for ‘delivered’. To me ‘delivering a baby’ is ‘aiding in the birth’ rather than ‘giving birth’. My Chambers agrees with me but my Collins also gives the latter meaning so it looks ok. Maybe there is another sense that works better?
If you enjoyed this puzzle, take a look at the News puzzle from Filbert’s alter ego Guy in the FT today, which is equally excellent!
Hovis@2
Thanks for the cross reference… but I suspect, like me, you’re not totally convinced.
I can only go very stretchy with,
“He delivered a good performance”/ ” he had a good performance”, the kind of “word substitution in a specific phrase” justification that I don’t like for synonyms.
Interested to hear other’s views.
PETROLHEAD my favourite. Like CONFIDENTIAL, the anagram fodder is deftly placed in the surface. Thanks for your blog, MOH. Thanks Filbert.
Worth it for the blandish men alone. My brain always freezes when confronted by the dreaded -a-e.
My faves: EXACTING, ELEVEN, INTENSE, NICHE and ADORING.
Thanks Filbert and moh.
Great as always from Filbert.
Big ticks for BLANDISHMENT, PETROLHEAD, INTENSE, CHARMLESS and OVERRIDE.
Couldn’t figure out how FISTFIGHT parsed but not much else if anything fitted the checking letters.
Thanks MOH and Filbert
Thanks both. Yes, a typical Filbert, which gradually yielded progress. Regardless of the merits or otherwise of had/delivered in HAND, I had no real confidence in the answer which held me up significantly alongside the nho CHICHI which went in as a guess particularly regarding the expected pronunciation.
Worth it for BLANDISHMENT alone. Cracking puzzle as always.
Top notch as always, and for me the usual story: struggle to get a couple in, then struggle even more to make any progress at all, then force myself to apply myself and somehow it all works out in the end. Partly I think it’s because Filbert’s clues give solutions which are rarely guessable from the definition alone, but which are constently meticulously constructed.
In addition to the highlights mentioned by others, I’d add CONFIDENTIAL. Furthermore, UNDERGO gets a special mention for taking a disproportional amount of thought for what turned out to be a straightforward clue.
Thanks both, for the challenge and the excellent blog.
Ditto AP @ 11
I very much enjoy Guy in FT.
Excellent, very fair, puzzle.
Filbert puzzles are classy.