Another taxing, teasing but tractable puzzle from the Independent on Sunday‘s resident setter.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Mummy cases good here?
MUSEUM
An insertion of USE in MUM, and a cad. The insertion indicator is ‘cases’. ‘What good/use is that?’
4 Make spouse on end of chorus line pirouette
SWIVEL
A charade of S for the final letter of ‘chorus’, WIVE and L. The use of WIVE as a verb is archaic.
I had rather he should shrive me than wive me.
Portia, dismissing one of her unwelcome suitors in The Merchant of Venice
9 Teenage stress?
UNDERSCORE
A dd. If you’re teenage, you’re under a score of years.
10 Party not smiling when leader’s ousted
RAVE
[G]RAVE
11 Irish cops pull over driver of Waymo taxi, say
GARDAÍ
A charade of DRAG reversed and AI. Waymo taxis are driverless, using Artificial Intelligence to drive them. An Garda Síochána is the full official name of the national police service in the Republic of Ireland, It translates as ‘The Guardians of the Peace’. Garda is one policeman; GARDAÍ (pronounced Gar-dee) is the plural. English speakers in Ireland refer to the police as ‘the Guards’.
12 Totally twisted wood fences come down
COLLAPSE
An insertion of ALL reversed in COPSE. The insertion indicator is ‘fences’.
13 Explorer showing bravery faced with missionary’s head in shack
HUMBOLDT
An insertion of M for the initial letter of ‘missionary’ and BOLD in HUT. The insertion indicator is ‘in’. Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist and explorer. He has a penguin named after him, but the rules for the OPBL have not been met, I’m afraid.
15 Cryptic magazine missing separate parts of Azed puzzle
ENIGMA
(MAG[AZ]INE)* with ‘cryptic’ as the anagrind.
17 Light French cheese sounded rubbish
DEBRIS
A soundalike clue (‘sounded’) for DAY BRIE. It took me ages to parse this, because I pronounce this the French way. But lots of other people pronounce it to sound like DAY BRIE, so fair play.
19 In part, Palestine area’s title?
NEAR EAST
Hidden in PalestiNE AREAS Title, and cad.
21 Radioactive part of reactor stable according to Spooner’s calculation
FORECAST
A Spoonerism of CORE FAST.
23 Husband coming out of dense bushes gets fixed penalty notice, say
TICKET
Filbert is inviting you to remove the H for ‘husband’ from THICKET.
25 Crook close to shepherd on mountain
BEND
A charade of BEN and D for the final letter of ‘shepherd’.
26 Good times for dodgy priest ending in ignominy
PROSPERITY
A charade of PRO, (PRIEST)* and Y for the final letter of ‘ignominy’. The anagrind is’dodgy’.
27 Chair perplexed by speaker
THRONE
A soundalike clue (‘by speaker’) for THROWN.
28 Secondary concussion that might make you wobbly
BY-BLOW
(WOBBLY)* with ‘that might make you …’ as the anagrind.
Down
1 Baby in India punches like an adult
MINIATURE
An insertion of IN I in MATURE. The insertion indicator is ‘punches’.
2 Penny feeds children in hurry
SPEED
An insertion of P in SEED. The insertion indicator is ‘feeds’. SEED for ‘children’ is archaic, but common in the Old Testament.
3 Later note butcher with uniform on improve at work
UPSKILL
A charade of U for the phonetic alphabet ‘uniform’, PS for post scriptum or ‘later note’ and KILL.
5 Rearing stunt that’s fun on a little bull
WHEELIE
A charade of WHEE and LIE. A LIE is a little bull[shit].
6 Express train leaves Berlin regularly
VERBALISE
(LEAVES B[E]R[L]I[N])* with ‘train’ as the anagrind.
7 Trousers reflecting the King’s first pair?
LEVIS
We need to reverse the first two letters of ELVIS.
8 Chain attached to pet defended by church people
CONCATENATION
An insertion of ON for ‘attached to’ and CAT in CE, followed by NATION. The insertion indicator is ‘defended by’.
14 One showing technique amid a lot of drinking?
BARTENDER
Another clever cad. An insertion of ART in BENDER, with ‘amid’ as the insertion indicator.
16 Wrongly award MBEs to women claiming income support
MISBESTOW
An insertion of IS in MBES TO W. The insertion indicator is ‘claiming’. IS is an abbreviation for Income Support, but the benefit is no longer available, having been subsumed into Universal Credit.
18 Writer given reduced portion initially in strop
SHARPEN
A charade of SHAR[E] and PEN.
20 Examination someone’s suspiciously late for?
AUTOPSY
A cd.
22 Patent Tesla is subject to?
OVERT
A charade of OVER and T. Tesla is the SI unit of measurement for magnetic flux density.
24 Pink bit of candy in your mouth
CORAL
A charade of C for the initial letter of ‘candy’ and ORAL.
Many thanks to Filbert for this Sunday’s puzzle. Sadly, not many more of these to come, given the announcement by the owners of the Independent.
I think 15a in blog needs more explanation. The idea is to ‘separate’ AZED into A + ZED (AZ) for removal.
Thank you, Hovis.
Top of my pay-grade this one, completed, but I’ve run faster marathons.
DAY-BRIE took a few miles, I pronounce it as “deh-bree”, so “talk of French cheese being rubbish” would have suited me better.
BY-BLOW, 28(ac), is poor; MUMMY = MUM, 1(ac) is weak; OVERT, 22(d), easy but not pleasing.
WIVE as a verb, well, OK, but a bit meh.
My quibbles are totally out-gunned by a range of very skilful clues, and the originality of so many.
20(d), almost the IDEAL cryptic play, to cite part of one diagonal.
A setter that I will most certainly miss, after the deluge, I may just print out his final puzzles and tackle them one a year as a tribute and treat.
Superb stuff, Fil and Pierre. Thanks for the memories.
I didn’t finish this but there are lots of great clues, my favourites AUTOPSY, DEBRIS, FORECAST, UPSKILL, CONCATENATION. I didn’t get LEVIS but it’s very good. Thanks Filbert and Pierre!
Fabulous puzzle as ever from Filbert but must agree with ENB& re Debris .
I cannot equate the pronunciation of the De part of Debris with Day.
Thanks all.
PS. I cannot believe that if the impending closure of the Indy crossword materialises, we only have 4 more Filberts to look forward to.
Gsol@5 to be fair, I flunked it or fluked it, depending on one’s view, by treating a “DEB” as one of Waugh’s “bright young things”, as in his novel, “Vile Bodies”.
I’m calling that a winner, but not my brightest idea.
Let us hope Filbert will, like James Bond, return after the credits.
Thanks for the enlightenment on 17a Pierre, but it does nothing to counter my prejudice against “sounds-like” clues.
The rest of the puzzle was of course excellent. Hopefully, somehow, there will be more than another four.
I tried to make “breezy” work for DEBRIS, but I couldn’t account for the rubbish. Usually soundalike are constructed using my pronunciation, so it’s good for my character to encounter one that isn’t. Another fine puzzle. Thanks.
Another great puzzle from Filbert. No surprise there.
I thought the homophone for DEBRIS was fine and there were so many super clues it seems churlish to moan about this one.
Taxing even for a setter who is very rarely pitching at less than challenging. Same problem as the blogger with DEBRIS but it had to be that.
Liked MINIATURE,AUTOPSY, MISBESTOW and as always many more.
Thanks Pierre and Filbert
Didn’t finish but that’s on me. I just shrugged and moved on when I entered DEBRIS. As Pierre says, ‘fair play’. I had difficulty with the explorer, UNDERSCORE (which is typically brilliant) and BY-BLOW and needed help. Also needed the blog to help with King in LEVIS which I had because of the crossers and I’m annoyed (a little) because it’s very obvious now. Wasn’t on my game but Filbert was, as he always is. Thanks.
Tx for the help on ENIGMA. Thought this was lovely and tackled it because ‘Cracking the Cryptic’ has a special with Simon Anthony solving online in real time. I always like to have had a go first before watching.
A full day late to this, since I spent most of yesterday entertaining, and we weren’t at all ready, which meant shopping for company, cleaning for company, cooking for company, actually enjoying the company, and getting stinking drunk with the company, which all leaves no time for Filbert.
I failed on GARDAI, not knowing of them and not caring enough to Google. Here in Chicago we have a large park (and also-large namesake neighborhood) called Humboldt Park–good to learn who HUMBOLDT actually was.
A belated thanks to Pierre (who I know gets notifications of comments, so might be the only one to see this) for the blog.
You’re welcome, mrpenney.
Took longer than usual, for me… resorted to all devices to solve… HUMBOLDT was an extraordinary human, so always good to see his name getting an airing… homophones can be tricky, in raw form and as Spoonerisms, and so I was mainly looking for real words beginning with CORE… took a while to discover the error… needed the blog in general… so, thanks Filbert n Pierre…