Another super Sunday puzzle from Filbert
And as excellent throughout as I’ve come to expect from one of my favourite setters. I liked the distinctly Pauline PADDLING POOL, THIRTEEN, the fat family in need of a dietician, INTERPOL for the cute surface and GUITARIST for the reference to my favourite Beatle.
I will now be out for most of the day, so won’t be able to respond to any errors or omissions that you may find until later. Thanks, as ever, to Filbert for the fun.
Moh’s ever-reliable (?) cruciverbal hardness scale rating: Calcite
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MARSHY |
Very wet planet helpfully drained (6)
|
| MARS + H[elpfull]Y | ||
| 4 | SMASHING |
Wicked vandalism (8)
|
| Double def | ||
| 9 | DENIAL |
Disclaimer not invoked initially when breaking contract (6)
|
| N[ot] I[nvoked] inside (when breaking) DEAL | ||
| 10 | BULLETIN |
Nearly all nonsense, admitted intelligence report (8)
|
| BUL[l) (nearly all nonsense) + LET IN | ||
| 12 | LOOK SMART |
Can end of tack give sharp pain? Step on it (4,5)
|
| LOO (can) + [tac]K + SMART | ||
| 13 | DIRGE |
Rewind intro of extremely grating dismal song (5)
|
| Reversal (rewind) of E[xtremely] + GRID (grating) | ||
| 14 | PADDLING POOL |
Decomposing floater in place where kids play (8,4)
|
| ADDLING POO (decomposing floater) in PL | ||
| 18 | RELATIONSHIP |
Affair delights husband going through split (12)
|
| ELATIONS (delights, as a noun) + H inside RIP | ||
| 21 | MEANS |
Reluctant to spend son’s money (5)
|
| MEAN (reluctant to spend) + S | ||
| 23 | ENDEAVOUR |
Labour‘s demise always on the radio (9)
|
| END + soundalike (on the radio) of “ever” | ||
| 24 | THIRTEEN |
Figure suspected of depleting fortune moved her tent around island (8)
|
| Anagram (moved) of HER TENT around I, with a nicely whimsical definition | ||
| 25 | MISSUS |
Dutch regret withdrawal from America (6)
|
| MISS (regret withdrawal from) + US for the cockney rhyming slang term for wife | ||
| 26 | CREVASSE |
Half agreed with Conservative minister’s deep rift (8)
|
| ASSE[nted] (half agreed) after C REV | ||
| 27 | ATKINS |
Fat family’s in need of fine dietician (6)
|
| [f]AT KIN‘S (in need of fine) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MODEL T |
Might this be shown up in road safety test? (5,1)
|
| Reversal (up) of LED (light, so “might this be shown”) inside MOT (road safety test), &lit | ||
| 2 | RANDOM |
Irregular shifts for doorman, with none repeated (6)
|
| Anagram (shifts) of DO[o]RMAN (without a repeat of O) | ||
| 3 | HEAD START |
Notice street in centre gets competitive advantage (4,5)
|
| AD (notice) + ST in HEART | ||
| 5 | MOUNTAINSIDE |
Face with scars perhaps from rioting in one stadium (12)
|
| Anagram (rioting) of IN ONE STADIUM | ||
| 6 | SOLID |
Concrete ran smoothly with nothing to stop it (5)
|
| SLID (ran smoothly) around O (with nothing to stop it) | ||
| 7 | INTERPOL |
Solvers worldwide let rip on cryptic (8)
|
| Anagram (cryptic) of LET RIP ON | ||
| 8 | GINGERLY |
Cautiously leaving ahead of schedule, saving seconds (8)
|
| G[o]ING E[a]RLY (leaving ahead of schedule, without second letters) | ||
| 11 | HANDSOMENESS |
Personal appeal from Messi in the middle after pass: “Really, guys?” (12)
|
| [m]ESS[i] (Messi in the middle) after HAND (pass) + SO (really) MENS (guys) | ||
| 15 | GUITARIST |
E.g. Harrison intuitive about India, playing sitar (9)
|
| GUT (intuitive, as in gut response) around I (ndia) + anagram (playing) of SITAR | ||
| 16 | AROMATIC |
One with amorous intentions dispatches note with perfume (8)
|
| A ROMA[n]TIC (dispatches N) | ||
| 17 | FLEA BITE |
Minor animal attack somewhat interrupting run (4,4)
|
| Insertion (interrupting) of A BIT (somewhat) into FLEE | ||
| 19 | BONSAI |
Dwarf on BA is spoiled (6)
|
| Anagram (is spoiled) of ON BA IS | ||
| 20 | CRISIS |
Problem written wrongly like that holding teacher up (6)
|
| Reversal (up) of SIC (written wrongly like that) around (holding) SIR | ||
| 22 | SUTRA |
Eastern principles some start using the wrong way (5)
|
| Hidden reversal (some… the wrong way) in stART USing |
I had an alternative parse for MODEL T with ‘shown’ = LED reversed within MOT. ‘Might this be’ makes it more of an extended def than &lit. I do like the moh version for elegance but wonder if Filbert would expect solvers to get LED from ‘might this be shown’. Arguably accurate but very tough indeed.
Usual great fun from Filbert.
Whenever a Countdown contestant has tried ‘elations’ it has been disallowed on the basis of ‘elation’ being a mass noun. The savvy contestants instead use the anagram ‘toenails’.
Minor error in blog for 11d. Should say MEN not MENS.
I parsed MODEL T like PostMark. I was amused by INTERPOL with it’s fifteen squared like surface. Excellent as always.
I know it’s a bodily function common to us all, but I’m not sure I want 14ac’s image evoked at breakfast. And with a warm up of the preceding loo and dismal dirge as well 🙂 ! Hey ho, life’s like that sometimes. Enjoyed it ok ntl, ta Fil and moh
Hmm, now I’m not sure. I parsed Model T like moh, probably via familiarity — LEDs as lights turn up quite a bit. But being shown/led to my seat is neater than [something that] “might … be shown”, which phrase is then free to pertain purely to the solution.
Model T for me was the only let down in yet another superb puzzle from Filbert.
I think 1d is an excellent &lit (though only with PostMark’s parsing). It’s impossible to know exactly why another solver might dislike a clue, so this might not answer anyone’s objections, but I often wonder why there are so few references (here or on other crossword sites) to the entire cryptic reading of a clue as opposed to individual elements. It’s especially relevant in an &lit, of course. Often individual elements can be sound but taken as a whole they’re garbage! That never seems to be a problem with Filbert. This clue taken as a whole is a great original way of cryptically indicating how the answer might be constructed, while the surface reading “literally” indicates it in a witty, not too direct way too. (I find over-direct definitions can easily spoil an &lit by giving away the answer too quickly.)