i Cryptic Crossword 3409 Filbert
January 11, 2022
Difficulty rating (out of five): 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
A challenging offering from Filbert today on the theme of a film I haven’t seen, though some of the thematic elements, notably the wedding bits, jumped out nevertheless. I sort of assumed this had been produced for a real wedding, being that of 1ac and 5ac on solving, to show how little I know. Talking of which, this was solved very much on a wing and a prayer – Filbert’s style could best be said as being very individual, and one I never really got to grips with. In common with the Fifteensquared blogger the definition of 5ac baffled me, perhaps because in these parts we have never really accepted the prince in question as being so. 😉 Lots of others went in partially understood, or not at all (notably 25ac), my solving experience I would say all in all being a not particularly satisfactory one. I wouldn’t go so far as some of the very downbeat assessments over on the other side, but I would say that it was clear that this was a new setter finding their feet.
COD? There was much that I liked too, so it could be said to be an offering overall that showed promise, with my pick going to 30ac – “Endures meals with volume consumed dramatically increased (7)”.
All the answers and parsing of the clues can be found in the Fifteensquared blog from November 2017:
https://www.fifteensquared.net/2017/11/07/independent-9694-filbert/
Borodin
batarde
Saboteur
Denzo
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
willow1235
idothei 
A terrific crossword. I really enjoyed the challenge, especially as Filbert is a setter whose style I am not immersed in, yet. A treacle-toffee puzzle; chewy but delicious.
Lots of good stuff, with plenty of creativity and boundary-pushing. I like the setters somewhat allusive approach to definitions and word-play, like ” Help! Cymbal clanger”. Good surfaces, too.
I too thought the theme was *just* a wedding, and didn’t realise it was from the famous film. I have seen it, but quite some time ago, and I suppose I have forgotten the details.
Got totally bogged down in the treacle fairly early on – far too difficult for me.
I’m with Saboteur, really enjoyed it. All totally fair, but lots of novelty and great care given to the clues. I think Filbert is destined to enter the top drawer of i setters. More of a 4* than 5 for me, although it did take quite a while – largely because of the unfamiliarity with the style, I dare say.
Failed to see the theme, despite knowing the film very well indeed. Thought the POW for CHARLES was pretty obviously the definition, but 1a SCARLET took me an age; ‘Hide rent evidence’ for ‘scar’ indeed! Just the sort of thing to really appreciate when the penny finally drops.
Definitely five-star territory for me. My usual look-at-it-over-breakfast yielded only 8 answers. I could see what the theme was going to be, and it IS a film I’ve seen, though not for a long time.
Technically a DNF from me, as even at the end I had no idea what 17dn could possibly be; looking at fifteensquared I’m still very little the wiser – it’s not a phrase that’s even in my passive vocabulary. Got there in the end with everything else though.
Hardest I’ve finished in over a year
Definitely challenging, though it might have been less so had I been familiar with the film this was themed around. But I got there in the end with the NW corner holding out to the last and a few entries unparsed.
But I did parse 30ac – very neat, changing pp to ff – so I’ll go with Jon’s choice of CoD.