A very enjoyable puzzle following the Independent on Sunday tradition, which seems to be for straightforward and fair clueing at a moderate level of difficulty. Thank you Poins.
I would be interested to know if the IoS regulars (Poins, Hypnos et al) produce radically different puzzles in other publications or if they are chosen by the IoS editor because this is their natural style.

Across | ||
1 | DISMISSAL |
Miles left sorrowful over girl’s rejection (9)
DISmAL (sorrowful) missing M (miles) containing (over) MISS (girl) |
6 | GRASP |
See file on German leader (5)
RASP (file) on German (leading letter of) |
9 | ANIMA |
Start to agree over Amin’s inner personality (5)
Agree (starting letter of) then AMIN reversed (over) |
10 | COME AGAIN |
What did you say about me living in Ohio once more? (4,5)
C (circa, about) then ME inside (living in) O (Ohio) AGAIN (once more) |
11 | FIFTY-FIFTY |
It’s just as likely to happen in the middle of Dallas (5-5)
daLLas (mddle of) l+50 in Roman numerals |
12 | BENT |
Criminal tendency (4)
double definition |
14 | CARAVAN |
A means of transport for gunmen in part of Ulster (7)
RA (royal Artillery, gunmen) in CAVAN (town in Ulster) |
15 | DILEMMA |
Key to the Italian girl’s predicament (7)
D (key, music) with IL (the, Italian) then EMMA (girl) |
17 | ESSENCE |
A place on the outskirts of Crewe producing perfume (7)
ESSEN (a place in Germany) on CrewE outskirts of |
19 | AUSTERE |
Spartan writer eventually taken away by soldiers (7)
AUSTEn (writer) with last letter removed (eventually taken away) by RE (Royal Engineers, soldiers) |
20 | ROCK |
Crack found in diamond (4)
double definition |
22 | SPOILSPORT |
Turns to wine in misery (10)
SPOILS (turns) to PORT (wine) |
25 | NO-ACCOUNT |
Not wasting time on a story of little importance (2-7)
NOt missing (wasting) T (time) on ACCOUNT (a story) |
26 | ALIKE |
A fancy uniform (5)
A LIKE (fancy) |
27 | ETHER |
A number made from three (5)
anagram of THREE |
28 | DISPENSED |
Rickety side, ends and top finally gave out (9)
anagram (rickety) of SIDE ENDS and toP (final letter of) |
Down | ||
1 | DWARF |
Very small part of hybrid warfare (5)
found in hybriD WARFare
|
2 | SPITFIRES |
Odds on it’s about strong criticism of flyers (9)
SP (starting price, odds) on ITS containing (about) FIRE (strong criticism) |
3 | IN ANY EVENT |
Arising from innate envy regardless of the circumstances (2,3,5)
anagram (arising from) of INNATE ENVY |
4 | SECTION |
City raised it with regard to joining second division (7)
S EC (City of London, postal code) IT raised ON (with regard to) following (joining) S (second) |
5 | LIMITED |
Checked story covering American university department (7)
LIE (story) containing (covering) MIT (American Unversity) then D (department) |
6 | GRAB |
Attract the attention of some passing rabbis (4)
found inside (some of) passinG RABbis |
7 | AWARE |
Conscious of Grant’s interminable energy (5)
AWARd (grant) missing end (interminable) then E (energy) |
8 | PENETRATE |
Enter and catch informer packing to go (9)
NET (catch) RAT (informer) inside (packing) PEE (to go, to the toilet) |
13 | CLOSE SHAVE |
Shuts road after Henry’s narrow escape (5,5)
CLOSES (shuts) AVE (avenue, road) following H (Henry) |
14 | CLEARANCE |
Complete article on church evacuation (9)
CLEAR (complete) AN (indefinite article) on CE (Church of England) |
16 | MNEMONICS |
Manuscript includes vignette essentially on girl’s endless memory aids (9)
MS (manuscript) includes vigNEtte (essentially, middle of) on MONICa (girl, endless) |
18 | EXPOUND |
Set forth without money (7)
EX (without) POUND (money) |
19 | AVIATES |
Flies volunteers back during struggle to occupy the centre of Damascus (7)
TA (Territorial Army, volunteers) reversed (back) inside (during) VIE (to struggle) all inside (to occupy) danAScus (centre of) |
21 | CRASH |
Economic collapse caused by head of Coutts getting reckless (5)
Coutts (head, first letter of) with RASH (reckless) |
23 | TREND |
Right about demise of Vogue (5)
RT (right) reversed (about) with END (demise) |
24 | SCAR |
Cliff‘s caught wearing women’s clothing – not Poins (4)
C caught in SARi (womens clothing) missing (not) I (Poins) |
definitions are underlined
An interesting question you raise, PeeDee.
I don’t know the answer but my impression is that setters tend to have a ‘natural’ level of difficulty at which they write, which doesn’t change much whether they’re in the Indy, the Guardian or the FT, say.
On the other hand, the new Everyman is also a setter for the Times (among other publications). I suspect that he may have to make a conscious effort to construct more straightforward clues for the Everyman solvers.
I suspect also that changing level according to the particular publication the setter is writing for is not an easy thing to do.
While I don’t say it is necessarily easy, it is certainly done.
To take just one example, when Dean Mayer sets a Sunday Times cryptic, he is certainly not in Anax mode. Several papers now have two levels of cryptic puzzles, and there is quite a lot of overlap between the teams setting both.