Top-notch stuff from Dutch. There was a good balance of clues and some had excellent surface readings.
I particularly liked 13 and 18D. Not much there to criticise – there was some slightly risqué stuff, which the prudish might not be keen on, and there were probably a few too many hyphenated words in the hidden clue at 4. Overall I thought this was a great puzzle.
| Across | ||
| 8 | OBIT | Observer’s first to scrap short newspaper deadlines? (4) |
| O[bserver] + bit | ||
| 9 | ORPHANAGES | Kid digs rope and hangs a criminal (10) |
| (Rope hangs a)* | ||
| 10 | ENTOMB | Doctor following directions to Bury (6) |
| MB after E+N to. | ||
| 11 | CAR POOLS | Playing craps and loo or taking turns at the wheel – in these? (3,5) |
| (Craps loo)* | ||
| 12 | CONGRESS | IT conference? (8) |
| Another CD/DD with a sexual connotation – congress as in intercourse (i.e. it). | ||
| 14 | AIRGUN | German enters bearing peacekeeper’s weapon (6) |
| G in air UN | ||
| 16 | LILY | Acting silly, losing head for girl (4) |
| [S]illy* | ||
| 17 | ERASE | Remove all trace of a boring language (5) |
| A in(=boring) Erse | ||
| 18 | EDDY | Occasionally get daddy to twist (4) |
| Even letters of gEt DaDdY | ||
| 19 | EGG CUP | Small breakfast item for example has large supporter (3,3) |
| EG + G-cup (very large bra size) | ||
| 21 | NORTHERN | Mad brother blowing his top is breaking news from Yorkshire? (8) |
| [B]rother* in NN (two lots of n[ew]). | ||
| 23 | CHAINSAW | Was China developing a device for a power cut? (8) |
| (Was China)* | ||
| 26 | TOMATO | Custom at orchard is offering fruit (6) |
| Hiden in “cusTOM AT Orchard”. | ||
| 27 | UP THE RIVER | Compromising her virtue to secure lead in popular Bogart film (2,3,5) |
| (Her virtue)* around p[opular] | ||
| 28 | ROOD | Sounded impolite and cross (4) |
| Hom of rude | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ABANDONING | Leaving sailor with drunk in gutter – say no more (10) |
| Ab + and(=with) + on(=drunk) + in + g[utter] | ||
| 2 | STRONGLY | Assertively but inappropriately, holy man replaces wife (8) |
| Wrongly with St instead of w[ife] | ||
| 3 | DOUBLE | Dutch will produce gibberish after this generous drink (6) |
| Sort of backwards def of “double dutch” i.e. gibberish. | ||
| 4 | EPIC | Black-and-white picture captures a legend (4) |
| Hidden in “whitE PICture”. | ||
| 5 | CARRIAGE | Coach one gripped by motor madness (8) |
| I in car rage | ||
| 6 | LABOUR | Party happening at the end of term (6) |
| DD referring to pregnancy term. | ||
| 7 | WELL | Spring water emerges – life’s little beginnings (4) |
| Initial letters of “water emerges life’s little”. | ||
| 13 | SPAWN | Pledge to finish first letter to Stephen Fry? (5) |
| Pawn after S[tephen] | ||
| 15 | UNDERSTOOD | Assumed European articles were upright (10) |
| Un + der + stood | ||
| 17 | EXPOSURE | Flashing image? (8) |
| CD/DD, flashing as in men in dirty macs. | ||
| 18 | EPHEMERA | He married in record time –these things never last! (8) |
| He m[arried] in EP + era | ||
| 20 | CLICHE | Passing a poisoned chalice is commonplace (6) |
| Ch[a]lice* | ||
| 22 | RETURN | Go after men making profit (6) |
| Turn after RE, the old staple of Royal Engineers. | ||
| 24 | HOPE | Ambition in Dutch Opera? (4) |
| Hidden in dutcH OPEra | ||
| 25 | WAVE | Swell way to say goodbye (4) |
| DD | ||
*anagram
A rather good debut, I thought. Very easy to stick Intern in at 10a and only later find it wasn’t quite that.
V.G. Tick. I thought EPHEMERA was a witty surface and I liked the fact that ‘Dutch’ slyly appeared twice in the clueing without being anything to do with the setter. He’ll get us next time. Or not.
Thanks to both.
Or ‘she’, of course (is old Dutch somebody’s wife?).
Dutch is male – I happened to notice a tweet about this debut a couple of days ago: https://twitter.com/richardpauptit/status/830018929338806272
Well done to Dutch on a very enjoyable debut puzzle.
@Grant
Although Dutch has beautiful, flowing, natural golden tresses, I can confirm he is a geezer
Well done that man with the golden tresses 🙂
A nice puzzle. I particularly liked 2d DOUBLE, one of my favourite clue types, and the way the juxtapositon is indicated in 13d SPAWN.
18d EPHEMERA is very nicely put together.
Thanks to NealH for the blog.
Thanks for the blog, NealH.
I’m presuming that Dutch of the beautiful, flowing, natural golden tresses is the one I have met at several S and B gatherings. Many congratulations on a super debut!
[And my apologies for muttering to myself early on that 10ac was a rubbish clue for INTERN.]
Congratulations to Dutch for an excellent debut, and thanks to Neal for the blog.
@Eileen
You have the right Dutch there. Sorry for my colourful prose; I’m just feeling unusually romantic ahead of my Valentine’s Day special in tomorrow’s Indy (‘scuse the plug).
In my haste, I forgot to thank NealH for the blog and to mention the nice links in some of the columns in Dutch’s puzzle
Well done to Dutch on his Indy debut – looking forward to seeing more from this setter. 🙂
A fine debut from Dutch. Lots of very neat surfaces. 9 and 18 were the pick for me. I look forward to more like this.
Congratulations to Dutch, wonderful stuff. Particularly liked EPHEMERAL, UP THE RIVER, ORPHANAGES, also fooled for a long time by 10A.
In 9A, the anagram fodder (rope hangs a)*.
Salutations to Dutch and thanks to NealH.
Great puzzle Dutch, especially your usual deceptive definitions – ‘short newspaper deadlines’, ‘kid digs…’,…etc!! Delightful & look forward to seeing more!
Congratulations Dutch. A super debut puzzle for the Indy which was thoroughly enjoyable throughout.
Lots of highlights, but I’d have to pick out 9a, 12a, 19a, 3d, 15d and 18d.
Many thanks & looking forward to more to come!
I agree with all the plaudits for Dutch. So slick and witty for a début, he’ll go far. I hung about those ORPHANAGES for ages,looking for a way in, ABANDONING SPAWN to EXPOSURE,CLICHE AND EPHEMERA. What if it doesn’t make sense, those were my favourites!
Thanks to Dutch and NealH.
This all went very smoothly, though I found the NW corner a little tricky. Not that I fell into the INTERN trap, but ABANDONING was only tentative for ages till I saw how to parse it, and I didn’t get STRONGLY for a while.
So much to like, I can’t pick a CoD.
Great stuff! I shall look forward to Dutch’s next appearance.
Thanks, Dutch and NealH.
I would like to echo all the positive things said about this crossword.
Congrats Richard/Dutch!
I remember pre-commenting on your very first puzzle (May 2015) which was published in Big Dave’s Rookie Corner (#058).
I just checked my email archive to see what I wrote then:
“Was this really your first ever puzzle?
If so, then full credits to you.
The general neatness of the clueing, including good use of various meanings of words (like in 28ac, ‘falls’), was impressive.
Technically speaking there was hardly anything to comment on here.”
I had another look at Big Dave’s site but could not find any other Dutch puzzle.
Don’t tell me this was only your second?
Even if it were only your tenth, it would simply be amazing.
Yes, amazing.
Thanks NealH for the blog.
Many thanks NealH for the excellent review
Thank you everyone for your exceptionally kind comments – they provide much-needed encouragement.
INTERN hadn’t occurred to me, something to watch out for.
I’m glad Baerchen@9 spotted the column thing, though it’s of no real consequence.
Thank you test solvers!
And I guess I’ll postpone that haircut.
Congrats to the Dutchman and nice blog from NealH.
Until I read baerchen @9, I’m afraid that I missed the column phrases; excellent setting!
I did try intern but realised, like Eileen @7 that it didn’t really work.
I’m another who really enjoyed the ‘Dutch’ tease to give DOUBLE – I was trying to fit I’ll in for a while.
Totally agree with what’s gone before, if only because twigging the ‘Kid digs’ clue was a real ‘oh good grief’ moment. Thanks as always to S&B
Congratulations. Tees will no doubt be in touch to administer the induction rites, which are only moderately painful.
An excellent puzzle much enjoyed. Started off and very quickly wrote in INTERN for 10a which did not help at all. Plenty to keep me amused and chuckling. Thanks and congratulations Dutch.
Great stuff, Dutch, and fantastic to see a third ex-Rookie from the other side. I agree with all the above, particularly about 18 and 27, and will add the ‘device for a power cut’ in 23.
I enjoyed CONGRESS (12a) and loved EPHEMERA, the power cut device and several other nuggets. I laughed at the DOUBLE (and will make no comments as to the veracity of its surface …). It took me a while to get EXPOSURE, but my last in was ABANDONING. Especially neat with the rest of that column. There’s more I could mention (and one rather good clue I definitely won’t).
Congratulations, Dutch, and many thanks for the much needed ray of sunshine. Thanks to NealH for the blog.
Great debut Dutch. Lots of nifty wordplay and curly defs.
9a was my LOI – “Kid digs” brilliant.
Hope there’s another in the pipeline.
It’s all been said but congratulations on a splendid debut. We missed the column entries which was a lovely detail.
Rotational symmetry too!
Thanks for the fun Dutch and thanks NealH for the blog.
Good start to the er… working week, with some excellent clues. With others I particularly liked ORPHANAGES, LABOUR and EXPOSURE. Probably nothing to do with anything and I can’t see how they relate, but I note columns of ABANDONING HOPE, DOUBLE EXPOSURE, CARRIAGE RETURN and WELL UNDERSTOOD.
Thank you to Dutch – look forward to more – and NealH.
Dutch, this was tremendous, nicely challenging but great fun all the way. Very well done. More please as soon as possible!