Independent on Sunday 1,539 by Dill

23 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,539 by Dill”

1. I couldn’t find another puzzle by Dill via a simple name search in the Site Search box, so if this his/her first puzzle, welcome and thank you.

   Yes, a varied mix, with a few such as the UNKINDEST hidden holding me up for quite a while. I entered ‘enticement’ initially for 14d (knowledge of ‘modern musicians’ virtually zero, but I thought there just had to be a group called Ice Men) which stumped me for SOFIA till near the end. Some good surfaces, with DARLINGS and SWOOSH being my favourites.

   A very minor point, but in 23d I think VA refers to ‘old Queen and her Prince’ (A for Albert), rather than just ‘Old Queen’.

   Thank you again to Dill (and look forward to future challenges) and to PeeDee

2. Marvellous (ba-dum tish!)

   Thanks to Dill & PeeDee

3. This was very enjoyable with nice cluing and smooth surfaces.

   I’m not sure about the use of “top” in 26a to mean the first letter in an across clue, and I didn’t know the American expression in 3d but it was clearly indicated.

   18a, 6d & 24d make it onto my podium.

   Many thanks to Dill and to PeeDee.

4. @Rabbit Dave

   it means White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.

   I count 13 themed characters in this very impressive gridfill.

5. Well done on the theme, Dill and thanks to baerchen for spotting so many. Like WordPlodder, I wondered about ENTICEMENT for 14d until SOFIA fell into place and also took a while to spot the inclusion at 28a. Held up the most by accidentally entering “whoosh” for 4d – must take more care. WOLVERINE was thus my LOI and didn’t see the theme until then (perhaps surprising given my collection of around 30,000 comics – not all marvel mind you).

   So thanks to Dill and PeeDee.

6. @Hovis

   I did the WHOOSH thing lazily too, hence also got stuck on WOLVERINE for a bit

7. Congratulations to Dill on her first nationally-published crossword

   Hope to see many more in the future

8. I didn’t know this was a first-time crossword, I would not have guessed. Well done!

   Can some kind person help me out with the theme please

9. PeeDee – Marvel comic superheroes – apparently it helps if you still have teenage sons who know about such things

   Dill was one of BD’s Rookie Corner setters and then progressed to his Saturday afternoon NTSPP slot before having a puzzle published in One Across and hopefully will have more in the Indy in due course

10. Thank you crypticsue

11. Hello from a secret location where I’m hiding out over the bank holiday for a much needed rest.

    Hadn’t actually realised it was Dill’s first in the Indy; for some reason I thought we’d seen her here before.  Congratulations, Dill!

    I very much enjoyed the puzzle.  The NE held out for rather longer than the rest, but can’t see why now.  Can’t pick a  favourite, just smiles throughout.

    Thanks to Dill and PeeDee.

12. Congratulations, Dill, nice to see you breaking into the ‘big time’!

    Just as well that knowledge of the theme wasn’t necessary – I’d have been up the proverbial without a paddle if it had been.   As it was, I just enjoyed the solve and hope we see more from you ‘ere long.

    Thanks to Dill (how’s the building work coming along?) and to PeeDee for the review.

     

13. Apart from carelessly entering ‘whoosh’ instead of SWOOSH, thus holding us up on WOLVERINE and REFRESHERS until we realised our mistake this was all very straightforward.  We particularly liked BLACK TIE for the surface with its suggestion of 007, and DARLINGS.

    We didn’t realise this was Dill’s Indy debut having encountered her before on BD’s site, so congratulations on achieving that.

    Thanks, Dill and PeeDee.

     

14. Not too difficult, but 6dn eluded me so I had to do a word search to finish.

    Didn’t spot the theme, I was more of a DC fan in the sixties, but I have seen a couple of the recent films.  I do hope BLACK TIE and NISSEN HUT are names of Marvel superheroes.

15. Lovely puzzle, especially 4 down (even though I initially went for WHOOSH too). Let’s hope we see more of this excellent new setter on a regular basis.

    I had no idea there was a theme until I came here, hoping that others would be as enthusiastic as I was about this puzzle. I’m glad they were. I’ve just about heard of Iron Man, and that’s it – but then my comic heroes are Desperate Dan, Korky the Cat and Roger Mellie, and I have a sneaking suspicion they’re not the same sort of comic heroes!

16. Thanks to PeeDee and Dill

    I don’t understand the parsing of some of this.

    10a “lover” only has one head

    13a I can’t recall “perhaps” as a stand-alone anagrind before, how does it work?

    5a The blog uses “curbs”, the clue uses “curb”, how does this work?

    8d What is the role of “then”?

    14d Shouldn’t the Def be a gerund – “luring”?

    I gather this is a debut, and overall it was a pleasant solve, but these issues did mar it a bit for me.

    Unless I’m wrong of course, in which case I’d be grateful for enlightenment.

17. Dansar, I do understand your ‘misgivings’ about 10ac and 8d, although they didn’t bother me that much.

    ‘Perhaps’ as a stand-alone anagrind is one that is (nowadays?) quite common. If you can’t recall it, well, I think you missed something.

    15ac: the fact that there are two words that include the solution, makes that the plural form ‘curb’ is justifiable. Some setters always prefer a singular form of the verb but surely not all (including Arachne!).

    14d: ‘Lure’ can be a noun. Just a quick glance at what Chambers or Collins says is enough to make it work.

    Nice debut which I thought wasn’t too demanding [but I missed the theme …].

     

     

18. Sil

    The “perhaps” anagrind has certainly passed me by, I’ll look out for it. ( I still don’t see how it works though).

    I also can’t recall the plural form used as an inclusion indicator in a similar construction. Azed, Tyrus, and Enigmatist have certainly used the singular form recently, but I’ll look out for that too.

    I know that “lure” can be a noun, but “entrapment”, as described by both Chambers, and Collins, is a process, and I don’t think the noun “lure” covers it.

    “Luring” does

19. Dansar, here’s one from Arachne (2018):   Gypsy giving it another squeeze (6)

    Squeeze, not squeezes.

20. Sil

    She’ll have to take that one up with Rosa : 18/7/2019  Concealing orchid in garden trousers (6)

21. Dansar – the singular/plural issue isn’t a right or wrong, it can work both ways.  One can think of the answer being included in the phrase “orchid in garden” so singular, or one can think of the answer being found inside the words orchid, in and garden so plural.

    Similarly the fact the you can think of entrapment as a process doesn’t prevent it also being possible for someone else to think of it as a snare.  The same way “embankment” can indicate both the activity of making a bank and the bank itself.

    The skill of the setter is in such misdirection: setting you thinking of one sense and then your own brain fights against you seeing the solution as it clings to its first idea.

22. Hello PeeDee

    I wish I hadn’t started this on the blog of a new setter – it must seem like I’m criticising them when in fact it appears these are mostly standard devices that have passed me by.

    As I said originally, it was a pleasant solve and I look forward to more of Dill.

    I still don’t quite get a couple of devices, but I’ll leave that for another day.

23. Dear Dansar
    Thank you for your queries as this is how we progress both as setters and solvers. Although others have supported some of my devices, it is fine that you don’t like them. Can’t please all the people bla bla bla
    Thank you for looking at my puzzle and taking the trouble to comment. Let’s hope my next offering suits you better!
    Regards Dill

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