We have not blogged a Dill puzzle before, so we looked forward to the challenge
We found it a fairly straightforward solve, although we had to check 23ac, which was a new word for us, but clear from the wordplay and crossing letters.
On Tuesdays, we’re always on the look-out for a theme or nina during the solve, but we didn’t notice anything today.
Having completed the grid, we started looking at the entries and realised that 1ac and 30ac are the names of two of the pigs in George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’. We then noticed 1d as the Lone Ranger’s horse, and 11ac as the spider in E B White’s book. Then 25ac jumped out as ‘The Sheep-pig’ in Dick King Smith’s book, 26d as the clownfish in the Pixar cartoon ‘Finding Nemo’ and 7d as the dog in ‘Tom and Jerry’ cartoons.
We realised that several other entries could well be the names of fictional animals, with which we are not familiar. An electronic search revealed that 1d is not only a fictional horse but along with 20d is a character in ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’, 3d is the lead character in a Disney cartoon of the same name, 16ac is a dog in a book of the same name by Betsy Byars, 18d is a tarbosaurus in ‘The Dino King’ film, 19ac is a Woolly Mammoth in the film ‘Ice Age’, and 21ac is the leader of the apes in ‘Planet of the Apes’ films.
There are other animal-related entries at 5ac (artist who painted horses) and 8d, but we think that the theme is fictional animals’ names, or possibly more specifically, animals in animated films?
We can’t help thinking that there may well be other thematic entries, but we’ve run out of time to find any more.
Congratulations to Dill for managing to include (at least) 13 thematic entries without needing any unusual words in a solver-friendly grid.
A BALL (party) held in winter might be called a SNOW BALL
B (book) in or ‘penned by’ STUBS (ends of crayons)
LO-CAL (‘healthier claim’) without the hyphen (dash)
An anagram of HOT TREACLe without the last letter or ‘endless’ – anagrind is ‘mixing’
Hidden in secludED ENgland
FELLOWS (blokes) HIP (joint)
STY (enclosure) rounder ‘containing’ EEL (fish)
TORN (rent) ADO (fuss)
PesticidE (first and last letters or ‘beginning’ and ‘end’) ACHES (hurts)
CAR (vehicle) round or ‘circumventing’ SEA (marine) reversed or ‘sinister (left) – looking’
An anagram of CAN RESET BY – anagrind is ‘scrambling’
ABE (Lincoln, ‘old president’) after B (black)
A Spoonerism of POLLY (parrot) LOPS (cuts back)
A homophone (‘read out’) of M C (Master of Ceremonies – ‘host’)
A homophone (‘allegedly’) of SLAY (eliminate)
NON (French for ‘no’ – refusal) round or ‘accepting’ A POLE (European)
Hidden or ‘exhibited’ in fosSIL VERtebrae
An anagram of HER ACTORS – anagrind is ‘retrained’
First letters or ‘starters’ of Beef Or Lamb Tikka
LEERY (wary) round CH (Companion of Honour)
Cryptic definition – a TELEWORKER would be likely to be an employee working from home using a computer screen or ‘tube’ – although these days it’s more likely to be a flat screen device
BUT (yet) + middle or ‘essential’ letters of fetCHing
An anagram of HOGS PEED – anagrind is ‘all over’
ABLE (efficient) in TT (races, as in the Isle of Man motorcycle races)
RED (socialist) HER (woman’s) RING (circle)
V (victory) next to or ‘gained by’ A (one) in an anagram of A CHANEL – anagrind is ‘ensemble’
LES (‘the’ in French) after SPECK (‘charcuterie’ in Germany – a ‘neighbour’ of France)
SHOW (performance) round AD (publicity)
Double definition, the first referring to Bill and Hilary Clinton’s daughter
DEAN (academic head) round or ‘maintaining’ ME (setter)
Two homophones (‘over the phone’): A BELL would have ‘a peal’
OMEN (forecast) reversed or ‘brought up’ – a reference to Captain Nemo from Jules Verne’s ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’
Great fun as always from this setter.
I did spot the three pigs but didn’t notice anything else in the way of a theme. Very well done B&J (and Dill too, of course!)
28a is one of those awful manufactured words that brings me out in a cold sweat. If you want to abbreviate Master of Ceremonies what is wrong with MC (and similarly DJ, etc.)? Who else would need to use such a word except a crossword setter faced with E_C_E?
On my podium today are CHELSEA, RED HERRING and SPECKLES.
Many thanks to Dill and to B&J.
Enjoyed the puzzle but would never have seen the theme. I liked SPECKLES best today because of the foreign connections.
Thanks to Dill for the entertainment and to B&J for the blog.
Same as Rabbit Dave @1 in spotting some of the pigs – I identified BABE with the film of the same name – but I couldn’t take it any further. I wondered for a while whether we were looking at Rolls-Royce theme with SILVER + SHADOW, but obviously on the wrong track.
I didn’t know CYBERNATES either and I missed out on TELEWORKER. Thanks for explaining ‘a peal’ for BELLE – v. good.
Thanks to Dill and to B&J for a great job in in exploring the theme so comprehensively.
Having spotted Snowball and Napoleon, I then spent far too long looking for Animal Farm characters, favourite names for pet pigs etc, but didn’t really identify the theme as closely as B&J have, so well done them. The SW corner held me up a while as I didn’t know Cybernates and Spoonerisms always fill me with dread. Much enjoyed anyway, so thanks Dill and B&J.
Stubbs specialised in painting animals, so another thematic entry
I took 6 to be TELE (tube) + WORKER (employee) = who operates from home.
Thanks for the blog and spotting the theme, which eluded me.
Thank you for your comments and to B&J for such a good blog. My intention for teleworker was as Ian said, but your interprétation is as good if not better. My reference for Tornado was Zorro (Low brow me) nut it matters not. Just one dog missing from your impressively researched list – maybe she is not that well known..
See you next time! ( with a mask on of course)
Was the missing dog Belle from Belle and Sebastian? I know the band of that name better than the sixties animation.
Yes!
An intriguing solve, trying to work out if the theme was Animal Farm or names of pigs or simply names of animals before realising it was the last-named. 1dn, btw, is also one of the rabbits in Watership Down.
We liked 2dn if only because theanagram was a pleasant change from that old chestnut, ‘carthorse’
Thanks, Dill and B&J.
Very much enjoyed this one even though most of the theme went over my head until B&J pointed it out. Remember endlessly playing Charlotte’s Web to my girls in the hope that it would rid of them of any fear of spiders – it worked well until they saw other kids at school screaming every time they saw one. Ho hum, some fights a parent just can’t win!
Many thanks, Dill, and thanks to B&J for the review and the theme-spotting.
there was this too, published in 1942, https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book-details.php?id=359, totally coincidental, i guess