Independent 11,616 by Norman

by

A new setter today with a very impressive puzzle – we hope there are more in the pipeline.

It’s not Tuesday but we spotted a theme early on although it didn’t actually help us with any of the clues. We have a number of American Space explorations and related words included in the grid. Apart from the shaded entries, you could possibly stretch it to include ANALYSE which is what the missions set out to. With a nod to Star Trek, if you miss out the R in 26ac you could have NO MAN as in Where NO MAN has gone before!

We were impressed with the clueing throughout the puzzle – 22ac, 25ac and 8d were just three of the clues that stood out.

Thanks Norman – a very polished debut unless of course you are an old setter in disguise.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. God of war sending master of weaponry to the front (4)
MARS

ARMS (weaponry) moving or ‘sending’ M (master) to the front

4. Arctic city bordered by two rivers (5)
POLAR

LA (city) contained in or ‘bordered by’ PO and R (two rivers)

7. Dirty priest pulled from wreck (4)
SOIL

SpOIL (wreck) with P (priest) missing or ‘pulled from’

9. Where should I drop off barrels full of gold paint? (6)
BEDAUB

BED (where I should drop off) B (barrels) around or ‘full of’ AU (gold)

10. Miles above the ground collecting temperature data (8)
MATERIAL

M (miles) AERIAL (above the ground) around or ‘collecting’ T (temperature)

11. Special red wine I’d drunk making one legless (10)
SIDEWINDER

S (special) and an anagram (‘drunk’) of RED WINE I’D – a sidewinder is a type of snake

12. Rich duke assuming king’s role in castle (4)
DEEP

D (duke) replacing or ‘assuming role of’ K (king) in kEEP (castle)

13. Float boat (6)
LAUNCH

Double definition

15. Trump is making a comeback with something seedy? (8)
CAPSICUM

CAP (trump) + IS reversed or ‘making a comeback’ + CUM (with)

17. C note ignored by player (8)
CONSTANT

TE (note) missing or ‘ignored by’ CONteSTANT (player)

19. Dry boards chip and split (6)
BISECT

SEC (dry) inside or ‘boarding’ BIT (chip)

20. Put to work, some decades until going into retirement (4)
USED

Hidden (‘some’) and reversed (‘going into retirement’) in decaDES Until

22. Mixed metaphors involving Earth’s climate (10)
ATMOSPHERE

An anagram (‘mixed’) of METAPHORS around or ‘involving’ E (earth)

25. Inspector runs after aroused voyeurs (8)
SURVEYOR

R (runs) after an anagram (‘aroused’) of VOYEURS

26. Wisdom, perhaps of old people? (6)
NORMAN

Double definition with ‘Wisdom perhaps’ referring to Norman Wisdom

27. Large area with national borders, essentially (4)
LAND

A clue-as-definition: L (large) A (area) N (national) and D (middle or ‘essential’ letter of borders)

28. Coming over every so often to cheer her up (5)
ERECT

Alternate letters (‘every so often’) and reversed (‘coming over’) in To ChEeR hEr

29. Take the Sun King’s military vehicle (4)
TANK

TAN (take the sun) K (king)

DOWN
2. A rocky romance fuelled by one drink (9)
AMERICANO

A + an anagram (‘rocky’) of ROMANCE around or ‘fuelled by’ I (one)

3. Second-rate accommodation (5)
SPACE

S (second) PACE (rate)

4. Liberal sort of supports local produce (7)
PUBLISH

L (liberal) ISH (sort of) underneath or ‘supporting’ PUB (local)

5. Fruit tree died covered in sticky stuff (5)
LIMED

LIME (fruit tree) D (died)

6. Pest controller putting some bitumen all over (3,4)
RAT TRAP

A reversal (‘all over’) of PART (some) TAR (bitumen)

7. Mum noisily prepares breakfast? (9)
SHREDDIES

SH (mum) + a homophone (‘noisily’) of READIES (prepares)

8. Independent setter interrupted by a good idea (5)
IMAGE

I (independent) ME (setter) around or ‘interrupted by’ A G (good)

14. Fell runner occasionally stopped around entrance to valley (9)
NOSEDIVED

NOSE (‘runner occasionally’) DIED (stopped) around or ‘containing’ V (first letter or ‘entrance’ to valley)

15. Pet rabbit husband’s neglected (3)
CAT

ChAT (rabbit) without or ‘neglecting’ h (husband)

16. Ultimately erratic in nature, subject to change (9)
UNCERTAIN

A clue-as-definition – C (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of erratic) in an anagram (‘subject to change’) of IN NATURE

18. Review articles discussed works of fiction (7)
ANALYSE

AN A (articles) and a homophone (‘discussed’) of LIES (works of fiction)

19. Bats best in a helmet (7)
BASINET

An anagram (‘bats’) of BEST IN A

21. Kit used for exploration, primarily, in sea? (5)
SCUBA

A clue-as-definition: CUB (kit – young animal) replacing or ‘used for’ the ‘e’ (first or ‘primary’ letter of exploration) in SeA

23. Farmer getting components for combine (5)
MERGE

Hidden (‘components for’) in farMER GEtting

24. Wood cabin sheltering emotionless rangers? (5)
HURST

HUT (cabin) around or ‘sheltering’ RangerS (missing anger or ’emotionless’)

 

22 comments on “Independent 11,616 by Norman”

  1. A first class debut. Lots to like. The use of “drop off” in BEDAUB, “legless” in SIDEWINDER and my personal favourite, the clever SCUBA with the play on “kit”. Didn’t spot the theme, so thanks for that B&J.

  3. Thanks KVa – we are out walking (hopefully not through floods) and will amend the blog when we are home.

  4. Super debut puzzle – with possibly a slightly more specific theme than highlighted in the blog. The MARS POLAR LANDer, also known as the MARS POLAR SURVEYOR, was LAUNCHed on 3rd January 1999, 25 years ago today. I think this is the spacecraft that, sadly, NOSEDIVED into the planet during attempted landing!

    SCUBA, POLAR, BEDAUB, BISECT, PUBLISH, SHREDDIES, UNCERTAIN and BASINET were my favourites today. More please.

    Thanks Norman and B&J

  5. Really struggled with this halfway through and needed some external assistance to finish, but all very fair. Missed the theme. Thanks Norman and B&J.

  6. Twitter confirms Norman is indeed a new setter – and this was a fine debut. I especially liked BISECT, TANK, SCUBA BASINET, and BEDAUB. Vaguely realised there was a theme, but didn’t know enough for it to help!

    Thanks Norman and B&J.

  7. I tend to be wary of new setters and, if pushed for time, neglect trying them and have thus come late to some (notably Wire and Grecian) who have turned out to be among my favourites. Today, I read the first line of B&J’s introduction and decided to give it a go – and I’m very glad I did: ‘very impressive’, indeed.

    Unsurprisingly, I didn’t spot the theme but really enjoyed the puzzle. I had about a dozen ticks, the highlights being 9ac BEDAUB, 11ac SIDEWINDER, 15ac CAPSICUM, 26ac NORMAN (amused at the namecheck), 4dn PUBLISH, 7dn SHREDDIES and 15dn CAT – tight constructions and witty definitions and surfaces throughout.

    Many thanks to Norman for putting me in a good mood to take down my decorations – not something I look forward to – and to B&J for a great blog.

  12. FrankieG @11: whether the setter intended to honour the Irish music scene is unknowable – unless they drop in to enlighten us. Probably not the sample of rock NASA were expecting … I’ll get my coat …

  13. Guessed there was a theme but too busy wracking my brains to get all the answers in place! Very clever debut from Norman but will have to remember to set aside a lot of time to solve his future offerings………
    Favourite was the amusing SHREDDIES with a nod to the SIDEWINDER & the CAPSICUM.

    Thanks to Norman and to B&J for all the enlightenment.

  14. Thanks both. I did spot what might be a theme which I constructed from all of the top row whereby I saw MARS POLAR SOIL as something plausible, beyond which there were too few other entries to confirm. I had not a ‘Scooby’ when it came to parsing SCUBA which at least creates some alliteration – I didn’t remember that meaning of kit and I’m still not sure if it’s a direct synonym for cub but the clue now I understand it works very well.

  15. TFO @14: for kit, Chambers gives

    2. The young of various small fur-bearing mammals, eg the polecat, ferret, fox

    The last example would seem to be the most supportive for the synonym.

  16. Thanks B&J and congratulations to Norman on a very fine debut. I am sure Norman will be an excellent addition to the Indy stable. BEDAUB, BISECT, SURVEYOR, SHREDDIES and CAT my favourites.

  17. Thanks Norman and BnJ

    The most common appearance of KIT as a young animal must surely be the related KITTEN.

  18. That was right on my limits of achieveable. I didn’t parse SCUBA where the wordplay completely foxed me, or LIMED because I don’t know what liming is.

    I had briefly entered an unparsed BRANCH at 19a when I had the B and N entered, but couldn’t make BRAN into dry boards or get CH from chips so eventually took it out before quickly realising what was needed.

    Theme passed me by like a spaceship in the night.

    A magnificent puzzle from Norman on his debut in the Indy for which I thank him. Thanks also to Bertandjoyce for the as usual excellent blog.

  19. Hello all. A very satisfied setter dropping in to say thanks to Bertandjoyce for a delightful blog and to everyone for sharing their encouraging and helpful thoughts on the puzzle. FrankieG has astutely ascertained the remaining themers, though I had not noticed the cultural significance of RAT TRAP! I thoroughly appreciate the warm welcome and look forward to working on my next puzzle.

  20. Fantastic Indy debut with some extremely clever wordplay and devices that kept me on my toes right to the end (when a few judicious bung-checks were employed, I confess). Liked BEDAUB, NORMAN, TANK, ANALYSE, CAPSICUM and CotD SCUBA.

    Thanks B&J and welcome to the big league, Norman! 🙂

  21. Rather late to the party as having been offline recently I was only made aware of Norman’s debut yesterday. I’d like to add my congratulations to everyone’s above.

    My podium is NORMAN which made me smile for the name check, then POLAR which is just lovely, with ATMOSPHERE taking gold for the excellent surface and a very pleasing anagram to boot.

    More please!

  22. A friend tipped me off to try this new setter and I was glad I followed her advice. I enjoyed Norman’s style and particularly liked the self-referential 26a NORMAN.
    The already-mentioned SIDEWINDER for “one legless” at 11a was also a great clue.
    I didn’t really get the full import of the space exploration solutions but spotted enough links to think of NASA.
    Many thanks to Norman (and I’m glad to hear you will be setting some more) and of course to Bertandjoyce for the blog.

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