A new setter it seems so welcome Lette, unfortunately 11A on line seems to have had gremlins beset it
Blimey I struggled with this, very tricky in places with some unknown to me anyway. Each row contains stars or words relating to stars and lots of lovers (star crossed lovers?) appear – I’m sure there’s more to this.
It might be cheesy but the last unchecked column contains RENNET for some reason, thanks Lette.
Beginning of Set replaced by North in AT LAST – finally & A(merican)
REST – break & O.R. – men, soldiers & E – ecstasy, drug
[Beginning of Tristan ISOLDE]* strangely with BE – live inserted. Didn’t we all know this? I suspect some Wagner buff will tell me this is an &lit. EDIT just checked on the web site and it seems to have the word pinnacle missing which would make it even harder.
A naked yOGi & LED – was at the front
[End of thaT ARIES]* lit up & most of SK(y)
They don’t eat meat / beasts, EG – say – inside VANS – vehicles
[STAR ACT]* playing & AIL – distress – reversed from OPHE(lia)
OIL – grease & RIG – fiddle
PELE reversed & U(nited) taken from HA(u)NT – to plague
DA – district attorney & TA – volunteer soldiers – from I(ta)LY. Realise this is thematic – the Daily Star is a UK Newspaper however I’d already done the grid colouring
CAST – players & RATED – scored.
P(ower) & O(ver) all in BLAIR* somehow
I(sland) & SO LATE – very delayed
End of meaT removed from PA(t)ELLAS – bones
A & most of TREBL(e) reversed
R.E. – royal engineers – inside INSECT – bug
One who makes things up. FAN – lover & SAT – posed reversed, on the rebound & IST – first
Most of DIRG(e) reversed
A – high grade & HORSE – heroin with the S moving up in a down clue
SOUL – music style & MATE – try to reproduce
RED – soviet & DISH – type of aeriel
DRILLS – teaches & HIP – in fashion. But is HIP in fashion anymore? Seems dated to me.
CALL – name & first letters of Invoked Opening Poetical Epics
Cryptic def based on them often riding bicycles
CO(mpany) & a restructured BOARD*
Well, football boots have studs
ID – papers & E(nglish) removed from Y(e)LLS
Camels are a brand of cigarette so could end up in the AS(h)TRAY with H(our) removed
R(epublican) in CAD – scoundrel
Phew! Didn’t think I was going to get very far with this but ended up almost completing it. Had to cheat to get LIEBESTOD, not helped by the word ‘pinnacle’ missing from my printed version. Didn’t spot the stars to my shame. A warm welcome to Lette.
Pretty much exactly what Hovis said – I ground to a halt in the NW – LIEBESTOD is nho and the typo online conflates the two words either side of the missing ‘pinnacle’ into ‘andof’ which was doubly confusing. I had an idea of what I was meant to be doing but with no vision of the end word, needed to cheat. Mind you, I didn’t have either PAELLAS or ALBERT to give crossers and that was my fault.
Certainly a tricky crossword to both solve and parse – hats off to Lette for an impressive debut. I look forward to the next one.
Thanks Lette and flash
Whereas I failed in the NE corner at 10A and 7D. Also failed to see the hidden stars, inexcusably as I’m an astronomy fan. Welcome and thanks Lette, and Flashling of course.
Congratulations on the debut. I thought the puzzle was tricky. I solved the bottom half first and then struggled with the top. I had the Wagner aria because TOD stood out but I had to reveal 1d and SOUL MATE maybe because I don’t have one and I wondered whether paper boys still deliver papers in the UK. I did that job here in the early 60s(last century). STUDDED and ASHTRAY my tops. Thanks flashing and Lette.
Apologies for the glitch in 11 Across. The word pinnacle is definitely in the files I submitted, but checking the invisible characters I find that there are also extraneous characters in the file, presumably from porting over from another file system. I think the way forward is to reject puzzles not created in Crossword Compiler on PC in future.
I thought this was a fantastic debut. Not easy but every clue satisfying when the mist finally cleared. I missed the stars (sigh). Thanks to Lette and flashling.
Thought this was a very good debut, with highlights VEGANS, OIL RIG, ALBERT, GRID. CALLIOPE and PAPERBOY both excellent. I also missed the stars despite wondering if ANTARES was going to be involved in A?T?R?S? before I realised that one was ASTERISK, so thanks to flashling for highlighting those. I hope there’s another Lette in the post.
Welcome Lette – I thought this was excellent, with lots of satisfying penny-drop moments. PAPERBOY, ALBERT, and GRID my picks.
Thanks both.
Thanks both. I’ll agree this was an impressive if tricky debut, with the qualifier that a new setter is evidently not seeking to overturn standard crossword protocol by being too contemporary e.g. CALLIOPE, camels and ashtrays, and a PAPERBOY, all before we consider LIEBESTOD which I part-blindly solved but represents my double-nemesis of a non-English piece of classical music. CASTRATED was some light relief (sort of!)
Much enjoyed, with some excellent definitions, sorry to have revealed a few in the top half. LIEBESTOD is certainly the bit that you sit through the rest of Tristan and Isolde to hear – it’s worth the wait, but I think if it came earlier the pub might be a bit fuller after the interval.
Nice to know even expert solvers found this one challenging. Excellent crossword, thoroughly enjoyed. Horses for courses: liebestod was one of my first in – I’ve avoided a lot of Wagner in my time. Loved the beastly fare dodgers. Welcome and thanks to Lette and thanks to flashling for filling in the gaps
Just a quick note to thank flashling for the excellent blog and for the warm welcome from everyone. I’m sorry that I somehow put a gremlin into the clue for 11ac, so apologies to eimi and to solvers for the missing word.
The only thing to add is that while I hope the ‘star-studded’ grid is a good fit for Epiphany, flashling was right about the puzzle giving a nod towards star-crossed lovers (loosely via paired LLs) and occasionally more explicitly (if no less tenuously!) in the down solutions: FAN, SOUL MATE, DISH, STUD, lover BOY).
In any event, I’m glad it provided some enjoyment and hope it wasn’t too tricky.
Thanks everyone for your kind comments, to eimi for the opportunity, and to all those who have helped me on the way.
Liked this very much and found it quite a bit more straightforward than some of last week’s, though had to reveal a few (but not Liebestod once I’d worked out the letters to anagram – about the only bit of Wagner I could name). So more from Lette please. Thought there was a starry feel to it but failed to spot the names of course. Thanks to flashling for the blog.
A tough one but a good one. Some lovely ingenious clues, particularly VEGAN, SOUL MATE, CASTRATED. Thanks flashling and Lette.
Finally got a chance to sit down and tackle this now the house is quiet.
Managed to complete it but only by googling “wagnerian aria” and spotting what was obviously the answer. Love classical music, hate opera. Is that odd?
Thought there should have been a question mark at the end of the clue for 4D.
“Beastly fare dodgers” is going to become a household synonym for vegans in future, so thanks for that!
Clever stuff, worthy of Nimrod/Io/Enigmatist
Thanks Lette &flashling
Found this very tricky but also very enjoyable.
VEGANS is the best clue I’ve tackled in my c.3 months of developing my skills.