Independent 12017 / Grecian

20 comments on “Independent 12017 / Grecian”

1. Excellent as usual from Grecian.

2. 1d M(ENAC<)E. — 16d E[asil]Y, not E[nv]Y. — [LINGO another ITV Quiz.]

3. I found this a sticky challenge, but very satisfying to complete. It’s a cracking theme, which I miserably failed to spot until after I’d finished, meaning that I’m a bit dumb, but this crossword certainly isn’t. ( Yep…I’m a fan of the TV quiz show).
   I had a tiny quibble about “member of Bros”, 10(ac), having looked for MATT or LUKE, “Goss” being both members of Bros, but that’s my bad, not the setter’s.
   Loved “GAGA” as an anagrind, and the image, in 17(d).
   Well, I loved it all. Looking forward to another from Grecian, thanks to the setter & duncan

4. FrankieG @ 2

   Thanks – blog corrected

5. Not a clue about the theme having never watched the show but a very enjoyable solve.
   Good start to the week with Bluth and Grecian not forgetting the superb Sunday Filbert and in the hope of an Eccles tomorrow, the Indy has become the best collection of setters since sadly losing Picaroon and Serpent to the “Management”!
   Thanks all

6. Thanks Duncan. I couldn’t parse 6d but it’s very good now I see it and not a clue type I’ve seen much. Missed the Kent player too but it was obvious with the crossers. My lack of requisite GK held me up in this one. Don’t have a toppie today and I missed the theme. No TV in my house but the show is very popular, I know. Grecian is becoming popular here in the Indy and elsewhere too, and with good reason. Thanks to him for an excellent puzzle.

7. Splendid fun! The Nina Simone track was the giveaway for the theme for me. I also struggled to parse unrevised – that’s fiendish!

8. Interesting – that top right/northeast corner was my.last in, and I needed up using a word finder for UNREVISED (it was the wee small hours my daughter kept coughing herself and me awake, so no sleep) and immediately parsed when I saw it.

   Really enjoyable puzzle. Thank you to Grecian and Duncan

9. What Widdersbel said @7 – I saw the theme about halfway through, thanks to SINNERMAN.

   [I’m a fan of the show, too. I’m waiting to see my granddaughter in it: it’s been in the can for several months now but apparently it could take quite a bit longer.]

   Many thanks, as ever, to Grecian for a lot of fun and to Duncan for the blog.

10. Many thanks to duncanshiell for another excellent blog and to everyone else for the nice comments. G

11. I had no chance of spotting the theme, since to my knowledge the show isn’t broadcast here. (Yes, I know–in the modern days of streaming services and so on, all television is available worldwide if you go looking for it, but that last clause there is the rub.) Anyway, that lacuna in my knowledge did leave me wondering what a relatively random Nina Simone song was doing here.

    Like duncanshiell, I did notice the unusually large number of specific persons featured here. As none of them are particularly obscure, that’s a good thing–we should also give the general-knowledge part of the brain a workout every so often.

12. Not as easy as yesterday, and I had to cheat a bit to finish. Never heard of the Nina Simone song, but guessed it by the crossers. Never watched the show, either.

13. Thanks both. Much to admire, and I prefer a more contemporary theme, however I dislike and therefore avoid the show, so it was lost on me, though thankfully I guessed SINNERMAN as I know the artist somewhat but not the song. I needed help only (by Googling Superman actors) with CAVIL knowing neither the word nor the actor – it does appear I need to get out more.

14. Happy to finish, but couldn’t parse 6d.. not sure I ever would tbh.. was very pleased to spot the Kent/Superman connection, which mollified somewhat. Never seen the show, so… theme… what theme? Altho thought there might have been a soul singer thing going on, obvs there wasn’t..
    Thanks Grecian n duncansheill

15. Thanks Grecian for an excellent set of clues. I never heard of The Chase so the theme was lost on me but with clues like NOMAD, ROOSTER, YELTSIN, MENACE, DIGNIFIED, and PENIS ENVY it didn’t matter. I used Chambers to get CAVIL but couldn’t parse it; I also failed to parse UNREVISED and DAMNEDEST so thanks duncanshiell for the help.

16. MrP@11 A few years ago, one of the professional quizzers in “The Chase” – (The Beast) – was in a USA-based and televised identical version.
    I seem to recall it was quite popular? The downside for The Beast was Americana GK. He lost one game on a make-or-break question, to the amazement of the US players. The answer was, Baskin-Robbins. For beastie-boy, it was a NHO.

17. So, lifted means reversed in 6d, and version in 16d provides the v in the solution and is also part of the def — a couple of, well, technicalities. And isn’t Soul a broad genre, from Sam and Dave to Sade! But yes, very enjoyable puzzle, with fun surfaces (like Short bloke in front of The Fat Duck), thanks Grecian and duncan.

18. The theme was well outside my knowledge set but luckily not needed. Actor Cavill seemed pretty obscure to me but evidently not to others. Enjoyed it though, despite the setter using (in 1d) my bete noire of requiring the solver to know who the setter is, something the Independent insists on hiding behind the question mark.

19. Grant @17: I was querying defining Sade as soul too–I think of her oeuvre more as jazz–but the internet disagrees with me.

    Ian @16: all I can say is that I must have missed it. 31 flavors of cultural lacunae, I guess.

    (Crib sheet: Baskin-Robbins for years advertised that they had 31 flavors of ice cream, long after it was clear that there were both more theoretically available and fewer available at most BR locations.)

20. MrP@19 Spidey sense unfailing, (!), that was indeed the question, “Which ice-cream brand boasts 31 flavours? ” .
    The Beast*, so-called due to his surname, Labbett, ex “la bete” en Francais, went for Ben & Jerry’s, as did I. It’s a big seller over here, whereas I don’t think I’ve seen Baskin.
    (*Mr Labbett, 6’6″ and 29 stone, like an NFL defensive tackle, with all the protective gear on ).

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