New puzzle now online here.
This one took me ages to do. It was about mostly done a few weeks ago, but I found the last few words very difficult to write clues for. Plus I’ve not had my mind on crosswords much lately due to being tired from having a busy time at work.
Anyway, it’s still not perfect but it will do for now. I’ll post an annotated solution later.
Thanks for this one, which I enjoyed and managed to finish but not fully explain! [7,15: I've got the anagram of 'humble broad' but have a strange set of letters left!]
I particularly liked 11, 13, 16 [SO = Symphony orchestra?]25ac [intriguing surface!] and 3,16 and 21dn.
‘Abb’ was a new word for me.
Thanks for the comments, Eileen! I tried to post a response earlier but it seems not to have shown up.
I think 7/15 goes down as an attempt to be clever that hasn’t quite come off. Too elaborate and the surface is a bit strained. As for 25a – I think “intriguing” must be a polite way of saying “nonsensical”! Possibly not the most elegant clue I’ve ever written.
Abb was a new word for me too – hope I’ve used it correctly…
Hi Dave
Just discovered your site! I’ve already done #7, so will tackle the rest in reverse order..
Thought this was going to be tricky, but it fell out fairly easily (that’s a compliment, BTW – I know myself how easy it is to write beautiful but impenetrable clues!). 7/15 is a good stab at an &lit – I got it from the crossing letters and worked out the (subtractive) anagram.
13 and 16ac are particularly good, the homophone 22 raised a smile and I like the surfaces of 8, 21ac and 24. Not entirely convinced by ‘appears on radio’ as the def for 19, but I’m hard pressed to suggest a better alternative!
Thanks, Geoff. I share your reservations about 19, though I was trying to be a little bit clever and misleading by using “on the radio”, which is often a homophone indicator (as I’m sure you already know) but not here.