When I first solved a Crucible [which appeared to be his second] I wasn’t sure what to think of it, but ‘he’s got style’ was what I said then.
Nowadays, I know a bit more what to look for.
Crucible likes to use (single letter) abbreviations as valuable building stones – and I learned to understand and appreciate that.
Today they were there, too – but not so much as on previous occasions.

Today was – in a way – an anagram day.
I counted 13 different anagram indicators, which is quite a feat in one puzzle!!
gyrating, crudely, dreadful, bumbling, stupidly, out [the last 3 in one clue !], designed, toast, cracked, criminal, dismantled, nervous, hysterical

‘Hard Rock Cafe’ and ‘street cafe’ are examples of linking definition and device, where they should be separated – Crucible’s very good at it [just like Orlando and the FT's Alberich]. ‘Dry run’ is another example of a similar thing.

We (yes, wé) liked the Notting Hill surface of 18ac.
And several other surfaces, too.

We found the NE the hardest bit, didn’t finish it in our After-Work session [lacking any help in whatever form] – but once at home, the Net was my best friend, within 5 minutes.

Finally, pangram?
Maybe it was Crucible’s intention – then chapeau [as the French say].
But, to be honest, for me it is still a non-issue.
A good crossword is all about good clues.
And there were many today.

I was pleased to find AT in Collins (with the alternative ATM) but not in COED or Chambers. Anything to avoid the somewhat clichéd clues for a favourite crossword stone.

I could indeed have avoided all the discussion about INTERMIX if I’d noticed the ambiguous IN at the start.

Re Frank’s ‘naughty’ comment at 7, the clue could be said to be a long overdue exhortation to the contending parties, among whom I live. Some hope.

However, searching for “at” in Wikipedia shows that it’s an abbreviation for technical atmosphere, a non-SI unit that, to the best of my knowledge, is rarely used nowadays (I’ve used Pascal Pa, Atmosphere atm, bar, Torr = mm Hg, and Pound-force per square inch psi). I might have read ‘at’ in old scientific literature and assumed it was an older abbreviation of atm.

I don’t think the technical difference by omitting the word technical really spoils a clue with a cleverly disguised definition / wordplay boundary.

The definition in 13a could perhaps equally have been ‘works plane’ since that is what a turboprop does. ( A shame that the rest of the clue wouldn’t cooperate !). And Doctor’s money designed to reveal symptoms works as a rather less cumbersome version for 27a but then I guess some of the overall obtuseness of this puzzle would have been lost.

A challenge certainly, but good fun too. Is it only Wednesday ?

I was going to say something silly about a term only being part of an expression, but remembered about null productions just in time!

I found this one tough but fair. After a long hard slog the only thing I couldn’t get was the parsing of 7d – I decided straight off that “current expression” = IN TERM, which left me with the impossible task of figuring out how to make “Northern Ireland” = I.

Pre-15×15, I’d probably have fired off a sniffy email to Crucible complaining about the faulty clue, so many thanks for sparing me that embarrassment, Andrew!

Lots of good clues here. I particularly liked the deftly misleading surface readings of 1a & 5a.