We had all but three of these in place within 15 minutes, but didn’t manage to fill the grid until a day later because of three slightly tricky clues. 17ac has a very clear definition, but the cryptic still eludes us, and the word just didn’t occur to us at the time. 22ac was an unfamiliar word to us, and we didn’t see it from –a-t-r. Finally, 18dn was difficult as it’s a word that wasn’t familiar, and the ordering of the words, though perfectly grammatical, is unusual and consequently much harder to parse. Explanation of 17ac very welcome!

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Nick:  Fairly easy AZED this week – albeit with the usual Scottish words nobody has heard of

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Having posted fortnightly for almost exactly 18 months, and with various other commitments coming to the fore, I won’t be posting on here any more, and so, unless there is no forthcoming replacement blogger, this is likely to be my last post (for the time being anyway). And a nice, gentle send-off it was too. I had to check ‘ordinary’ had a heraldic meaning and confirm Nervo was one of The Crazy Gang, but otherwise all very straightforward. Thanks to everyone who has commented (and put me right when I headed off course!) and to Everyman for his crosswords. I will, of course, continue to solve them when I get a free Sunday. Read the rest of this entry »