Like Duncan I was also held up as a result of confidently putting Harris in for the Lewis partner. I think that would have been a better answer – a sort of &lit that even encompassed the connection.

Very much nitpicking now, so I’ll end by thanking Crucible.

These are the (rather lengthy) notes I made on completion

I found this a hard challenge. It took three sessions before it was completed.

I have looked back through the 225 archives and find that I usually like Crucible’s Genius puzzles. I can’t say that I liked this one.

Having to solve seventeen clues from the wordplay only and with no letters to help, I nearly gave up. I actually solved four of them backwards: finding a word which fit the grid, did it have a pair? and, if so, could I make that word fit the clue?

It took a long time to see how, SKULL worked (I had US and LL), ONIONS (I had ON from ‘bone marrow’ but I never remember the cricket defintion of ‘leg’) and JEFF got the biggest groan. I was about to look up the French for ‘setter’ despite knowing that ‘setter’ is I or me. I was also tempted by ‘hare and hound’ and ‘March hare’ at 21a. I felt a bit of a berk (and hair)!

I didn’t enjoy the puzzle but I enjoyed the challenge. Does that make sense? If I hadn’t managed to finish it, with a complete understanding, I would have hated it. I think there were too many unknowns for me: a theme so broad with proper nouns included.

Crucible, you did a grand job, and the more I think about what to say the more I realise that, actually, I must have enjoyed it. There, in writing down my comments I’ve managed to change my own mind. It was probably the recollection of trying to think of the names of breeds of hens when I asked my husband to give a four-letter word for chicken and he said, “Fowl”.

In my normal way I managed to get this finished just yesterday [4 out of last 6 occasions - I wish there were a prize for the latest correct entered solution, I'd win it every month!].

I tend to try and do these crosswords throughout the month, and then get serious about it in the last few days.

I was stuck on 22d for over a week. Despite me living in the USA and having an American wife I had never heard of the comic pairing, nor the cockney rhyming slang. I was convinced the answer would be MYTH and would have put that in before the deadline if I had not managed to crack the Nice Setter bit yesterday morning. I did not know FF for folios either, but with the JE worked out I went through every combination of letters and reverse engineered the answer in about 3 stages. I’m not sure whether I was proud of myself or just plain relieved at the end. I’ll be interested to learn how many other Guardian readers knew of this comic pair – certainly I would not say they were a ‘well-known’ pairing unless I’ve been living in a cave for the last 60 years.

Well done for a nice blog Duncan, and also Crucible for a very enjoyable 28/29 clues.