Like apple grandpa@21 XANADU got in the road of an earlier solve for me … but finally the BACKUP clicked (and as a data storage consultant where backups are bread and butter, there are no excuses!). TUVALU was then last in.

Have no problems with the clues here and in fact found quite a few of them generated a satisfying sigh when the penny finally dropped. Again like any good puzzle a number of new words (ABUTILON, BIRDCAGE WALK (blushingly), SCHLESINGER and EARTHBOUND in the sense of meaning dull and unimaginative.

Agree with Richard@22, please don’t make them easier … it was a great challenge that occupied me on and off for 3-4 days.

Euro-American I got, although the phrase is never used by anyone over here.

TUVALU should have been clued as “Trade Union…”

CARBURETTOR was awful.

22 is just junk unless you are lucky.

DESKILLS is just weird, though I suppose if I got that close to it, my trusty and beloved Chambers could have confirmed it.

12 makes no sense to me. “Dull” as a definition is very poor, IMHO.

That said, I starred 9a and 2d as wonderful.

Back to whining, I had to do a lot of research for places like BOLTON (takes 2 seconds at wikipedia, poor clue unless you know the town is in that vicinity); likewise kNELLing. I read BACK UP as two words for both definitions, oh well.

Grump grump.

But I shouldn’t complain, Thursday is supposed to be a fairly hard puzzle, and Pasquale delivered. Thanks for the blog, Andrew.

Interestingly, blackness doesn’t necessarily seem to equate to easiness. A grid like 25609 by The Reverend on 13th April for example, is only 24.4% black but is made significantly easier due to the number intersecting first letters. Of course the grid brings only secondary considerations – the clues themselves are the tricky bit!