Boatman, thanks for stopping by, and I agree 100% with the idea of “fixing” these disconnected grids by using multiple-light clues.

I also admired, strongly, through the course of this puzzle, the number of different ways you used “number” in clues – and avoided using the cliche “ether” anywhere! Of course NARCOTIC made up for that in a delightful way. And the harder clues didn’t seem to be because you were forcing the theme too far, they were just harder.

I don’t know if it was covered (it was) but Community (twice) = CC, no need for the “starts” to work double duty. (19a) I have no problem with using the “C” from EC. It took me a while to bang this clue around into a reasonably “acceptable” parsing of the cryptic part. Some of these clues remind me a bit of Araucaria – I’ll get the answer, and everything in the cryptic is related to it, but not in the conventional dimensions of our universe or language. That is, I never quite reach a rigid, clean, way to describe the exact mechanics in a purely Ximenian sense. But to me clues like these are far better than most DDs and some CDs where there is not way to come close to “proving” to oneself that the answer is correct.

RobS @ 56, I agree about the “moving parts”. The variety of cluing here was, in my humble opinion, very good.

Favorites I ticked were 16a, 30a, and 15d. I liked 28a a lot, once I twigged the coy reference to RB as the definition – my only familiarity with him is from watching QI, and he certainly seems to think he is one

Finally, thanks to Eileen and all the commenters for helping me with all the pencil left in this grid by the time I was (almost) finished!

Agree that this was a hardie – that took a few sessions to get out – very satisfying when it was done though. Liked the theme with the use of number and vulgar throughout and the variety of devices to wrangle the answers from.

Was the NE corner that was last to succumb with LETTER last in.

With 28a I had it as a dd with Katy Perry and the obelisk (as per Freemason usage) as the SEX SYMBOL and the cryptic part coming fton S(end of Brand’s) EX (estranged wife) and SYMBOL (obelisk – dagger symbol) – which made it a very complex clue.

Boatman is a setter whose puzzles I usually appreciate very much. He has a style of his own, with all the trademarks being there today (which is: yesterday).
Boatman’s not a Ximenean and does sometimes things that are pushing the boundaries.
As such nothing wrong with that, but I think in this particular crossword he was a bit too sloppy.

Yes, Davy, I agree with you about “jailing one” for “A in PRISON”.
And I am reluctant to stretch it like Eileen @58.

As I said, I didn’t solve the puzzle properly.
I went to Eileen’s blog and tried to understand how the clues worked, knowing the answer.
I am afraid that on several occasions I was not on Boatman’s side.

There are people (often connected to The Times) that do not like container indicators in the past tense (like “swallowed” in 8ac). Rowland is one of them, I’m another one (even though I am certainly not a Times man – I find most of their crosswords too clinical).

Paul B @47 made clear why 19ac (REOCCUR) is a clue that should not have gone past the editor – he sums up exactly the things that worried me too.
“Starts to rise” for R, it’s just plain wrong.

Unfortunately, there’s more.

In 13ac I don’t like “condition is poor”, but it can be seen (and there justified) as “sea. Sir my (,its) condition is poor”.

On second thoughts, I agree with Thomas99 about 16ac. Indeed, in Boatman’s clue should ideally been included an ‘apostrophe ‘s’ somewhere to make it different from ‘Abba finish’ or’Labour leader’. That said, “Abba finish etc” was a nonsensical phrase to me, and a very weak clue in an otherwise nice crossword by the talented Alchemi.

In 14,17 it is really a pity that the A in front of Caravan stands in the way. Ultimately, it can probably be justified, but it’s just not perfect.
In a similar way, I found that little word “a” in 20d also iffy: “a number” becomes N and then we introduce an A[sylum] – (the first) “a” is just standing in the way for me.

In 11d, I am not sure whether the cryptic grammar demands “hold” or “holds”.

And what about 2ac (STATUE)?
Is it SAT (Saturday, in short) with “not quite” as a dubious anagram indicator, followed by TUE (a weekday)?
Or is it not quite “sat”, therefore ST, + A TUE?
Boatman’s “in short” might in fact apply to Saturday and Tuesday too, but does it really? Messy clue, in my opinion.

Finally, I have a major complaint about 21d (INGENUE).
EG is not “example”, it is “for example” which is very different.

I am in general an admirer of Boatman’s puzzles, but I think in this one he was unusually careless.

On the positive side, my favourite clue was 30d (SUBMARINE), closely followed by 23d (REVOLT).

A puzzle full of clever ideas, but not always executed well enough.
We all have lesser days, haven’t we?

Thank you, Eileen, I felt for you.

Cheers
Rowly.

Sil: As I always value your opinion, what are your thoughts on the clue in question !.

How about a slightly different clue to CAPARISON as follows :-

Trapping a number cruncher by capital switch.

I think it works if you think of ‘jailing one’ = ‘with one in prison’.

Pardon my ignorance but I don’t see how CAPARISON works exactly. The clue is “Trapping a number cruncher, jailing one”.

So the definition is Trapping which leads to the answer CAPARISON

CA = Chartered Accountant, a number cruncher

This leaves ‘jailing one’ = PARISON which I can see is A within PRISON but cannot see how the wording ‘jailing one’ leads to it.
If the clue had read “Trapping a number cruncher, one in jail” then fair enough.

Or am I missing something ?. Thanks.