Independent 8,691 by Phi

Phi’s usual excellent offering. Most of these clues can be simply parsed, although they were not all that simple to get in the first place.

The radio this morning said that it was Debussy’s birthday, and knowing Phi’s musical leanings I half expected some reference to this, but I can see none. The checkers at the top and bottom might suggest something, but apparently no. My impression is that Phi started off with intentions for them but gave up and produced a ‘normal’ crossword instead. Probably there is something there, although Phi told us recently that his crosswords often contained no Nina.

 

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Financial Times 14,707 by BRADMAN

An excellent challenge from Bradman this Friday with just the right mix of mind-benders and quick wins. I did have to re-calibrate my estimate on the finishing time during the course of the solve.  This was largely due to the fact that the 5 anagrams in the crossword got me going quickly and after that progress became a lot slower=. I still needed help with parsing 24ac and 3d. My pick of the lot was 10ac.

Overall, a delectable treat from a trusted setter.

FF: 8, DD: 7

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Guardian 26,345 by Orlando

Found this trickier towards the end, with the NW holding me up for quite a while – 11ac and 5dn both new to me, and 4ac only remembered vaguely. No complaints with the cluing, which was excellent throughout. My favourites were 10ac, 14dn and 19dn.

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