Guardian Cryptic 27,056 by Boatman

Was grateful for the long answer going in almost immediately – a lot of parsing-after today. Nice use of a betting theme in so many of the surfaces. Favourite was 5dn, and I also liked 11ac, 21ac, and the definition [and eventually the wordplay] in 15/4/7/24. Thanks, Boatman

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Financial Times 15,411 by CHALMIE

I was clealry not on Chalmie’s wavelength this morning as it took me an age to solve and I struggled to explain many of my answers.  Did anyone else find this a particularly opaque puzzle or am I just having an off day?

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Independent 9,400 by Morph

It only occasionally I think falls to me to blog a crossword by Morph, but it is always enjoyable: by no means a write-in, but all his crosswords seem to contain one or two remarkably nice clues. A couple of clues go some way towards defeating me in their parsings, but no doubt all will be made clear.

Definitions underlined and in maroon.

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