QC Blogging Day

Times Quick Cryptic No 1509 by Mara

A nice QC from Mara, with plenty to delight us, but... Well I usually print out the crosswords and do them on paper before entering the answers online to create the outline of the blog (clues and answers) using Mohn2's wizzy javascript, but today I solved directly on-screen... and came a cropper, taking over 10 minutes. It was the North-west corner that caused me trouble, firstly because I was convinced that the answer to 7A was... well see below, and then by typing 17A with the N and T in the middle the wrong way round. That took me ages to spot as I struggled to find an answer to 3D ending in a T. Doh! As for the rest of the crossword, there did seem to be rather a preponderance of double definitions, of which my favourite was 23A. One or two clues (e.g. 1D) are on the tricky side for a QC, perhaps. I'll be interested to see how everyone else got on. Thanks Mara! Did you all have fun too? Oh, by the way, this is my last crossword blog of the decade, so Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

( Read all about it... )