i Prize Cryptic Crossword 2373 by Phi

Saturday 15th September 2018

Four long entries in the grid, four long anagrams in the clues.  Which is a good way to kick-start a puzzle if you’re solving or, for that matter, if you’re compiling.  Mind you, there’s always the danger of ending up with a word like ‘sawdusty’ in one of the corners – hmm.

I always admire Phi for his prolific output, but with that comes an almost inevitable ‘workaday’ feel to some of his puzzles, which is how this felt to me.  Reasonably straightforward by the standards of the i, which will have made it popular with many, but not as exciting or interesting as we’ve had over the last few days, I’d say.  Apparently there’s something going on to do with Isaac Azimov, but I didn’t actually take the time to find out what, sorry.

My COD goes to the following:

1d What horseman does in circling black Scottish region (8)

And the original 2014 blog with all the answers can be found by clicking here.