i Cryptic Crossword 2625 Raich
July 8, 2019
It’s been a while since we’ve had anything by Raich, isn’t it? Anyway, here he is with the usual top notch entertainment to start off the working week. I found this a little harder than par for him, perhaps because of the number of slightly more complex constructions – 14ac (which was my LOI, and on definition / checking letters alone), and 18ac for example. A hasty VLAD THE IMPALER for 6d, only to find it was too short, didn’t help matters either with a subsequently mucked up grid. At the close I had a time that was under par for the i, but perhaps a little slower than I’d hoped / expected.
COD? Lots to enjoy, and I did like how 1ac was put together, but 11d I thought was very nicely done – “Part of diocese being standard? Sort of (6)”.
To March 2015:
http://www.fifteensquared.net/2015/03/29/independent-on-sunday-1309-raich/
Borodin
batarde
Saboteur
Denzo
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
willow1235
idothei 
A pleasant and enjoyable solve. First one in was RANGE and then worked steadily without incident clockwise SE to NE, last one in being ARCHIPELAGO, which was the only one I struggled a little with. No quibbles or queries. Nice satisfying start to the week.
Everything you could hope for from a Monday crossword, or I think so anyway. Definitely my favourite compiler in this slot.
Middling experience here. Didn’t get the parsing for 21ac. Last in was 1ac.
I thought that 21a was a poor, ‘untidy’ clue. And apart from being a bit messy, describing Lord Grey as ex-Foreign Secretary is pushing it a bit. Ex- to my mind implies something a bit more recent than a century ago, and also sort of suggests that the person is still alive – at least to me it does. My first thought on reading the clue was that it referred to Johnson.
Nice start to he week but agree with Michael regarding 21ac, the Foreign Secretary part was a bit too much of a stretch much like describing a Tapas bar as an inn, but the rest of that clue was very good.
LOI: 7d. did anyone else think this was a bit weak? Or just me?
Yes, that was a bit of a Guardian-on-a-Monday clue I thought, without mentioning any names. Only borderline cryptic.
Quite.
Not just you; I nearly mentioned that one too. Wrote “pah” next to that one.
re 7dn: how about “Somewhere for motorist to split & head for work during day” ?
No idea about foreign secretaries from the dim and distant past. A bridge too far on the GK front, I’d say. Sinic had me confused, which is a bit dim of me really when sino- is such a common prefix and I knew sinensis too.
Agreed on COD, also liked 14a.