i Cryptic Crossword 4118 by Wire
April 18, 2024
Difficulty rating (out of five) ⏳⏳⏳⏳
Thank you, Wire, for a very satisfying solve. I found nothing obscure or really difficult, but almost every answer had to be carefully teased out of its interesting surface. I put in many answers with only part of the wordplay solved. I relied purely on crossers for NEMATODE, as I could not get away from MARK representing the letter M, and BULGE would have surely taken longer had not a similar, unusual but clever, device occurred in another recent puzzle.
Although I found the wordplay difficult, I agree with the contributor to FifteenSquared who described it as well-constructed, and I certainly felt that Wire was helping us to see his point, as in, for example, 6d or my clue of the day. However, there may be solvers unfamiliar with Dr JEKYLL or the controversial economist at 23a, but I suspect many others found the wordplay easier than I did.
CAMPUS, EMPHASISE and ECLIPSE were my first in, all after much thought, but when they fell, it was more a feeling of inner satisfaction than a fist in the air, as it was when Stevenson’s Mr HYDE emerged from my subconscious to give the second half of my COD:
Compound of lead cured doctor’s inner demon (8)
For answers, wordplay,and comments:
Borodin
batarde
Saboteur
Denzo
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
willow1235
idothei 
⏳⏳⏳⏳ for me too. A thoroughly entertaining solve, satisfyingly chewy rather than frustratingly so. There was a good deal of intricate wordplay to unravel, but the only one that I failed to parse until after the event was BULGE, although as Denzo says above it’s the second tine of late that that device has appeared.
I particularly liked LEDERHOSEN, NEMATODES (the vegetable gardener’s best friend) and ALDEHYDE.
A very valid point, as it is exactly the sort of puzzle that can sometimes be frustrating rather than satisfying. There have been one or two like that lately, and I hope that people get from my blog that this was enjoyed.
Sorry about BULGE!
Really fine crossword where I particularly enjoyed seeing the rarer devices like ‘progressively’ for the BULGE clue or ‘Both uninitiated… mounted’ in the one for ALLEYCAT.
Failed by not twigging the second meaning in 23d and mistakenly put in an unparsed Mash. Oh well, nearly.
Very quick to start, much slower to finish would summarise my solve quite neatly. Oh, and finishing in the NW corner. Nice puzzle.
A bit chewy in places but all gettable. I liked ALLEY CAT and ‘yours truly’ being the setter’s pseudonym rather than the usual ‘I’ or ‘me’.
We had to start this quite late in the day- and a day late, but managed in about 3-4 timers. We struggled with 1d and the anagram at 16a for a long time but eventually they were our LOI. We agree that this was chewy and satisfyingly so. Perhaps it’s because when you finally get the answer it’s usually a PDM as opposed to a grudging acceptance that the answer must be that word/phrase. We particularly liked 18d too and we were amused by 25a.
Just to amuse Cornick, I should say that I made an Easter Simnel cake ( sans apostles) as a birthday cake today so I decided it should be mixed together using a Christmas spatula!! 😂