Thanks for solving! 10A: foolish=DAFT with Australian=A turning to drug=E. On reflection, I'm going to simplify this one, somehow I didn't notice that I'd used foolish = daft twice in the same grid! And id is very much one of those obscure only-seen-in-crosswords fishes!
merlinnimue 🤓4:51 · 2024-01-27T22:35:19.163Z
Thanks for the explanation, I think you also could've used a ref to 7d to resolve the dupe in 10a instead of rewriting the clue, but I dont know how natural that would've been... and I guess its good practice to write multiple clues :)
Thanks. Yes, I did consider referencing 7D but decided there was already quite a high proportion of clue references in the grid, and I don’t want to make the puzzle even more impenetrable. It’s a great thought though and would have worked well in a larger grid I think.
Not easy to put three theme entries in a puzzle this size (although it makes the missing one stand out even more), but I like the appropriate cross-refs and clues for them (for 11A, while it helps the surface, I don't think "briefly" and "on the internet" are needed).
The one that stumped me was 4D; the def is clever, but out tech lead seems like a deletion of T, not OCT, so I think I'm missing something.
Thanks again for the comment and insightful feedback. The theme entries weren't really a conscious effort — Dumas was first in the grid and the others seemed to fit in quite nicely as I was filling. Poor Porthos is unfortunately just a little too large! I somewhat agree re 11A in that both qualifiers is a bit much and are purely there for the surface, but I think at least one qualifier is needed. I don't think I'd be happy with although=tho in isolation — that might be a US vs UK thing, or maybe just personal preference!
4D: tech lead = CTO (chief technology officer), so it's subtracting the other O. Perhaps "head of tech" would be clearer?