I always thought may day was on the first... or is it just a day in may?... also I struggled with ta and took me way too long to put together tia... Anyway thanks for the puzzle
Yes, May Day is the first day in May, but cryptically speaking I’d argue any day in May is a ‘May day’. I sort of had to use the 5th for what I wanted there so it’s solvable to people who use DD/MM/YY and who use MM/DD/YY (or indeed YY/MM/DD). Thanks for solving!
I like to solve 11s and up on paper, so this is an artificial time; just wanted to let you know that I really liked 3A, 14A, 3D, and 5D. Conventionally speaking, I'm not sure how people feel about 1D—it seems fair-ish because the letters are at least being removed in the correct order, but I'd prefer they were consecutive. As for 10D, I think some people would call this double-use of "change" a bit cheat-y. That said, I'd rather you try stuff with a good surface than stick to the confines of what's popular but produce stale clues. :)
Sorry, posted the wrong comment for the wrong puzzle and there's no edit button. I really liked 6D and 10D's my favorite, and I think 14A and 7D work nicely. I think I'm missing something in 8ATI(LAP+I)A, not sure what "premature thanks" is here as well as 11Aa homophone of "a stud occasionally"? Nice work!
No problem re the other comment, thanks for solving! I was particularly happy with 10D, so glad you liked it. In 8A”premature thanks”=TIA, which is a common abbreviation for “thanks in advance,” at least in my experience in the UK. Although, I just checked and it doesn’t seem to feature in Chambers so maybe not as ubiquitous as I’d assumed.
11A: A sTuD on (i.e. “cladding”) TUNE. Looking back I’m not sure what possessed me to think “on” was a remotely fair container indicator so I’ll edit that now!
Oh, nicely done on 11A! I thought the wavelength part was part of the definition, and I'm always envious of clues that can fairly trip a solver up in this fashion. As for 8A, I buy your explanation; I was locked onto it being TA for thanks and couldn't figure out what else would be happening there.