Cryptic crossword No 160

You've clearly got some good ideas and know how to construct cryptic clues, but I think you should focus on making them more accessible. I tried to give you some examples but the character limit is too low. Overly complex constructions often make it very difficult to come up with good surfaces. I would suggest you submit a puzzle, maybe even this one, to Rookies Corner at bigdave44.com where you will get invaluable feedback from very experienced setters and solvers. Good luck!

Thanks Sheepish! 14d is lovely, and I've also got ticks for 15a, 18a, and 1d. The steps in 8a and 4d were too galaxy-brain for me, and I think the parts of speech in 4a don't quite match (?) — but nice work overall :)

Had a good go at this and had fun doing so… defeated by a few and could guess at some (due to good definitions) without being able to parse them, like 4d 14d and 8a. Reading your notes was enlightening but too clever for me! Thought 15a 18a and 17a (fitting description of me trying to puzzle some of these out) were lovely. Thanks for the challenge!

Thanks for the challenge, Sheepish. I needed the annotated solutions to explain quite a few of these. The combination of complex wordplay and quite obscure general knowledge made it very tricky indeed. The most satisfying clues are those where it’s possible to get the solution from the wordplay rather than guess the answer from the definition and then try to work out why. For example, I would put 10A, 12A, 17A, 21A, 1D, 2D, 22D and 23D in the former category.

Thanks Sheepish - I was defeated but enjoyed the ride! I generally agree with the other comments on difficulty, but there was much to enjoy - 10a, 12a and 13d being my favourites.