Cryptic crossword No 3,504
Wed 27 May 2026, set byDegen
3
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I'm going to give some critique, I hope helpful. One clue is absolutely superb: 14a. Bravo! Some clues are correctly parsed, though a bit obvious and unexciting (e.g. 6a, 22a, 4d). But most clues have parsing issues. Notably, and with very rare exceptions, the part-of-speech of your definition MUST match that of the solution: in 19a, for example, the definition is a noun (a noun phrase) but the solution is an adjective. Similarly 5d, 20d, 21a. Really important!
[continued] Also, the definition must be fair, even if tricksy: in 7d, "vinyl" isn’t fair for "monomer". And the clue must give sufficient guidance: in 7a you use a homophone, but without indicating this. In short, keep 'em coming (14a shows real promise!), but I'd suggest careful attention to conventional correct parse; once you've nailed that, you can start focusing on neat surfaces and (eventually) start playing around at the edges of "correct parse". Just my opinion, feel free to ignore!
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