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First and last letters are "News" (plural

This reminded me of how satisfying cryptic puzzles were when I started doing them, in the days of Araucaria and Custoe when the clues were intended to lead to the solutions.

These days I am increasingly finding that I have to guess the answers in the manner of a quick puzzle. Setters these days sometimes forget that wordplay which looks terribly clever to them may not be of much use to a solver who does not yet have the solution.

Super puzzle!

Thanks. I'd got the town but hadn't seen the plural new-s.

Thanks, , penny just dropped. I have (doh) seen this spelling several times in crosswords, though of course less often.

Just looked at the original puzzle (in The History of the Crossword by John himself) and amongst other differences, 11a was originally "Time to join beer society going west, man-it's on the way"

I'm guessing that the original wording for 23a was different? "Old" wouldn't have been needed 25 years ago!

Hi Ian,

I'm glad he changed the clue to the current one or I'd still be trying to solve it!

I wasn't aware of his real identity but I've just Googled him and thought some of you might like to read this short Q and A session with him:-

https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2011/sep/22/crossword-blog-meet-the-setter-paul

Brendan,

Blast from the past! I read that profile when issued, as a relative newcomer to Guardian puzzles (no more than a year iirc). I believe the Guardian blog was also new at the time; article mentions "first in a series".

I was doing Guardian crosswords 25 and many more years ago, but this one does not ring any bells. I was amused, though, to recognise Paul's style with my first solution: 8 across. I agree there are several very clever clues and I specially liked 10A.
Although I finished it, one or two I couldn't parse until I looked at the Forum, so thanks. In particular, I had never come across Finland's original name, so I needed that explanation.