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More difficult than usual. I felt whilst solving that Dean Mayer was being a little too smart-arsed with some of his clues.

there's the problem with cryptic crosswords. when does cryptic become obscure? unsolvable?

I must have misunderstood 1ac, because if my parsing is correct it’s a pretty poor clue

Quisling, I agree. I read it as one letter for ‘chaser’ (as in a second-rater?) inside a 9 letter word for tie? Is that how you see it?

I parsed "a chaser" as simply indicating "b" which is being drank (that sounds clumsy) by stalemate.

It was one of the clues that caused my initial moan at the start of the thread.

I thought Bobbycollins’ idea was most likely, but didn’t care for b being defined as “a chaser”. Follower would have been better, but still a stretch, though I know it ruins the surface. I thought tie to mean stalemate was pretty loose too. They are both types of draw, but hardly equivalent

Just to say, Bobby, I quite agree with your initial sentiment. I rarely enjoy his puzzles for precisely that reason

Good afternoon, quisling. To add a little context, my wife, who is an occasional solver now often finds the current ST cryptic too much like hard work. I now print copies from the archive for her and she is quite happy with the level of difficulty (currently solving 2004 puzzles). Conversely, she used to find Everyman too easy, but hasn't looked at one for a while.

Interesting, Bobby. I find Everyman very pedestrian (too many anagrams) so I seldom bother with it, though I appreciate it has many devotees. I find it strange that the ST is so different from the regular Times, which I started doing in my teens and still find much the most consistent, particularly towards the end of the week. The Guardian is less rigorous but can be good with Brendan, Paul, Picaroon, Pasquale and Vlad. I can take or leave the ST, to be honest.

Thanks for the heads up about The Guardian, some reassuringly familiar names there!. I shall print a few for Mrs BC to have a bash. I too started on The Times in my teens - fifty bloody years ago. My obsession started with my dad's Daily Mail at about twelve. I still see that one since my 91 year old mother-in-law still does it and likes me to get the long ones to get her started!