I've been out all day so I've not started this crossword yet....I'll save it for the morning....but I don't like the look of those big chunks of "darks" on the left and right. Surely professionally compiled cryptic crosswords shouldn't look like that?
Okay...Its probably a highly technical question ...but surely 1d/18d and 8d/17d should extend or 13a/16a should extend by one space either end of the clue.
I am with you on this one, Dot Dash Dot Dash.
And I don't get the comment about the black chunks being correct and all working out in the end. I don't recall you alluding to correctness - just that it was an amateurish-looking grid.