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Hi Rainman,

10a - 3 letter "trouble" around 2 letter "dry" then single letter "area"

23d - 4 letter "country" with the letter for "current" (think 'electricity') moved "down"

Thanks, Brendan. I'll have to remember the letters for "dry" - I would imagine that is used fairly often. I had assumed that the answer to 23d was a country, not a queen. I'm not that familiar with foreign royalty so I had to Google her when you gave me the clue.

Thanks Rainman,

You're spot on about those 2 letters for "dry" - they're a setter's favourite and crop up very frequently.

That foreign royal is also a crossword staple, another useful thing to add to the solving toolbox.

Definitely Geeker, a version of it (only male) is in this week's Listener.

I seem to be the odd one out cos I found this one hell of a slog. Finally completed with hefty use of Crossword Solver and Google.!

Hi Lucertola,

That's often the way, I find. One person's FOI is another person's LOI. I think that's one of the things that makes solving cryptics so personal and subjective.

Morning all. Enjoyed that, I think I was in tune with the setter as a lot of definitions jumped out for me. As a 20a myself as well as a guitarist (albeit not very good) I enjoyed that one and I live in that bit of 4d. Also enjoyed 12 when the penny dropped and 2d. Didn’t know 3d but the wordplay was clear. No theme as far as I can see…

I found this hard work, but it's finished and parsed (I think). I go for edges first, so 22d was FOI, followed by my favourite, 12a.
I see the parsing of 11d, but the definition is a bit loose, isn't it?

Morning all,
I'm definitely in the finding it tricky camp. First in was 21d and only solved about 6 others, so I fear it may be a bit of slog unless I suddenly get on Picaroon's wavelength!
Good to be back here though, the last few weekends have been crazy. I'll keep at it for a bit before I resort to asking for hints.