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I feel that I should add that the more I complete, the more I marvel at the construction. Some very hard clues, and few tricks.

Smellyharry:

"Noone enjoys that sort of puzzle." No one? What a thing to say. I liked it a lot!

Was it tough? Certainly

I definitely did not need to solve 75% to begin filling the grid...less than half...but there are at least 20 clues that are relatively straightforward to cold solve. For example, both clues to 25a are not hard and it's pretty clear from that what the entry at 25a is. Similarly for 25d. (Not that all the entries with two clues for a number are that straightforward as some need three parts).

So what? After the last few, a much more challenging one was to be expected.

Fully agree, buzzb - my solving experience was very similar to yours.

Thanks jbird54: that gives me plenty to work on, but the hint you have given me for 18 down refers to the first part, which I already have.

0pt0 - apologies - for 18d part 2 the definition is the first word, and the wordplay removes a single letter from a well known city.

I've solved both clues for 25a and there are at least 100 possible grid entries. It's not 'pretty obvious' at all, unless you guess luckily.

No criticism of the puzzle but the time/outcome ratio didn’t work for me. Laundry, shopping, making dinner all needed done and, while at 73 I’m a mere stripling compared to BC 😉, I didn’t have energy enough for it all.

It’s a very fair point, sh. All the preamble says is that clues for the same entry are given in order. It doesn’t follow that there are therefore only those two components to the grid entry for that clue. It may be so, but is not a given. And given the lack of a definition for the grid entry there was no way of being sure.

I think those who solved the puzzle using shortcuts not explicitly justified by the preamble need to be a bit careful. Such entries can only be working hypotheses, not confident answers.

This was the nub of my “unfairness” thought. An indication of whether the grid answer contained one, two or three components would have made the puzzle significantly easier. Too easy for some, manageable for others. Naturally those who solved it will usually see it as fair. Survivorship bias.

My entry point, after cold solving 24 clues, was actually 5d. The grid entry formed by combining just the clues was so improbable it “had” to be correct.

I may have misunderstood the preamble, of course!

Under the assumption that 25a is made up of two parts, there are are four possible grid entries - taking 1,2,3,4 letters from the first clue answer. As I recall, only one of them is a valid word.

Undeniably, some guesswork is required to make progress. I assumed that for the double-clued entries, they would be made up of only two parts if I could make it work. And I was helped by guessing the 12-letter entries in the first and last columns - the latter quite early.

I've got no objection to doing some guesswork - I do it even in more conventional puzzles, when I have an uncertain answer which I check by looking for crossing entries which fit.

It's a tough puzzle, but solving about half the clues should be sufficient to get some help from the entries with the remainder.

My entry was 25a, which was verified by other entries fairly quickly before a long stall! I agree that the possible shortcuts were false friends, although it was fun going back and checking them as the puzzle progressed. I can't quite explain why, but this process was why the construction felt so admirable. I am duly converted. Thank you, Artix!