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That cockerney is the only acceptable dialect to clue with.

Oh and using words that you would never use in that way in any normal conversation. Flower for river. Number for anesthetic. Etc. Ad nauseum.

Point is, have you ever experienced someone point at a river and say without crossword irony "look, a flower?"

Quite a few from me 😒. Clunky initial letters, scottish dialect words, absurd surface reads, obscure animal/fish genera, very very long anagrams. Actually dont mind Spoonerisms if there is some wit therein.

Words in the clue that are presented as anagram fodder but which survive fully intact in the solution. There’s an example in today’s Guardian.

Last Saturday's Guardian Prize (No. 30,056) neatly captures my main crossword peeves:

- Opaque definitions
- Highly stilted word ordering in the wordplay
- Use of dodgy anagram (or other wordplay) indicators.

9A in that prize puzzle manages to use all three - I'm not a fan.
It's good to come away finishing a crossword with a sense of enjoyment and achievement - it should ultimately be a fun challenge, not a source of irritation.

Fully appreciate the peeves so far expressed, especially those produced by published, professional setters. Those of us, less talented, gamely try our best when attempting the weekly Clueless, Peer Review and Weekend Peer Review. Due to the tight time constraints, about 48 hours each, we tend to fall back on the tried and tested cliches and peeves mentioned. A really great clue might take days or weeks to polish.

anthonystmichel @ 12

Funny, I actually love those. I agree that I'd never use them in spoken word but, for me, they demonstrate the richness of our language with its homonyms and homophones. And using words like 'irony' to mean 'like iron'.