The Stickler Weekly 83 Solution

I think all solvers have experienced that phenomenon where a seemingly impossible clue or puzzle becomes solvable after a break or maybe a night’s sleep. It appears that previous misconceptions are cleared out and new pathways found or maybe the brain works in the background while the conscious is doing other things. The same thing happens to setters in a way as a word that appears to have only one clueing option suddenly reveals itself as a word with multiple opportunities. There’s a major difference, or course, in that a solver is looking for the only path while the setter looks to explore many paths in order to find the best one. I’ve always believed that every reasonable word has a “best clue”, but time often prevents a setter from finding it. It’s always about time and effort and a minimum standard. When I used to write the daily Stickler I gave myself a max of about five minutes per clue, any more and I simply wouldn’t have enough time to get it done. In some ways I cheated, as I avoided difficult words and included only words (at grid-filling time) that I thought wouldn’t be too hard to clue – I actually formed an idea in my head about each clue before committing answers to the grid. This didn’t always work as a crossword’s answers and clues mustn’t be considered in isolation so changes would often be needed to the original ideas. Mental tiredness and illness are also handicapping factors as a setter must be completely switched on to produce a good crossword – I could tell how good I was originally feeling as I did my final check of a week’s Sticklers (created some six weeks before) at the time of submission.
Does your performance as a solver vary or does it totally depend on the crossword?