NWR The crow dross (anag. 9) thread

Schwarz media's (Oz) cryptic the other week had "Cries when captain banned fish and wine (8)" But I kinda wish I'd bought last Friday's Sydney Morning Herald, as the cryptic answers were in the Saturday edition, which I did see. A David Astle special (DA = 'don't attempt'), the whole thing seemed to have been built on a wine theme to judge by the answers I saw. Too bad. Would never have got them from the clues.
 
Everyman 3889

Greek character (averse to wine) (7)
Yer. Nice clue actually. Not in a Times style, which is my preferred cryptic. I've been doing more Guardian crosswords recently. They're the same obviously, but different. Everyman, Quiptic, main cryptic. For me they take more thought. I know there are setters in common, Don Manley for example.

Fwiw, I'm a 5-7 minutes for the Times quick cryptic, and 10-30 mins for the Times 15x15, depending on difficulty.

In awe of your tackling of barred puzzles like Azed..Do you do Mephisto?
 
Yer. Nice clue actually. Not in a Times style, which is my preferred cryptic. I've been doing more Guardian crosswords recently. They're the same obviously, but different. Everyman, Quiptic, main cryptic. For me they take more thought. I know there are setters in common, Don Manley for example.

Fwiw, I'm a 5-7 minutes for the Times quick cryptic, and 10-30 mins for the Times 15x15, depending on difficulty.

In awe of your tackling of barred puzzles like Azed..Do you do Mephisto?
Just a quick question - why do you say that the Greek character clue is not in a Times style? Too straightforward?

On a note of personal smugness, I attempted the Guardian for the first time for ages yesterday as I was on a train and there was no Times available. I finished it but it did take me a good 40 minutes.
 
No, it just doesn't "feel" like a Times clue. The brackets are unnecessary perhaps.

Cryptic crossword clue analysis is possibly even more abstruse than wine analysis.

I find Guardian clues "looser", they can be very witty, but I am sometimes at a loss when parsing. The times seems to have tighter rules.
 
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