Who gave this 5 stars? - I suspect a little self marking in action .... State category was impossible and daft. Otherwise an OK grid - thanks - 3 stars

Was all going well until the ridiculous state category

Thanks for playing. Sorry if the states thing was too difficult. I did wonder. Maybe I should have chosen 1 or 2 easier ones (Mary, Wash, Miss...??). Maybe Americans would spot the link then!
[I nearly chose WHAM for New Hampshire...!! 😄]
And no self-marking! 😡

Enjoyed this one. Yup, I think Miss Cohen-Mitchell would have called that as ‘a nasty one’ 😊

Excellent grid, 10 stars at least! and Smolenskoy is not an anagram of ScarletFish! Enjoyable 30 minutes trying to solve the states connection, thinking naively that there would a simple solution! Duh!

I agree that the states line was too hard in an otherwise too easy to separate and solve grid. I never enjoy the easy, easy, easy, fiendish combo- much better the solvable but very well hidden clues!

Enjoyed that. Hazarded a guess at FBI, LOL ...

State category was very tough

State category was very tough