Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

EB
21D LH Grid
See earlier post by me in this thread from Saturday morning. Consensus seems to be CRUSTY. I was at fault for being too lazy to look up this word. In chambers there's a full and clear explanation of its association with port. C = about (more or less) & rusty = out of practice. As usual a fair and well constructed clue which fits in well with the Christmas disaster depicted by the whole of the 2 clues running together here.

Thanks Turast

I saw that 'crusty' was the consensus answer - having got ?r?s?y I reckoned rusty/out of practice was probably there but I couldn't figure out where 'more or less' & 'port' fitted in.
Now I can see that 'c' - circa = about/more or less - very Araucarian I think & I can't remember having come across the port connection before - so I'll note that for the next time!
Thanks again!

Surely,reading the Star or Sun does not make you semi-illiterate any more than reading the Guardian makes you a woolly-thinking,pinko buffoon.
Most people couldn't name one crossword compiler. And I expect that Araucaria would baulk at being placed in a Pantheon, because he is neither a god nor the illustrious dead. Get a grip lads.

Oxford Dictionary of English.
Pantheon: a group of famous or important people.

Turast,
Even accepting your dumb-downed definition Araucaria still wouldn't qualify ,would he.

"Semi-illiterate" and "dumb-downed"? If I didn't know better, I'd say you were doing this on purpose.

You and Mikey make a good pair. Dumb and Dumber. Hard to say which is which though.

Mystified and shocked. In this thread called "dumb" by terry, and elswhere on the site under another Guardian thread, accused of "arrogance" and "stupidity" by gwyn. Are these people serious? I really am at a loss as to what I've posted that could have made these individuals so angry. I'm hoping that they are simply rogue contributors, looking for a scrap. If I've offended any serious crossword solvers out there, I do apologise, because this was not my intention.

turast,
i'm not sure terry did call you Dumb - might have been Dumber!
sorry,couldn't resist that.
But surely you can see that mikey4444's post(post 56 in this thread)was offensive and the words "arrogance" and "stupidity" that gwyn chose were well considered?
(for mikey at least)

turast, i just read your glorious comment on the other thread.
"Araucaria is the doyen of all compilers. Those criticising him on the Crossword Help Forum really do not have any appreciation at all of his status in the Pantheon of compilers."

What can i say? were you pissed?
happy xmas all