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roof

17th February 2018, 20:34
Hi Chrise and others

I think Enigmatist is an enigma to me. I'm just not on his/her wavelength. But thanks to all of you I think I've finished all bar 21 ac. Though I can't quite parse many of them.

I have ?R?R ?E?R

I'm assuming the first word is an abbreviation of brother, but have no idea for the second. Any further hints would be gratefully received.
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mamya

17th February 2018, 20:43
Second word think of a cuddly representation of an animal - favourite toy of many.
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roof

17th February 2018, 20:55
Thanks Mamya

I did think of this, but I guess I just don't know it. I don't think I'm very familiar with these children's stories.

I can't see the parsing, but that's the case with so many of these. I think I'll settle for what I've got and go and watch Modus now.

Thanks again to everyone.
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digbydavies

18th February 2018, 12:57
Morning solvers, finished the crossword but there's a few I can't parse.
9 across; I can see the explosive if I remove all the vowels...?
15 across; I'm ok with first three letters and the last but what's OPEA mean?
22 across; answer confirmed by my Complete Works Of Shakespearebut I can't make sense of the middle 4 letters.
Help!
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zozozo

18th February 2018, 13:40
9 the entire solution is a type of explosive

0 (ver) Pea - like one - like two peas in a pod

H(o)uri
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mamya

18th February 2018, 13:40
9 The whole word is an explosive

15 Over - O
like one - Pea (in a pod)

22 Alluring woman is Houri - remove love and place in To
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digbydavies

18th February 2018, 21:09
Many thanks zozozo and mamya. So 9ac is a double def.
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strangelybrown

18th February 2018, 22:32
I absolutely loathed this and feel sorry for anyone who attempted it and didn't have access to electronic aids to try to check that horribly obscure words really existed.
Of all the hateful clues the worst was 20d Chap last in Tour: "I don't want any more cycling".
So it is 'R' followed by an anagram of a word that is not in the clue. Isn't this against the basic rules of cryptic crosswords, that you don't have anagrams of words that are not in the clue?
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burnsie

19th February 2018, 06:10
I agree, you would want to encourage people to start cryptic crosswords but this clue is a real put off. I knew early on the answer was roughen but trying to construct an anagram from letters that weren't there! i have been doing xwords for 4 decades - bad show
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peterm

19th February 2018, 08:57
I think you're right in saying that an indirect anagram is a complete no-no in Crypticland, but in fairness to the setter, I don't think that's what's happening here. The "cycling" in the clue is often an indicator that the first letter of a word is sent to the end, eg "start cycling" gives you "tarts". In this case, the first 2 letters have been "cycled", so that "enough" becomes "oughen". I'm not sayng this makes it a good clue, but I think that's how it's parsed.
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