Only just printed it. Heart sank when I saw it was by Paul. You just know it will be tricky when set by him/her. I’ll give it a go in the morning, without much confidence.
He used to run a weekly blog (may still do) in which he invited clues to a solution that he provided. One week his solution was "Britney Spears", to which he added the rider "Be kind". My suggestion, which he published, was "Enters Paris by broken down Singer"; not sure whether that was unkind or not.
I have spent many more hours on this than I should have and still come up with a blank. With 9a I have been through threaten (is there a word ending in nine to convert) and various words with reap in the middle. Nothing makes sense. With 8 (presumably beginning with three) I have checked volcanoes and twin-peaks beginning with any synonym of 2, the cast of Neighbours and tried to get six (from five) into 17. I have googled every combination of letters that could come out of the possible anagrams - I am at my wit's end - this is the first time I have ever not been able to finish a Genius .... In case anyone disagrees, this is what I believe is the format:
_O_I_A_ AND T_R_E_A_U_S_M_
Got the same as you prospero. I too was trying threaten for 9a but don’t like it. Not sure if this is a manipulated solution though, just don’t see it. Also been playing with Spanish Civil War ‘contests’ at Aragon and Tarragona to try and make Tarragon (crop), but failed so far.
Triple ditto. I tried using Roman numerals (IV-->V or V-->VI?) but that got me nowhere.
There are several homophones of TWO (TU) in the grid which are not turned into THREEs. I know the preamble does not imply that every number MUST be inflated but this is a flaw in the puzzle, to my mind.
Agree. Think I need to re-visit my 2d in case of mistake. Fairly happy with 6d giving an ‘A’ for 9a, but maybe that’s wrong too (or should I say three).
I tried to fit 'taro' or 'cane' into 9a - no go.
Checked Bradford's lists of stars, mountains, American Indians, islands for 17/8.
In a video of VB, he uses first/second, once/twice as well as numbers. Looked at bi/ter possibilities, no luck.