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Sticky start and then one thing led to another - and all done. My LOI is probably my COD - 21d

I'll leave it to Brendan for a more erudite analysis !

Hi Alzy,

I enjoyed this and found it an improvement on last week.

My FOI was 1a followed by 6a and I was on my way.

I didn't find it too difficult but if you do get stuck there's a couple of long anagrams in the downs along with another initial letters/primarily type clue - but an improvement on last week's.

My only query is with 26a where, if I've read it correctly, there are two possible answers, although neither seems to account for the last letter of the first word? Also, 10a barely seems cryptic.

I wasn't sure about the definition in 24a but I've looked in Chambers and it seems Ok.

Thanks to Everyman for a fun puzzle.

Stay safe:-)

Isn't the whole of the first word of 26a a synonym for fighting? I'm having trouble with 25a, and I'm pretty sure I have 15a but I'm not sure how to parse it.

15, last 6 letters are "heroes" missing the first letter (if they were wearing "two shoes" they would be "ostentatiously virtuous")

25, it would also turn "yes" into "yeth".

Hi Rainman,

15a single letter for "hard" then a 7 letter world for "stories heroes" (not the baddies) minus it's first letter/"topless".

25a one would pronounce breeze as breathe of one had a 25a.

26a i can see that either ro..... or bo...... are synonyms of "fighting" but the clue says "fight"

It may give you a clue if you read 25a out loud - and analyze the difference in speech. Hope that's not too obscure. 15a ... although it's not referred to in the clue, you may remember a comedy TV series from many years ago that works for the heroes if you drop the first letter...

Thanks - 25a should have been obvious but for some reason wasn't. I had thought of the late-lamented Tim Brooke-Taylor for 15a, but it seemed like a rather weak synonym for heroes. I must be in the wrong frame of mind tonight.

Good day all, woke up and thought I might be FOI. But no. You've all been busy. Thanks for the posts, helped me correct a couple. Such as 25A. Anyway. My FOI is 1A and LOI is 4D because I had opted for the wrong character. But you don't really want to read all that do you? CoD i am not sure. Found it rather easy, lots of obvious anagrams and some iffy clues. Now having corrected my incorrect 25A I have chothen that ath my CoD.

And I meant no disrespect on my poor joke, hope I did not cause offense.