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ChrisE - ah, I see. Take your point.

Brendan - a bit too much of a reveal, methinks?

I'm a Paul enthusiast*, but the more I think about this puzzle the more I'm impressed. On reflection the 7/23 coupling brings a bigger smile and deserves consideration as COD.

*As mentioned nearly ad nauseam on this forum, I've always (for nearly 10 years now) had success solving Paul's creations. Maybe due to a shared affinity for the naughty clues. :)

In a prior post I mistakenly typed 13a instead of the excellent 12 as COD candidate. I only learned of the author via cryptic crosswords!

Hi Simon,

I don't think so - I only said that it's "capital of Lebanon (twice)" to get the answer, which is basically what the clue says and I just pointed out that it's an anagram, but "bombed" pretty much screamed that anyway - plus if someone can't get 14a it makes the rest of the crossword virtually impossible.

Hi Brendan,

Not sure I agree. There are no brackets in the the clue so, for ages, I took 'twice' to be linked to 'bombed'. I worked out the 'gimmick' from other clues before solving 14 (although I knew what 14 must mean).

Too nice a forum to be falling out though!

Definitely Simon, we're a broad church on the Forum so the more differing the views the better - it promotes healthy debate 👍

All good.

The Listener's a bit of a b*gger this week although I think you've finished. Cold solving..... grrrr!

My LOI was 14a, so all the "twice 14" business passed me by and I solved those clues just by guesses from the crossers and (sometimes) the definitions. Job done, but without the pleasure from Paul's cleverness than he perhaps hoped for.

(Back from shopping...) Thanks Brendan. I was trying to get an anagram out of LTWICER. No dice.
I'll give it another go and see if I can get any further this time!

12a: I know the answer, and a suitable author.
But what's the missing bit?