Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

This week's puzzle is a very enjoyable effort by Picaroon.

For the most part I found it to be relatively straightforward, but that's not to say I didn't struggle with the parsing of a couple.

4a for example where I just can't see where one of the letters comes from?

FOI was the witty 1d followed by the clever 10a.

There are also far fewer anagrams than usual so it's not as easy as it sometimes is to get a footing.

If you do get stuck there are a couple of long charade type clues in the downs and a longish anagram in the lower half of the acrosses - although I took an age to see it 😜

COD - Very difficult choice this week with 3d's excellent "lack cake decorating skills" and the clever 5d. Then there's the witty 23a with "slap on the lid" - but I've gone for 26a - Dry American statesman who led a coup - just outstanding😃

Thanks to Picaroon for a witty and inventive crossword.

I think we had at least three new posters join in the discussion last week so let's keep the trend going. Remember, we have Forum members in many different time zones so there is always someone around to willing to help you out, should you get stuck. Or, even if you don't, we're a broad church on here so it's always good to read the views of fellow solvers.

Stay safe:-)

Thanks to Picaroon. Agreed with Brendan, enjoyed the puzzle but it didn't take long to solve. FOI 9, LOI and COD 3. Many fine clues, 18 and 26 were COD contenders, also liked 1a, 7, 9 and 5. Admired the cluing and wordplay, but nothing overly testing. Didn't detect a major theme (no surprise, they typically elude me), although there are two pairs of strongly associated answers.

Hi Geeker,

4a - How do you account for either the second or last letter? I can see where one of them comes from but not the other.

Brendan, agreed on 4. The wordplay ("run breaking") seems to indicate that there are two of the wrong letter! I saw the outlines of the answer so quickly that I missed the problem.

4a - I'm usually loth to suggest there's an error because, let's face it, 99% of the time it's me who's made it. But in this instance I think there is and that "run" should be a word indicating a different letter.

Yes, claiming an error is risky!
But I do suspect one, apart from the highly dubious theory that "dashing" might be used twice, via "dashing run", to fracture a certain (capital) letter by removing a line. :)

BTW, we *did* spot a numbering / typographical dividing error in one clue from last week's Prize, but the Guardian quickly fixed it.

Yes, I saw the amendment to the 11,3,2 clue, although they still got the letter enumeration wrong! 😜

I couldn't agree more about the risk of putting one's head above the parapet and proclaiming there's an error.

With that in mind, I've got a napkin and plate at on stand-by ready for when someone points out why the clue works perfectly and i have to eat a large slice of humble pie - again! 🥵

I think you are right about 4A.

But if you want to make the clue work as it is, try replacing sure with a Spanish word that translates to well, then, since, of course, yes or indeed.

Probably too much of a stretch though, as there is no mention of Spanish.

I have to agree there seems to be an error in 4a. I checked the pdf to see if it’s different which sometimes it is, but no joy. If it’s a Guardian typo I’m struggling to see what the original clue should have been. I admit I didn’t notice it til I came here. My assumption was ‘run’ giving a single letter and the remainder as fodder. Will think on...

Other than that this was very good I thought with lots of clever misdirection. Favourites 3d, 18a, 23a. And as a fan of agent nouns 11 and 21a.