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I don't get it guys, why?

hi brendan
very popular and respected blogger. probably deliberate by picaroon!

Ah, got it - thanks Chris:-)

I usually know how I’m going to do based on how easy others say it is. When others say it’s easy I really struggle, but when you say it’s a bit more challenging, I seem to do better. Maybe I’m just on a different wavelength, or maybe I’m just odd!

I found this one fairly straightforward. I got held up a bit in the SW corner as I had never heard of 24a so tried a couple of other options. Finally got it once I had all the crossers. A fun challenge!

Hi Teacher,

I know what you mean, judging difficulty is so subjective - especially when it comes to cryptics:-)

Interesting and enjoyable though found it quite hard.
Mrs Pauly got far more than me and we still can't fully parse 5,6 and 16.
COD probably 23, FOI 16 though had 9 but thought it too straightforward.
:-)

Hi Pauly,

5d - 2 letter "men" + 3 letter "island" around N(orthern)

6d - 2 letter "see" + 2 letter "no good" + 7 letter "PM" minus/'save' "on"

16d - 3 letter "my" (as an exclamation) + 3 letter "caviar" around (old) "penny" - definition is "nibble away at"

Brendan,
Yes, I remember Dave Wottle, US 800m gold medal winner in the cap, big upset with massive kick iirc. Even that he went to Bowling Green Univ.
[I've been on an athletics nostalgia binge started by the Coe/Cram references in a recent weekend puzzle. Saw a replay of Wottle's big race a while back, though I remembered the details anyway.]

Absolutely, he used to stay at the back until the last 100m or so and then rocket past everyone:-)

Thanks Brendan
Some interesting parsing today :-)