Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Without doubt, one of the most difficult Prize crosswords I've ever encountered. In fact, it took me as long as this week's Listener!

At times I doubted I would ever finish but I did eventually stagger over the finishing line.

If you do get stuck there there is at least one long anagram in the acrosses and at least one hidden in the downs.

There were a few definitions I was unfamiliar with, like the "motivation" in 11a and the "nasty person" in 24a but I've got no problem with that - it's what dictionaries are for:-)

COD - I'm going to go for 13a although 8a ran it close.

Thanks to Brendan for a very challenging puzzle.

Did you find it as difficult as me or was I just not on Brendan's wavelength?

Let us know how you got on and, if you do get stuck, just post your query on here - there will always be someone on hand to help.

Stay safe:-)

Hi Brendan,

I found this tough but not quite as impenetrable (joke - see WPR 158) as you. NE quadrant went in quickly, but the rest was slow, occasionally frustrating, and solving time well above average. I'm really tired this evening, might have been quicker on a better day. Needed Google to confirm a couple of answers.

There are several exceptionally tricky clues with unusual parsing that took an inordinate amount of time to figure out. I feared a DNF, but luckily the pennies dropped. Some original and ingenious touches by setter Brendan, thanks to him.

FOI 3, LOI 10 which definitely required (along with a few others) thinking outside the box.

COD 1 by a wide margin, very nice.

Forgot to mention 5, a tough one that deserved COD consideration!
Won't identify more hard clues to avoid spoilers, my list has at least six.

I think I'm going to agree with (our) Brendan. Reading the clues in order, the only entry I have at the moment is 24d!

Chris : 9 and 12 first in , are so easy. Have another look : )

There are some easier ones, 22d and 25a are also very guessable, but some others are rather obscure (to me at least).

There’s usually something clever going on in Brendan’s puzzles, but I don’t see it here. I thought the appearance of ‘snake’ and ‘ladder’ in the first two clues might be leading somewhere…

I can see 5d but not entirely sure about that ‘t’ ?

jono
for 5d i've removed an apostrophe and a space from the clue to get an eponymous character. is that wrong? i've only got one confirming crosser.

Very difficult crossword I’ve only got eleven clues in total so far. FOI was 20a. 13d is a good clue think laterally when it comes to the fifth word should help you get there

A crosser has disproved my 5d. I thought PRINCESS was quite a good ansqwer!

In 5d the T i was referring to is the T in acTress… I’m sure I must be missing something obvious.