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This week's Prize is by Tramp and, while I managed to to complete most of it without too much trouble, the NE corner proved very, very difficult.
- I just couldn't seem to get a foothold.

Anyway, I did finally get it all done and, truth be told, it was more down to my dumbness than the quality of the clues.

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

I still have a query about 10a - the "virus" is straightforward but I can't see how the rest is parsed - OMG, I'm looking at one now!! Well, I did mention my dumbness!

I didn't know this definition for 18a and 20d but they're both in chambers so no complaints.

COD - I'm going to go with 13d.

Thanks to Tramp for a challenging but rewarding puzzle.

Did you find parts of it as difficult as me? Let us know how you got on and, as always, if you do run into problems, just post them on here.

Stay safe:-)

Thanks to Tramp.
This one took unusually long to complete. Not sure if it was consistently tough, but several clues accounted for most of the solving time. Above the norm in difficulty, but I can't quantify any more.

FOI 1d, LOI 19.
8 was a word new to me, parsing clear but had to look up the meaning.
Clues 11 and 19 took forever, to my chagrin because 19 appeared in a fairly recent puzzle (forget where) and it nearly stumped me there as well. 😬12 and 10 also troublesome...wrote in 10 fairly quickly, but took a while to parse.

Not many clues knocked me out...let's call 19 COD over 11, 9 and 21.

Also, I'm not sure I fully understand the wordplay in 4a - I was pretty satisfied with it originally but, looking at it again, I can't help thinking I'm missing something 🤔

Hi Geeker,

Funny you should mention 19a - In my notes I wrote ""will Geeker know bank":-)

Parsing of 4a looks like 1, 5 where 1="Prince". Not the most felicitous clue IMO.

Thanks Geeker, that's what I had to start with but kept going back to it to try and make something "royal" out of the last two letters - I think I need a lie-down in a dark room with a cold compress on my forehead 😪

Brendan, did you mean "bank" in 17d? I got that one fairly quickly.
The "bank" in 12a was much harder...but it so happens that I once worked for a company which was purchased by that particular bank. 😉 Otherwise I might have never seen the parsing.

Sorry Geeker, you're right - I meant 12a.

Just started so only a few clues in. But I had to actually look the word up in 4a as I got it from the clue but had never heard that word.

Not sure about this one yet. Feels a bit clunky. I daresay looking at my day that I won't finish this until later this afternoon.

Tough but fair I thought. Tramp said recently that he’s now setting for the Times and this had a Timesy feeling about it.
Top half took twice as long as the bottom, though the cricket might have had something to do with that.

1d reminded me of the book by Alan Connor (who we now know is Everyman) the title of which is a clue for the same word (by Araucaria I think?).

LOI 11a and a ‘jorum’ for me :-)