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geeker

13th April 2024, 04:24
Thanks to Qaos for this week's Prize challenge.
I thought there were many elegant and enjoyable clues, but a few perhaps (YMMV) slightly strained.
Most of the grid filled quickly, but a handful difficult and obscure clues extended solving time beyond the norm. One short clue I guessed but had to look up with Google, solution dependent on GK I'd no idea of. One longer clue involves an obscure usage I had to confirm online.

FOI 1d, LOI 18 which puzzled me no end and still seems a bit awkward.
Still not certain of 25's parsing, though there's only one possible reasonable solution.
Co-COD 29 and 24, which is somewhat arbitrary as there were many contenders including 24, 28, 12, 21, 26, 20 and 11. Bottom half of the puzzle very strong.
Qaos is fond of "ghost" themes. I see a couple of possibilities, but nothing clear jumps off the screen.
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brendan

13th April 2024, 04:29
Hi Geeker,

25d - the "horse" is letters 2 and 4 with letter 3 indicating that it's "pregnant" - I think
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geeker

13th April 2024, 04:32
Brendan, thanks...that was my take on 25, but the first letter of the answer seems to come from nowhere.
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brendan

13th April 2024, 04:40
It's in Chambers as an abbreviation for "about".
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geeker

13th April 2024, 04:46
Oh, that figures. 😂 Another miss due to my flaky refusal to use Chambers.
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geeker

13th April 2024, 04:52
Typo: forgot to mention 22. Complex parsing, had to go into "Vlad mode" (guess first, parse later) but it was another COD candidate.
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gweilo

13th April 2024, 08:12
I saw the theme early enough to help with gridfill which is a very rare occurrence for me.

So far I have 9, 10, 26, 29 as thematic in the acrosses, and 2, 11, 14, 18 in the downs. Any others?

I'm a bit unsure about the parsing for 8d. I can see the small object, but I don't know how the cat fits in.
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brendan

13th April 2024, 08:19
Hi Gweilo,

8d - "cat" can also mean 'vomit' - hope that helps.
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gweilo

13th April 2024, 08:27
@brendan

Ah, thanks. I did not know that
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brendan

13th April 2024, 08:30
Thanks Gweilo:-)
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