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I wonder if the clue to 18d was a hint ;-)

Very good!
I don’t generally do the Times crosswords, mainly because of paywalls, but when I have done I’ve rarely found them particularly satisfying, perhaps partly because of the anonymity.

jono@31: Me too. In fact I was just about to post that there might be a Nina hidden in the clues rather than the grid. But I don't see a lot of other hints in the clues. I recall some Ninas based on first (last) letters of clues, but not here that I can tell.

[Massively overthinking this, but if one reflects the 4th letter of the answer to 16a, one gets the Cyrillic 'ya', which perhaps makes the entry into a somewhat disrespectful 'Adieu!'. But I doubt that's the case!]

Hi Everyone

Started late as usual. I do my chores in the morning and today put my back out! I find Jack hard and have looked up a number of my answers to check they are right as the parsing is near impossible in some cases. So far, they were all right. So far my FOI was 16ac. I'm surprised you haven't come across this word Rocky. I bet you have a shirt made out of this.

I've done about a third, but still have some tricky ones to get. I'm puzzled by 22d, where I can see two possible answers, but can't parse either of them.

Time to get the washing out of the drier. I will be back.

Double Jack this week! Guardian Weekly cryptic also by Jack.
I think I struggle with his crosswords because I look for complications which are not there if you know what I mean. Not quite finished but looking forward to returning to it later.No doubt about COD for me — 26a FOI -13a LOI still to be determined!

Well, much to my surprise, I've finished. Much harder than last week. But there are a lot I cannot fully parse.

As I said before, FOI was 16ac, LOI was 13ac, COD like many of you was 26ac. But I also liked 10ac, 21ac and 20d.

Unparsed or not fully parsed:
1ac, 24ac, 1d (I can see the symbol), 2d (where does the half-hearted course director come in?), 7d (though maybe I just need to reverse the answer?), 17d ( a bit obscure for me - I didn't know that abbreviation of champion), 18d (where does the boring puzzle come in?), 23d. I didn't like 14ac either (met for satisfied?)

I found I had to work out the definition and then look for the parsing.

Hi Roof,

Sorry to hear about your back, hope it feels better soon:-)

1a - "irritate" is 3,2 then single letter "good" followed by letter "number" (remember the old setters trick of 'flower' = something that flows etc)

24a - 4 letter "destroy" + 3 letter "corruption" then take the "one" from the first word and move it to the second to give you "act without restraint"

1d - 7 letter "clearly explained" then 4 letter symbol inside 4 letter "browser" (animal)

2d - 6 letter "course director" (might be steering a boat) then remove one of the two middfle letters/'halh-hearted'

18d - 1 letter "times" + 1 letter "crossword's first" go inside letter "puzzle" (as in 'escape in a cunning way' or 'baffle')

Many thanks Brendan. I see them all now. I'd got them all right apart from the first three letters of 1ac, where I'd put an "e" instead of the "o". Now it all makes sense.

I think Jack is very tricky.