Daily Telegraph Cryptic No 30112
Hints and tips by Senf
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BD Rating – Difficulty **** – Enjoyment ***
A very good Friday morning from Winnipeg where we are at the beginning of a holiday weekend – for us it is our version of Thanksgiving, while our Southern neighbours will celebrate Columbus not finding the land mass on which they reside.
Almost an X-less pangram but, by my estimation, the tenth letter of the alphabet is also missing. So, not proXimal for the second week in a row. Therefore, based on some of the devilish clueing, my five bob is telling me that this is a Zandio production, which could have been put in the wrong envelope.
Candidates for favourite – 12a, 17a, and 19a.
In the hints below, the definitions are underlined. The answers are hidden under the Click here! buttons, so don’t click if you don’t want to see them.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.
Across
1a Things not on the level or square, not first class (10)
INEQUALITY: I don’t think we have seen this for a while, well I haven’t – think of a number, three will do, square it (as in multiply it by itself) then remove the initial letter of the answer (not first) and follow what remains with a synonym of class.
6a Exhausted, but steady now and then (4)
USED: Alternate letters (now and then) selected from bUt StEaDy.
9a Nightmarish ordeal — married in station (7)
EARLDOM: An anagram (nightmarish) of ORDEAL and the single letter for Married provides a station (as a position in life).
10a With / without delay, etc (3,2,2)
AND SO ON: A synonym of with and a single word for without delay.
12a Carried by motorcar, pets wee periodically — cleaner needed! (6-7)
CARPET-SWEEPER: A lurker (carried by) found in four words in the clue.
14a Always this jolly? (4,2)
EVER SO: A synonymic phrase for always this provides a term equivalent to jolly as in agreeable.
15a Volunteer GI deputy returns to hold line (8)
PEDIGREE: A reversed lurker (returns to hold) found in three words in the clue.
17a Future shows vicar and I sitting with the congregation (8)
PREVIEWS: The abbreviated form of a vicar’s honorific and I from the clue contained by a term for the congregation or, at least, what the congregation sit in.
19a Street areas linked by southern land lines (6)
STANZA: The abbreviated form of street and the single letter for Area repeated containing (linked by) the abbreviated form of a southern land (from where our Wednesday bloggers come).
22a Healthy food, cosy home — something said to give us a smile (7,6)
COTTAGE CHEESE: What may be considered a type of cosy home and a single word photographers ask/asked us to say to give us a smile.
24a Meals increased, limiting student outburst (5-2)
FLARE-UP: Synonyms of meals and increased containing the letter to indicate a student.
25a Having acquired more cover after a fall? (7)
SNOWIER: In a single word, how one might describe the situation after a fall of the fluffy white stuff.
26a Past 10, coming round (4)
LATE: Have you solved 10a yet? The reversal (coming round) of a (2.2) abbreviated form of a Latin term equivalent to the 10a answer.
27a Flasher that should be strung up (5,5)
FAIRY LIGHT: Part of a ‘string’ that can flash and is used for decorative purposes.
Down
1d I would cut half of each clue (4)
IDEA: The (1’1) contracted form of I would and what remains after half of each is deleted (cut) – I’ll let you decide what half is cut and discarded.
2d Cheer AA after breakdown causing pain (7)
EARACHE: An anagram (after breakdown) of CHEER AA.
3d Fail to appreciate foreign articles one’s imported by car (13)
UNDERESTIMATE: Two foreign articles of speech, the first indefinite and the second definite, and a (1,1) term equivalent to one’s contained (imported) by a type of car body style.
4d Shuffle bits and pieces (6)
LUMBER: This may be right, or it may be wrong but it’s straight from the BRB – to heap together in confusion.
5d Faster RN manoeuvres for assignment (8)
TRANSFER: An anagram (manoeuvres) of FASTER RN.
7d Magnum takes this local train? (7)
STOPPER: A double definition – the first is usually made of cork.
8d Hot stuff damaged a broken bed (5,5)
DONER KEBAB: An anagram (damaged) of A BROKEN BED.
11d Hard-core red, maybe wearing sheep’s clothing? (4-2-3-4)
DYED-IN-THE-WOOL: A descriptive term for, say, fabric that has been coloured red perhaps (maybe) and a (2-3-4) phrase for wearing sheep’s clothing?.
13d Subservient in particular rank — nothing gets overlooked (10)
RESPECTFUL: A nounal synonym of particular and an adjectival synonym of rank with its letter that can represent nothing removed (nothing gets overlooked).
16d Dessert vegetable that brightens up the garden (5,3)
SWEET PEA: A synonym of dessert and a three letter vegetable.
18d Competitor‘s score halved, cycling, followed by tirade (7)
ENTRANT: Half of a numeric score with the first letter moved to the end (cycling – a cop-out for a three letter anagram) and a synonym of tirade.
20d Relying on Germany to supply core for reconditioned engine (7)
NEEDING: The IVR code for Germany becomes the middle letter (core) of an anagram (reconditioned) of ENGINE.
21d Drink when in Bordeaux’s dear (6)
CHASER: The two letter synonym of when inserted into (in) the word used for dear (expensive or male term of endearment) in Bordeaux or anywhere else in France.
23d Archaically penned court order (4)
WRIT: A double definition – the first was the past tense (archaically) of a verbal synonym of pen.
The Quick Crossword Pun:
HEIR + REEF + FAIRY = AIRY-FAIRY
Solid but tricky and a few elusive clues in this one. Given the smattering of lurkers and anagrams I thought top end *** with **** for enjoyment. Special mention goes to 19a, 22a, 24a, 3d and my COTD 21d. Great Friday fare and thanks to Senf who helped me understand 26a and our illustrious setter.
Very enjoyable indeed with some smile inducing PDMs throughout the grid.
Not the setters fault but something very similar to 22a (cream cheese) came up in last Saturday’s NTSPP so it jumped out at me as did 11d, a real smiler.
As ever with this setter I liked plenty but I’ll highlight the linked 10&26a, the fabulous reverse lurker at 15a, plus 25a but my favourite was the “jolly” clever 14a.
Many thanks to Zandio and Senf for the top-notch entertainment.
I parsed the jolly/solution in 14a as extremely or very.
Sorry Senf, I may be wrong here but I disagree with your interpretation of 1a too…isn’t the “square” (F)ine in the sense of above board?
I took the square to be ‘nine’ but I can see that it could, just about, be ‘fine’.
I will have to disagree with your disagreement. I did think of (f)ine but I could not find any justification in both Chambers or on-line that agreed on the synonym. Then, sad to say, during a 2:30am ‘visit’ to the ‘smallest room in the house’ I recalled the previous use of ‘numeric’ square with, probably, the same number as Zandio has used.
I’ve never seen that interpretation of “square” before so as they say “every day is a school day”….
I jolly well agree with your parsing Stephen but I’m not keen on use of 14a!
I took 4d to be a double definition; the first to be a synonym for to shuffle.
Many thanks to the setter, and to Senf.
Me too
That’s what I thought. The BRB gives lumber as to move clumsily, ie shuffle and anything cumbersome or useless, ie bits and pieces.
Me too
It’s taken me a while to be able to consistently get onto Zandio’s wavelength and I still often find the definition first and then work backwards to the parsing. I inevitably have more bung-ins with this setter than others but always enjoy a Zandio cryptic and this was no exception. Thought the 2 lurkers were particularly good.
Many thanks to Zandio and to Senf for unravelling the bung-ins.
I thought it might be Zandio too as, at first, Cthought it was absolutely beyond me and the clues read like a foreign language. I nearly gave up and ended up with 8 clues i couldnt understand in the end Thanks to Senf for enlightening my darkness and to Zandio for another crossword full of near impenetrable clues.
4*/2.5*. This was a curate’s egg for me both in terms of difficulty and enjoyment. Also, while many of the surfaces were fine, a few didn’t quite cut the mustard for me.
I was mystified by the parsing of both 1a and 26a until I read Senf’s review, and I still don’t quite understand how “always this” in 14a leads to the answer. Even though the BRB says they are synonymous, can someone please provide an example showing how “particular” and “respect” are equivalent in 13d?
My top two were the 12a lurker and the 15a rekrul.
Thanks to the setter and to Senf.
Hi RD
In 14a …always thUs is “ever so”
I also have a different interpretation to our blogger of 1a… though I’m not going to bet the house on it!
Thanks SL.
– The clue for 14a is “always this jolly?” A misprint in the paper perhaps?
– I think Senf’s parsing for 1a is fine, although I did have to read it twice to understand what he was saying!
I’m sorry I mis-read 14a.
Always= ever
So= this
As in “is he always this/so jolly (or miserable etc)
I thought it was ever so/jolly clever.
I think 14a is a double definition: 1) e.g. It was always this 2) e.g. she’s jolly clever.
That was my initial interpretation Gazza, and to me it works too (though “always this” is not really a stand-alone phrase)
I think that ‘always thus’ would work better for the double definition. It’s the rich that get the gravy, it’s the poor that get the blame – it was always thus.
Yes and that’s how I originally read (or perhaps wanted to read!) the clue.
“They were identical in every particular”
“They were identical in every respect”
The more I look at 14a the less clear it becomes. ‘Always this’ = answer is fine with me. But answer = jolly doesn’t seem to work, and I can’t yet see how answer=agreeable, ether. It may clarify quite how jolly or agreeable one is, but that’s as far as I can take it.
Edit: or is it ‘Always [answer] jolly”, replacing ‘this’?
Thanks, MG.
– Your example is just what the doctor ordered for 13d.
– I can’t still can’t equate “always this” to the answer in 14a, but I’m fine with “jolly” as in “that was jolly hard”.
That use of ‘jolly’ works for me, RD, thank you, and ‘always = answer’ works. So always jolly works, although this is still in question!
Good solid Friday fare, slowish to get a foothold but rapid from that point; pondering the parsing of 4d took me over 2* time: I have no issue with answer=shuffle, but still unconvinced that answer=bits and pieces – BRB’s ‘to heap together in confusion’ , and ‘anything cumbersome or useless’ don’t really fit the bill – the former is a transitive verb, not indicated by the clue, and the latter doesn’t really equate to ‘bits and pieces’. Ah well,’tis only a puzzle after all, and it was a very pleasant solve!
COTD shared by the paired 10a and 26a.
2.5* / 2.5*
Many thanks to the setter and to Senf.
The second definition of 4d is a noun meaning household items that are no longer useful.
Gazza, my edition of the BRB (13th revised) gives “anything cumbersome or useless” as the second definition, which I don’t think really quite means “bits and pieces”. The Collins definition however (as in my reply below to MG) does seem better.
The ODE says: (British) articles of furniture or other household items that are no longer useful and inconveniently take up storage space.
MG, I agree with you that none of the BRB’s definitions for 4d fit the bill, Collins however gives ” useless household articles that are stored away” which seems OK, except that the BRB is considered as the bible for Telegraph puzzles.
Really enjoyed this.Took me ages to see the reverse lurker at 15a. I spent ages with the Territorial Army! Favourites were 26a, 17a and 3d. Didn’t much care for 25a though. Thanks to the setter and Senf.
This is a proper Friday-level puzzle which I enjoyed a lot – thanks to Zandio(?) and Senf.
For my podium I’ve chosen 10a, 12a (superbly hidden answer) and 17a.
I really enjoyed the strain this morning. Thank goodness for Senf to unlock the bung-ins. I thought I’d at least filled the grid correctly but the app informed me that ‘showier’ (having acquired more) was not close enough. Oh well.
I’m not happy with the ‘pick a number’ party trick but can’t see a better solution.
Thanks setter and Senf.
Favourites 8d ( lived above such a shop as a student, still an addict) and 15a although failing to spot this reverse lurker for a while despite having some of the building blocks left me with self-loathing mixed with penny- drop relief.
Thank goodness for Senf who explained over half the clues which were a total mystery to me. Of the few I solved 10a and 12a were the best and when seeing the finished puzzle did not think highly of any of the others as they were too obscure for me :, entirely my problem. In my rating of ********/** the two stars are for the two I liked.
Many thanks to Senf and admiration at his solving prowess and thanks to Zandio even if he is the obscurantist supreme.
Had my usual problems with this setter when it comes to surface reads and definitions but came through it OK although I had ‘sootier’ for 25a which worked for me.
Top two here were 21d and the Quickie pun.
Thanks to Zandio and to Senf for his hard work.
An enjoyable puzzle – took a while to find the soft underbelly, but then few problems apart from 13d. The checkers made it obvious but a bung-in I’m afraid. Like Rabbit Dave, I’d like to see an example!
COTD 12a, but 26a a close second.
Thanks to setter and Senf.
S II, 13d: The report is now complete in every particular/respect.
Very hard and lots to think about.
Completed unaided but what a struggle.
Certainly well into 5* time.
Cleverness throughout, incredible lurkers.
Many thanks, indeed, Zandio and Senf, especially as it was, in my view, ***** plus.
Thank you very much to Daisy (and others) for kind words yesterday. I lost my enthusiasm for commenting here after the great schism. I haven’t flounced or ‘thrown a wobbler’, and maybe after some time I may sneak my way back in. I miss the contributions of Marc and the others who were either asked to leave or chose to do so, and I continue to feel that the way he/they were treated was a massive overreaction.
All is well with me and mine, and I am very touched to have received that mention yesterday.
Glad you are ok Terence, I too think Mark is a great loss and I hope he still reads this blog so he knows he is missed.
How lovely to her from you again, Terence, your comments have been greatly missed.
Have you got around to considering offering a home to another friendly feline?
Hello Jane – I still miss Lola so much and have thought countless times of adopting from a nearby home for unwanted cats, but we are planning to embark on some major building work here and I think it is sensible to wait until that is completed.
Same here.
Glad to hear from both Terence and Steve . I’m sorry you aren’t commenting at present and miss Terence’s comments on cats and obscure items of oriental apparel and Steve’s gardening tips. I understand your position. Keep well and happy.
Miff’s departure was a sad day for all of us but I respect all of those who decline to comment now.
Add me to the list. You are all a great loss to the blog, and missed every day.
I thought perhaps you were so euphoric at Chelsea’s meteoric rise that you were on another planet Terence !
Steve Cowling! I know you still read the comments on here regularly. Come back, old chap – there’s no-one left to have some humorous/daft banter with! Hear from you soon, I hope.
How do you know?
He was a regular/enthusiastic contributer. I “know” by instinct – bound to still look on here regularly.
I never for one moment thought of you as a flouncer or a wobbler! But of course sometimes we do have to make a stand. Has MrsT taken you for any ‘lovely walks’ lately ? We went for one yesterday afternoon in search of sloes, of which there were squillions, now to get them into some gin. Nice to hear you are still here.
Lovely Daisy – I continue to be encouraged to go for lovely walks in the Surrey Hills; interspersed with visits to Stamford Bridge. Difficult to say which of the two is more exhausting.
I asked about you last week, Terence, and am glad to hear that you are all right, but I do miss your presence every day, as I do that of Steve’s and of others who have left us.
First opportunity to glance at the blog today – lovely to hear from both yourself & Steve & glad to know all’s well with you both. Add me to those who greatly miss both of your contributions. Reckon you’ll be ok with GP for the long term though you may struggle against Arsenal in the race for 2nd spot assuming Haarland City are home & hosed.
Good to get the update and I miss your suggested soundtracks.
I’m with you all the way Terence. I have started doing the crossword again and I read the comments every day. I’m still a bit pouty about Mark, I wish he could come back. Cheers all.
Same here for me too.
Hello, compiler here. Thanks for taking the trouble to solve and discuss. Regarding 4d: I don’t have a big red book to hand, as I’m on a pier (at Swanage for the blues festival) but on my phone Chambers lists ‘X room’ — “a room for storing things not in use”. I think of most of the rooms in my house as ‘X rooms’. Many thanks again, have a great weekend.
That was a lot of fun apart from SE where I was my own worst enemy. I tried to be too clever with 21d and settled on English fortified wine as synonym for dear in France (Bordeaux)! My 27a don’t flash! Not keen on 25a. As per RD 12a lurker appealed. Thank you Zandio and Senf.
Above I meant to say homophone not synonym – apologies.
Just back from taking Mrs B for the covid Booster so a bit late on parade.
Well it was certainly a difficut backpager ,agree with RD that some surfaces were a a bit iffy.
Thanks Senf for the parsing of 1a, some excellent cluing by our setter..
My last in, was 25a I put in ‘sootier’which I thought fitted the ‘fall’ of cover very well-never mind.
12a was a top draw lurker, favoutite was 11d which took me a while,9a was nicely misleading.
Going for a ***/***
Glad that I wasn’t alone in getting sooty, Beaver.
Not sure whether to be pleased to have completed it or annoyed by the sheer difficulty in understanding almost every clue!
Another day for the Toughie crowd who get two puzzles to enjoy and leave the rest of us bereft.
Not a puzzle to enjoy.
*****/*
Thx for the hints.
Found this quite tough but got there in the end with 15a and 25a the last in. 12a was my favourite.
Needed a few explanation for the bung-ins, 18d in particular which I still don’t get, unless the cycling is telling me to move the last letter to the front and then take the rear half. (I take it you can never take half from the middle of a word?).
Thanks all.
In 18d, the sequence of operations is important, you need to calculate half of a (numeric) score which gives a three letter word which the ‘cycling’ operation is then applied to.
Doh. I get it now. Thanks.
Finished without looking at the hints, but 1,13,14,25 and 26 had question marks around them initially , Senf clarified several but not ? 13 . Didn’t like 25 but chuckled at 22 and thought 21 very clever my COTD. Thanks to Zandio and Senf.
Terrific crossword! best one this week by far.
Took quite some time, and some of the clues were of toughie standard.
Particularly liked 17 and 19a, but for me the pick of the bunch was 18d.
Many thanks to the setter for such a great puzzle.
Found this Friday puzzle relatively gentle on my Thursday night, compared to some others of recent posting.
2*/4.5* for me today.
Favourites for me were 12a, 14a, 15a, 22a, 25a, 11d & 16d with winner today … 22a
I know … too many favourites, but so hard to pick when it was so good.
So many great clues today was hard to pick a top one.
Thanks to Zandio and Senf
Thank you Zandio, this was a cracker, even if I did put in “showier” without being able to justify it. I liked 19a, 26a, and 21d in particular. Thanks to Senf for explaining 25a, and I hope you enjoy thanksgiving. For the first time since we came here in 1964 there is no Harvest Supper thanks to our, well no, better not say. But the heart seems to have gone out of our congregation. Hey ho, Flu jabs tomorrow!
A bit late for any meaningful comment after all that has gone before, but I did enjoy the lurker at 12a. I tend not to plough through dictionaries trying to justify a solution or a clue; I assume the combination of setter, editor and proof solvers have done it for me. But I do like reading the threads from those that can be bothered to comment. Very stimulating.
My thanks to Zandio and Senf.
A cracking Friday puzzle from Z, best of the week by far. Great clues, a good/stiff challenge providing much enjoyment and a feeling of achievement on completion. Regarding the foregoing comments, I had no issues with the construction or parsing of any clue. Too many good ‘uns to pick a favourite. 4*/5*.
Needed an explanation for 1a. The leap in idea from square to nine is a step too far for my small brain and then to chop a letter off!!. Loved the enormous 12a inclusion. Always pleased when I can finish such an enjoyable crossword without out help even if I needed to come here for explanation of how the clues fit the answers. Seems back to front to me..
I found this quirky and difficult especially a couple in the NE 😳 ****/*** Favourites are 19 & 22a and 7d. Thanks to Senf and to Zandio 👍 It’s days like this that I am quite relieved not to be a pedant 😬
Like most I needed the hint to parse 1a. On the plus side I managed to parse everything else. Difficult but very satisfying to complete. Favourite was 21d which I managed to get even with my limited French. Thanks to Zandio and Senf.
Although I finally managed to finish this (for me) extremely challenging puzzle–thanks to two hints from Senf–I must say that I didn’t enjoy trying to unpick a number of the clues. But that is just me and my octogenarian angst that sometimes exhausts my patience. I really am, however, quite excited about today’s other prospects because Major League Baseball playoffs begin today, with four matches spread out across the country. One of my teams, the Atlanta Braves, has drawn a bye and doesn’t enter the fray until after the weekend’s games are resolved. Thanks to Zandio and Senf. 5* / 3*
It is very, very good to hear from Terence and Steve C.
Hear hear to your last sentence – I’m not really sure that the place will ever be quite the same again.
I agree.
Much too difficult for me – unless Silvanus is the setter I usually give the Friday crosswords a wide berth these days.
I jumped in having seen a couple of answers that made me laugh and kept going but not for very long.
Pig’s ears came to mind which really scuppered a couple of answers and after that I didn’t seem to get too far – not surprisingly how a few wrong answers mess things up – oh dear!
Thanks to Zandio for the crossword and to Senf for sorting out my muddles!!
Agree with everything said about our much missed former comrades. Not really felt as strongly about anything since John Neville was forced to leave Nottingham Playhouse in the 1960s. Apologies if that sounds over dramatic – pun intended. I think I must have been on the right wave length with this one, or my quirks matched those of Zandio. Completed without hints but some of my reasoning was dodgy. Favourites 17 19 and 22a and 3 11 16 and 18d. Of those 22a is my top. An honourable mention to 25a. Very clever. Thanks to setter and hinter.
Another vote of thanks to Zandio and Senf. Unusually for a **** difficulty puzzle i only needed prodding in the right direction twice by Senf’s helpful blog, and one, 23d, which I didn’t get at all. The puzzles I struggle with are usually the ** ones. Perhaps my brain is wired up oddly…
5/2.5. A DNF for me today. The SW corner totally eluded me. The rest was enjoyable and capped by my favourite 12a. Thanks to Zandio and Senf for explaining what I couldn’t fathom.
Fair and enjoyable crossword today. Particularly liked the well hidden lurkers at 13 and 15.
Agree with previous comments that it was good to hear from Terence and Steve Cowling again.
This website is really useful for help parsing “bung-ins”, and giving hints when I haven’t a clue.
But the real icing on the cake is the banter and “real-life” anecdotes.
Long may it continue.
Oops – thanks to Senf and Zandio.
Needed Senf’s hint for 23d then immediately twigged 25a which were my last 2 in. 4&7d were the 2 up north that caused a deal of head scratching – unfamiliar with this context of the former & the latter a total bung in having not broken down the clue correctly so failing to identify either definition requirement. All in all a bit of dog’s dinner of a solve but it was at the tricky end of the spectrum & I still don’t really understand the explanation at 1a – RD had to read it twice – I’ve read it thrice & none the wiser. The 15a reverse lurker was my fav.
Thanks to Z&S & great to have T&SC pop in.
In 1a ‘square’ is a clueing device we have seen before (at least I have); apologies for teaching granny to suck eggs, in this usage it is the arithmetical product of a quantity multiplied by itself. That is why in the hint I wrote ‘think of a number.’ The result of that thinking should be three and when ‘squared’ the answer (product) is nine. Then the first ‘N’ is removed – first off – and then what remains is followed by the synonym of class.
Got it. Thanks Senf. I wasn’t thinking of the right type of class.
Have been absent from the commenting for some time, in common with many others, I was rather put off by the fall out from “the episode”.
Good to hear from Terence and Steve C again, hope they’ll return on a regular basis.
Found this Zandio exercise a bit of a struggle, but got there in the end, thought it more of a Toughie really (but it is Friday after all).
Thanks to Zandio for the (hard) workout and Senf for the review.
I think that it is very clear now how much we miss Merusa, BusyLizzie, Terence, and Steve C–as well as others like yourself, Waldorf–and it would be almost like a godsend to have all of them back with us on a regular basis.
I agree- I would love them all to come back I miss them- not too many smiles without them. As for the crossword- well I’m a bit like Kath – I did give it a go and was pleased to get a few unaided and definitely needed Senf for extra help but I pressed too many reveals. Thanks to Zandio for the work out. I’m now reading Lucy Fowler The Paris Apartment and I’m really gripped by it.
I gave up after spending a long time achieving a handful of answers. Many thanks to Senf for all the hard work, but I have to admit that I found most of the hints as much of a mystery to me as the clues. Thanks also to Zandio but regrettably my poor brain is not up to his toughie standards.
I would join with all the above contributors, as like Kath above I feel Big Dave 44 will never be the same again.
For nearly two years it has been a source to me of great pleasure, interest, information – and fun and laughter. Since the sad loss of my husband a few months ago it has been one of the few bright lights in my day, but no longer. I still attempt the crossword and read the blog, but the bright light is no longer. Please come back all you lovely people, even if Terence has decided not to replace lovely Lola for the time being.
I rarely post on this site ToniHaha.
Please accept my sincere condolences for the loss of your husband.
I hope that you will continue to get comfort and consolation from the daily blog–and the odd smile as well.
4*/5*….
liked 12A “Carried by motorcar, pets wee periodically — cleaner needed! (6-7)”
amongst several others.
I’m some days adrift, stack of papers here.
As I completed this one, I wrote 4 stars by the grid and was pleased to see Senf concurred.
A real tough Friday, a challenge and a half.
I have missed the recent “aggro” on the site, which appears to have led to the departures of several solvers. Could anyone enlighten me ? I’d be grateful. I’m actually somewhat upset to hear of this.
Thanks all.