DT 30550

110 comments on “DT 30550”

1. Top notch Friday offering, best in a long while. Like many puzzles, the top half went in far quicker (or ‘far more quicker’, as always said by my mate Derek) than the bottom half.
   The answer to 17d had me straight back to 1972, lounging in front of the telly watching Bruce and Anthea in ‘The Generation Game’, no wonder my back plays me up now.
   Slight niggle though, thought 15 and 22d were a bit odd, in for smart? well maybe, I’ve no BRB to go on, so maybe it’s perfectly okay. Having said that, it in no way detracted from a totally entertaining puzzle. My two favourites today were 1a and the lovely 14a. Well done to our setter today, masterclass!

   1. I always start at the bottom! I assume the setter would be getting a bit bored by then and put in some easy ones! Probably incorrect but I fool myself into believing that.

2. 4*/1.5*. This was quite tough and a disappointing end for me to an otherwise excellent week of back-pagers with some contrived surfaces and stretched definitions. Also, the parsing of 12a seems rather loose as a different number of letters need to be cropped from each end of the fodder.

   The less said about the Quickie pun the better.

   Thanks to the setter and to Mr K.

   1. If you found it tough, there is no hopes for the likes of me.

3. I thought this was excellent, showcasing variety and style. The horribly stretched Quickie pun (I rather liked it) really did set the tone for this. I can quite see why RD hated it! I do think 27a’s a tad weak, 12a’s “twice” is unnecessary and that “mobile” in 4d is perhaps flirting with padding. But they’re minor quibbles and there’s much to like. 14a is smart, 18a made me smile and 17d is well done but 8d is delicious. Many thanks to the setter and Mr K.

4. Some of the solutions fell into place, leaving me to wonder ‘how did I get there?’
   9d must have been watching over me.
   As RD says some surfaces seemed somewhat contrived, but I found that my enjoyment was not diminished.
   And I even liked the Quickie pun.
   (Predictive text doesn’t understand ‘pun’ and offered ‘pub’ – I’ll have a quick one there)

   1. I felt like that “how did I get there” sums it up very well.

5. A very enjoyable ******** puzzle. Confused with 21A as I included A and K incorrectly as that seemed to fit. 25 was a head scratcher too. Well done setter.

   [Please read point 6 of the site’s Comment Etiquette regarding the quoting of solving times]

   1. I had the answer with A and K as well, seemed perfectly good to me…….

   2. Completely agree! I think yours is a much better answer.
      More generally, an enjoyable puzzle; many thanks.

6. A friendly Friday which makes a pleasant change from the usual tussle.

   There were certainly some questionable clues but the goodies more than made up for them. Zandio (?) is clearly a big fan of all things lurky whether it be forwards, backwards or alternate letters. He doesn’t often use RayT’s trademark acrostic technique which may be worth throwing every once in a while.

   I’m not sure I have seen the technique used in 22d before. I think it has legs. This is why I like Zandio as he tries something new which I applaud.

   My podium is 1a, 3d and 8d.

   Many thanks to the aforementioned and Mr K.

   2*/3*

7. Just popped in to see how this gnomic conglomeration of clues was deciphered and as well as that I find the quickie pun even worse than usual. Confirms Friday can never be Good.

   1. Great post, Corky! Love it! 👍

      1. Thanks Steve.

8. I rather enjoyed solving this in bed early this morning with a nice cuppa having got the day off following yet another Friday closure of the golf course. It was a quick grid fill but concur with our reviewer that the teasing out of some of the whys was a wee bit trickier. Crops twice in rotation seemed a somewhat bizarre reverse lurker indicator to me also & the with hope bit at 14a wasn’t the quickest penny drop. Plenty of ✅s on my page – 10,11,14,18&25a + 3,15&17d particular likes with 18a my pick of ‘em. Not sure the Quickie pun quite works but liked it nonetheless & 23a prompted me to research fount v font having always used the latter.
   Thanks to the setter & to Mr K

   1. Early in bed Huntsman? It’s taken me all day! I still don’t understand 21a frankly.

      1. I don’t know if you will see this post, Katharine, as I don’t look at the crossword until after dinner. Solution relates to something repeated several times e.g. “I’ve completed the back-pager 3 times running”…..or “in a row”.

9. 1a straight in so I’m 10a! A little more concentration required today along with some lateral thinking but nothing to make this a less than enjoyable experience ( unless you count the quickie pun – I’m in RD’s camp ) I liked the two lurkers at 11 and 12a though I had to remind myself to ‘ if in doubt……’ with 12a as I could not fully parse it. I’ll go for the truly cryptic, amusing clues for podium places today. 14a, 18a and 24a in no particular order. Thanks to our setter and MrK.

10. This took me longer than normal to finish, mainly because some of the parsing was quite tricky. I liked 1 and 18a, together with 3 and 8d. A sense of relief at the end, perhaps, rather than of satisfaction.

    Many thanks to our setter and Mr K.

11. A steady solve which would have been more challenging were it not for a good sprinkling of Oldies But Goodies which strongly suggests that this is a Zandio production – 3.5*/2.5*

    Smiles for 12a, 7d, and 17d.

    Thanks to Zandio, or whomsoever if it is not he, and thanks to Mr K.

12. Not quite a breeze because the South west held me up ‘ although why I’m not sure , having seen the answers. 24a puzzled me for a while and then suddenly I realized how clever it really was and it’s my COTD. Thanks to all .

13. Yet again this Friday a nice surprise as this was a joy to solve. Nice way to end the non-work week. Looking at some of the comments, seems most thought it was more difficult than normal. Funny how these puzzles hit others differently. For me this was 50% R&W with rest requiring a little head scratching, but all good.

    1.5*/4.5* for me

    Favourites include 10a, 14a, 24a, 3d & 15d — with winner hard to pick but I chose 10a
    The rest of the group all got smiles esp. 14a

    Thanks to Zandio(?) and Mr K. for hints/blog

14. Hello, compiler here. Thanks very much for taking the time to solve, analyse and discuss. Much appreciated. Have a good weekend, and maybe have a go at the Sunday Toughie? All the best.

    1. Hi Zandio – thanks for the puzzle, though it must be said I’ve enjoyed many of your other offerings considerably more! While the reverse lurker is clear, could you explain the “crops twice” element of 12a, please? It seems to have most of us scratching our heads.

       1. It crops both the front and the back of “Agrarian epoch”?

    2. I agree, great fun apart from Crops Twice? Could you explain perhaps.

15. Definitely not for me, I’d rate it *****/*. Many thanks to Mr K for putting me out of my misery.

    I’ve been having problems with the new site – kept refreshing the screen when I tried to access the puzzle, and now I’ve completed (well, copied in most of Mr K’s answers!) it’s doing the same when I try to ‘admire’ my completed puzzle. Not the first time this has happened – anyone else had this problem, or know the cause? I play on an iPad.

    1. I solve on a iPad too (digital paper) & use the old site to access the Sunday Toughie (which isn’t included in the digital edition for some reason). Can’t abide the new puzzles site so if you’re having issues with it I’d switch.

       1. I was forced onto the new site last year, and hated it, but by the time I realised that the old one was still available I’d got used to it, and now prefer it! But yes going back to the old one seems to be the only option when this glitch happens.

    2. I still use the old website – the one with the cyan colour-scheme. I only use the new site to play PlusWord!

    3. Hi if you are playing on an iPad , download the app. I was advised that by the techies and I’ve had no problems since. I do close the app each day , and if you want to use it on your phone , you need to logout. Other than that all the new website niggles that used to really snd are gone.

       1. Many thanks for the info Jenny, I hadn’t even realised there was an app. Have just downloaded it – now all I have to do is remember it’s there!

16. An odd one, this. Top half would have made Monday or Tuesday look challenging; bottom half required more thought & had a few head-scratching causes for delay. A fair number of odd surfaces, a few clues trying rather too hard, considerable verbosity; the 12a lurker was clear, the “crops twice” considerably less so. Cracking anagrams in 1a and 3d – lovely surfaces & very cleverly constructed clues. Podium for me to 14a, 16d & 19d, with 10a on their heels.

    2* / 3*

    Thank you Zandio and of course also to Mr K

17. Oh dear must be me, I thought it was the most straightforward Friday puzzle for ages apart from 12a whose answer was obvious but the clueing is just bizarre. My faves were 3d and esp 18a which was very clever.
    Great fun and not too taxing, just how I like them.
    **/*****
    Thx to all

    1. I agree with Brian — which is handy, because I’m short of time today. Thank you to Zandio and Mr K.

18. A thoroughly enjoyable puzzle. Like others I found a number of the clues easier to fill in than parse but all eventually unravelled themselves apart from 19D where I needed Mr K’s help to spot the explanation for the second n.
    I was tripped up en route by putting the wrong light in the second half 24a but once I had unpicked 15d I saw the error of my ways.
    My top three today were the amusing 14a, the anagram in 3d and the excellent reverse lurker in 16d.
    Thanks to Zandio and to Mr K.

19. Seems I’m on top form today as I completed without any holdups at all, much to my amazement considering it’s Friday. I too puzzled at crops twice so interested in a response from Zandio. I must say also the use of hugged by in 22d was a new one for me (or at least something I ve not noted before) , so will add to my list. Thanks Zandio for much enjoyment and Mr K.

20. I enjoyed this – thanks to Zandio and Mr K.
    My ticks went to 10a, 24a, 25a, 8d and 19d.

21. I thought this was going to be a stinker when on first pass I had only a few. I must then have found the correct wavelength as I managed to complete it but couldn’t parse 12a with the crops twice part.
    Top picks for me were 14a, 24a and 16d.
    Thanks to Zandio and Mr K.

22. A very good Friday puzzle from Z. Fine clues, a tad above average difficulty for me and an enjoyable solve for sure. Favourite of an excellent group: 9d. 3*/4*.

    * I don’t have a problem with 12a, but then I’ve always been a bit of a maverick and I like setters who are the same. It’s a bit unconventional and the purists won’t like it – but they are a small minority of solvers.

23. I found this tougher than other commentators, but once completed I did wonder why I made such heavy weather of it. Some of the parsing I found challenging, and I feel somewhat better seeing that others have been challenged as well, especially regarding 12a. That said, much to admire particularly 14a and 16a. Thanks to Zandio and Mr K.

24. Not the toughest of Friday offerings but meaty enough to cause some head scratching, particularly in south. Try as I might I can’t convince myself that 12a works as it should. Lots to like though 18a top of my podium for the misdirection with 1d and 22d for its inventive clueing runners up.
    Thanks to Zandio and MrK

25. I think the twice in 12a may refer to the fact that there are two hidden definitions of outside reversed in the clue: open-air and porch.

    1. Perhaps Zandio might help clarify?

    2. That’s certainly the way I parsed it but I still don’t think that “twice” is necessary!

       1. The fodder contains two separate reverse lurkers equivalent to the solution. What’s the problem with indicating that with “twice”?

          1. Hi, Jose. What’s the hidden answer indicator in that interpretation?

             1. I presume that “twice in rotation” is an indication that the fodder contains a reverse lurker twice. I’m not convinced that “porch” is really a direct synonym of “outside” – that’s another issue with the clue.

                1. For me, “FODDER in rotation” means the reversal of FODDER. I’d be fine with “DEFINITION in FODDER rotated”, “DEFINITION in rotation of FODDER”, and maybe, at a stretch, “DEFINITION in FODDER rotation” as indicating that the answer is hidden in the reversal of FODDER. But I cannot find a satisfactory parsing of the clue as written.

             2. * I’m now beginning to think it’s sheer coincidence that porch appears reversed in the clue and that Mark’s explanation (below) of “crops twice” is right. But that doesn’t quite work either. Maybe the clue is a good idea but is technically flawed?

                1. Yes.

    3. I thought ‘crops twice’ means we need to crop or chop off bits of ‘agrarian epoch’ twice, i.e. once after the second ‘a’ to crop off ‘agra’ and again after the ‘o’ to chop off ‘ch’. The BRB says that crop means ‘to cut off the top, ends, margins or loose parts of’. I am not 100% sure about placing the verb after what is to be cut off though.

       1. Perhaps it is meant to be the noun (i.e. “an end cut off”), but then I would have thought it would read ‘two crops of agrarian epoch in rotation outside’.

          1. Hi, Mark. If some form of crop is being used as a deletion indicator, then for a correct cryptic reading the construction would have to be “Agrarian epoch cropped” or “Crop agrarian epoch”. In addition, cryptic convention is that the number of characters to be deleted should be indicated, not arbitrary.

             1. It’s certainly a conundrum, Mr K. Your logic is impeccable. I still can only assume that Zandio meant for us to crop twice or it’s a reference to the second synonymous lurker. But neither explanation is entirely satisfactory. In one, the “twice” is vague and redundant, and in the second, crops would be serving double duty. That can’t be right either, surely? Hopefully, he will pop back to clarify.

                1. I think that if it’s agreed the intention is to highlight that there are two reverse lurkers, then “Agrarian epoch crops” contains the two lurkers, “twice in rotation” is the instruction to look for two reversed lurkers, with “outside” being the definition. However while “open-air” is unquestionably “outside”, I don’t think “porch” works so effectively as a synonym.

                   It’s a clever clue but I think uncharacteristically confusing in construction, hence the relatively large number of mystified comments!

                   1. HI, MG. Setting aside the “twice” for clarity, in my view “FODDER in rotation DEFINITION” does not indicate correctly that an answer equivalent to DEFINITION is found inside the reversal of FODDER. And I can’t come up with a sentence where porch and outside can be interchanged.

                      1. I think this is why the ‘crops twice’ is needed as there is no lurker indication. So, as Mark alluded to above, we need to crop both ends of Agrarian epoch’ to leave the fodder to be reversed (in rotation).

                         The clue is unorthodox but is structured so that the surface works (Agrarian cultivation, crops rotation etc.)

                         1. I’m not in the habit of suggestion alternative clues as setters can’t nail all 30 clues, week in week out. But, I think Zandio made it hard work for himself by choosing ‘agrarian epoch’.

                            I’ve had a quick think and worked out that ‘Queen Victoria. Nepotism’ and ‘Mass hysteria! Nepotism’ could be easier to clue. Maybe not.

                            Whadda I know!

                            1. Indeed Tom! Or perhaps ‘Aquarian Epoxy’?

                            2. Tom, all of those would have the word-break in the clue at the same place as the word-break (hyphen) in the answer. A lurker is better hidden when the answer word(s) span across different clue words.

                            3. I’m guessing that Z used “Agrarian epoch” to maintain the surface theme of agriculture/crop rotation throughout the clue.

                         2. P. That’s the best explanation I’ve seen and I think you are right. A bit unconventional, not one for the purists but everthing is there that is required to get the answer (which couldn’t be anything else) – what I would call acceptable/legitimate setter’s jiggery-pokery/rule bending. I am now back to having no problem with it.

                         3. Hi Philbert. Personally, I’m ok with the use of ‘agrarian epoch’ and imagine that Jose is right about ‘porch’ being irrelevant. As you say Zandio was, I imagine, creating an agricultural theme. The cryptic grammar is what makes it look like an obvious lurker, in my view. I suspect it might have read better as something like ‘two crops of agrarian epoch to be in rotation outside’ (although I’m sure Zandio could do better than that). I notice Mr K believes there is a convention that exactly how many letters are in each crop should be indicated, but I am not sure how that fits with what Prolixic says about heartless (i.e. “Heartless rogue might indicate either roué (the G being removed) or RE, the OGU being removed”).

                            1. Prolixic’s fine document also says “The number of letters to be selected should be clear from the clue. “Leader of school house” would not a sufficient instruction to take the S and H as the initial letters”.

                               It’s about being fair to the solver. “Heart of rogue” can be only two things, G or OGU. If the number of letters to be deleted is not specified the solver may have to consider an unreasonably large number of possibilities. Many possible letter combinations result if “Agrarian epoch cropped” can mean delete some characters from each end of “agrarian epoch”.

                            2. Thanks Mr K. I can see that describing S and H as the leader of ‘school’ would be unfair. The ‘leader’ in the singular is arguably just that, the first letter, and ‘H’ is not even the second letter of school. Although it perhaps becomes a bit more complicated when I see that Prolixic says “Indicators such as turning tail might indicate changing the order of the final two letters or a spinning head changing the order of first two letters”. In that case the singular ‘tail’ and ‘head’ are being used to denote two letters. I also notice that CL has used topless to indicate removing the first letter in an example across clue in his book whereas Prolixic disapproves (and I did a search and checked 10 DT clues using that device – all were down clues) and so maybe CL was only writing with helping the solver in mind. And some setters consider that regularly can indicate, say, every third letter. Anyway, if I were to have a go at setting something for rookie corner, the best thing to do is, as you say, to have the overriding principle in mind – be fair to the solver. For rookie corner, probably scrupulously fair.

             2. Thanks Mr K. Prolixic’s guide says that “Heartless rogue might indicate either roué (the G being removed) or RE, the OGU being removed”. This led me to think that how much to chop off an ‘end deletion clue’ might also be left to the solver to decide. In a similar vein, clues can sometimes tell solvers to change, say, the lead letter of a word without saying what to. I wonder what is the extent of the convention that the number of characters to be deleted should be indicated?

                1. Of course, PB! That old chestnut.

                   What was I thinking.

                   1. Hi Smylers

                      I assume it’s okay to have a lurker with the same word break as it’s still a lurker or is it a no-no?

                      Admittedly, it isn’t so lurky but I’m assuming it’s allowed?

                      I just think that using a not oft-used expression made it extremely obvious that it was a lurker as opposed to, say, ‘Queen Victoria. Nepotism’ with the same word break.

    4. I posted my comment at 14# before I read all of this post. Interesting.

    5. Hello, compiler here. Sorry not to have responded to this discussion — I’ve been busy all weekend, and in fact I only have two minutes now (Sunday lunchtime). The conversation on the blog inevitably moves on to the next day’s puzzles, which is a shame because I often see comments I would have liked to follow up. This puzzle is yesterday’s news now, but if anyone is still interested, I’ll try to reply either late tonight or on Tuesday.

       1. Definitely still interested!

       2. Yesterdays crossword – todays fish and chips wrappper! but the Elf and Safety Wombles won’t allow newsprint to be recycled in that manner anymore😲

       3. Hello ALP, hi SJB
          I suspect you are the only ones who’ll read this but anyway, here goes…
          Thank you for all the interest in 12a, ‘Agrarian epoch crops twice in rotation outside (4-3)’.
          There’s a short answer and a long answer.
          The short answer is the one given by Steve Cowling: it crops both the front and the back of ‘Agrarian epoch’.
          Of course, that doesn’t address the following issues:
          1. Can ‘to crop’ be intransitive?
          2. If the answer is yes, then can ‘X crops twice’ indicate a hidden or lurker?
          3. Subsidiary question: can lurker fodder break where the answer breaks (as in some suggested alternatives)?
          4. If a clue breaks accepted crossword conventions, can it still be fair?
          To address the last question first: as there are no official rules, I guess it’s up to the crossword editor — but of course he or she has to keep the solver on side.
          In the Telegraph, the Puzzles Editor, Chris Lancaster, sets the rules.
          When Chris edited this puzzle, he made no comment on 12a. He told me which clues he liked best (11 Squeamish, 25 Henna, 2 Nipped, 3 Guy Fawkes Night, and the Quick pun) and he suggested a small tweak to 1a, to change ‘converts’ to ‘convert’, because the definition should not be active on the wordplay (good move).
          As it happens, Chris’s rules are almost exactly the same rules I used to follow as Telegraph Puzzles Editor.
          I edited about 6,000 Telegraph cryptics. In my last two years in the job, Chris helped me with editing the Toughie, and when Chris took over I did the same for him for a couple of years.
          Luckily, you couldn’t put a cigarette paper between our ideas of what is fair. Chris now has a deputy, Michael Baker, who takes care of the weekday Toughies and may bring his own interpretation to the rules.
          Most of my views of what is fair are just common sense, and no doubt they would match the conventions that Prolixic has taken the trouble to compile. But I also brought in ‘rules’ on the Telegraph that are not widely used elsewhere.
          For instance, I would not allow an abbreviation to be chucked into an anagram without an insertion indicator. I also had an aversion to the supposedly invisible ‘a’ or ‘the’ or ‘to’.
          I’m a huge admirer of Don Manley (Giovanni) and I learned a lot from Don in my early days, but there are things in Don’s excellent Chambers Crossword Manual that I wouldn’t allow. Ditto Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword.
          I would hope that our extra ‘rules’ made the Telegraph cryptics the fairest of them all.
          So, would I have allowed this clue for ‘Open-air’?
          To answer question 1, Chambers gives only one intransitive meaning of ‘crop’ (to produce a crop). So we really shouldn’t allow it to be intransitive.
          However, we commonly say that a picture will crop (e.g. “Our website shows you how your picture will crop”). It’s a phrase I’ve used since the 1970s, editing pages on the NME and many publications since.
          So to be honest I think I would allow it.
          Question 2: can ‘X crops twice’ indicate a lurker? If ‘X crops’ is used as a normal deletion indicator, I wouldn’t allow it if it did not indicate front or back, and I wouldn’t be impressed by deleting more than one character even if the number of characters was indicated. But here it’s a lurker indicator, and it feels OK to me. ‘Crop’ means ‘to cut short’, so ‘X crops twice’ sounds like half the word has gone, rather than just a letter at each end.
          Maybe that’s a vague reason coming from a crossword pedant, but as a lurker it works for me. Presumably Chris saw it that way, too.
          Even a small tweak at the editing stage is a hassle, so the setter shouldn’t ‘take a punt’ on whether a clue works. I didn’t see this clue as iffy, but I can see why you might!
          On the subject of breaking a lurker at the point where the answer breaks, I would say you could get away with that in a reversal. I try to avoid breaking anything the way it breaks in the answer — but sometimes it can give you a great clue, so never say ‘never’.
          Thanks again for the interesting debate. See you next time…
          Zandio (Phil McNeill)

          1. That is a very interesting read, thanks for that. I hope ALP spots it before his trip to Budapest

          2. Thank you so much for the very detailed feedback and explanation Zandio – “above and beyond the call” to respond so fulsomely as a setter, let alone a distinguished ex-Ed!

             So ‘porch’ was unintentional, then, an unintended bonus lurker? I don’t recall encountering ‘crop’ in the way you cite (industry slang?), but if standard usage then fair’s fair. The uneven cropping does jar somewhat, and there’s a question as to whether deletions are required for lurkers (in either direction) anyway, but this isn’t of course a standard lurker and, as it stands, the surface needs the “crops twice” or similar and would otherwise have required substantial re-working and changed the clue entirely.

             Thank you once again, and I for one very much look forward to your next puzzle.

          3. I can but echo SJB and MG in thanking you for this very generous and helpful explanation – fascinating glimpse into your brain. I thought you’d forgotten us! Huge thanks for not doing so. I’m already looking eagerly forward to your next one.

          4. Very interesting indeed. I had to read it twice to understand it mind.
             Thanks for taking the time & trouble to respond in such detail.

          5. Thanks for taking the time to explain in detail what you had in mind when creating that clue. Very much appreciated.

          6. Thank you so much for taking the time to write that, Zandio — that was really interesting to read.

26. Didn’t have chance to look at this until after lunch and, to be honest, I rather wish I hadn’t bothered with it at all. My page is littered with ‘hmms’ and ‘ poor surface read’ notes which had to mark this as being the work of Zandio. Apologies to him for my non-appreciation and thanks to Mr K for the review.

27. Interesting puzzle that was fun to complete. Thanks to all.

28. Blimey@#%*&!!!

    1. Have a swim, Merusa. All will be better after it? 😘

29. For once I’m one who found this as straightforward as they come, certainly not always the case. Most enjoyable though. Favourite was 8d. Thanks to Zandio and Mr. K.

30. A tricky Friday puzzle, agree with Mr K regarding the time consuming parsing,particularly the SE quadrant.
    Favourite was 14a followed by 19d.
    Going for a ****/**,not sure what to mke of the Quickie.

31. Some neat double definitions and a good reverse lurker but somehow this challenge lacked humour which is unusual for a Zandio production. Thank you Mr K

32. 18a was my favourite and also the last one in. Normally I find some of the ones I struggle with are a bit iffy, but this one was good and I had been barking totally up the wrong tree.

33. Not for me this Friday offering.

34. Certainly a mind-stretcher.
    Completed with just a few
    To parse.
    Rarely been challenged by
    Such variety and novelty
    Thanks Zandio and M K

35. Today’s puzzle was one of two halves. The top went in quite easily except for parsing 12a accurately! I rather ‘bunged in’ the answer to 15d. I didn’t have a problem with inserting ‘audi’ but allowed the checking letters to solve it for me. I dithered over 21a and after checking the hints I can see why. Like some of my fellow commenters I thought it was going to ‘ranking’. Many thanks to Zandio for the challenge and to Mr K. Missed your pictures today but not surprised you had run out of time!! Have a nice weekend everyone.
    PS I haven’t noticed comments from Chriscross, Daisygirl or Medusa. I hope they are all well?

36. The old site was down first thing so only got to this at lunchtime.
    Enjoyed it but lots of parsing questions, so v many thanks to MrK. Particularly as he pointed out that 26a was a girl and not a girl’s name – no wonder it wouldn’t parse, even though the city was obvious!
    Thanks to Zandio and double thanks to MrK.

37. A little longer than usual. 14a was probably my favourite. 24a took a while. 9d was last to drop, but it was funny.

38. I thought this was a shocker. Difficult without being rewarding, I found absolutely no joy in this at all. I found it tiresome especially given some of the recent early week offerings. Enjoyment would be a minus star

    1. You’ve used a different alias so this comment need moderation. Both your alaiases will work from now on.

    2. With you all the way!!

39. I didn’t find this fun or enjoyable. I really must learn not to waste my paper and ink on Fridays. To be honest, I am short on patience today, as like most Fridays I don’t get a chance to tackle the puzzle until midafternoon, by which time I am too aware that the clock is ticking and chores await. Sometimes Fridays can be worth the effort, but this was definitely not my cup of tea. Never mind, Saturday awaits. Thanks anyway to Zandio and Mr K.

    PS This is the second time Mr K has referred to pictures, and yet I don’t see any with the hints? Is it just me?

    1. There are no pics, as Mr K says in his first line. I guess he copied and pasted his standard second paragraph but forgot to delete the bit about photos this time.

40. Managed to solve three quarters of this and had to resort to revealing the answers.

    18a involves knowing one of the cheeses that smell of sweaty feet. The picture from Google makes it look like zombie cheese.

    I would like to see the setter come here to explain clues like 12a. It can only help us improve our solving.

    Can’t say I enjoyed what I did solve bar 9d.

    Thanks to all.

41. I finished this before we went out and rather enjoyed it, like others I was not sure how to parse 12a, I liked the anagrams and 9d.

    Many thanks to Zandio and to Mr K for the hints

42. Oh dear – Friday again. I should know better than to try. Gave up after six clues.

43. That was a corker and no mistake! I got there in the end albeit with a couple of Mr. K’s excellent hints. Started it this morning over coffee after chewing the fat with the other Naughty Boys at the village shop. I finished over a pub lunch before going to visit Mrs. C.

    I did like the dig at a certain erstwhile member of the Royal Family but my COTD is the fantastic lurker at 1a.

    Many TAs to the setter for the challenge. I do like one that turns the rack up a notch occasionally. Thank you, Mr. K for the hints.

    1. Steve the above wording suggests to me Mrs C is not at home with you again, I am sorry if that is the case, apologies if I missed you telling us. Best wishes to you both.

    2. Is Mrs C back in hospital, Steve? If so, I’m very sorry to hear that.
       I’m struggling very much with the crossword and have only got 3 answers so far.

    3. Hi MTF and SBS,
       Yes, Mrs. C. is back in hospital. She had a fall and had to wait on a the quarry tired floor of the kitchen for about 9 hours before the ambulance arrived. All the neighbours were out (there are only five other dwellings) and I can’t lift her, unfortunately. The last time I tried, I cracked a lumbar vertebra – osteoporosis.

       Thank you for your good wishes.

       1. Sorry to hear about Mrs C Steve. I’m a bit out of touch as I only visit the blog briefly and sporadically due to the fact that my other half has been in hospital for 12 weeks now. Hope she recovers soon.

44. ***/*** for me. Needed some head scratching but got there in the end. Several favourites but I’ll pick 24a as top. Thanks to Zandio and Mr K.

45. I had two goes at this earlier today (yesterday) but still had a lot missing however a return in this early hour produced some clearer thinking and hey presto. I do have to say that overall it was somewhat of a slog. I am with the French on time for course in 18a. I will resist listing clues I found iffy for various reasons. Thank you Zandio and MrK. And so to bed….🥱😴.

46. I can only assume this was the original draft before it was returned for correction but somehow got used by mistake.

47. 3*/4* …
    Liked 14A “Toy with hope for hangman’s intended victim ? (8,4)”
    Thought the quickie pun was quite good.

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