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Like; Paul 4, Jon 5
SW 7 (how are you stranger and how’s Skye?), Fj13,
and Aristo 23
Turkey voting for Xmas perhaps? Jafo 22

Due to sloth and indolence on my part it seems I can send this to overtime. My shortlist was paulh 4, mathprof 21 and paul 30, and, since who doesn't like overtime, I will go with paul 30,. Perhaps spike can send it to penalty kicks.

Sorry for the delay, having all sorts of problems due to medication.

Thanks to all for participating.

1 vote for PaulH #4, Skyewalker #7, Buddy #14 and Tyke51 #17.
2 votes for Jono #5 and KT17 #9.

4 votes for Jafo #22 and Paul #30. To break the tie, I have gone by mentions.
So, the winner this week is Paul #30 for..
Reduce staff recruitment during slump (6)

Well done, Paul and commiserations to Jafo, a great clue also.

I'm afraid to say that the prize will have to be awarded tomorrow. Apologies, Paul.

Hi spike, I am sure I speak for everyone when I say I hope you keep well and healthy. Great job in hosting.

Congrats to Paul and thanks to those that voted for me, without checking I think it was fj ,the two pauls. chrise and skyewalker, who I have never ran into before but fab moniker. I can see from the comments you are an old hand.

Stay strong spike.

Congrats Paul and thank you Spike for an interesting challenge.
‘Suburbs’ (jafo) and ‘salad’ (kt) were nice, they’ve made it in to my notebook ;-)
Cheers to Tyke, Faiton, PaulH, jws, Prof, Spike, Paul for mentions/votes etc.

Well done Paul. I'm pleased to have picked the winner (even if I didn't do at all well myself this week!)
Bad luck Jafo. Your clue was great, although it took me a bit longer to parse.
Thanks for hosting Spike. Hope you are feeling better tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for the votes and likes and to Spike for the word and the officiation.
I feel honoured to perhaps be the first person to be charged with setting three competitions in a single week - will be busy!

Well done Paul - bad luck Jafo! Thanks Spike for hosting a good competition - look after yourself ... thanks to KT17 for your vote and Faiton for a mention - very much appreciated!

Well done on taking out the trifecta, Paul! You'll be suffering from clue setting deprivation next week.
Commiserations to Jafo. I liked your clue, but thought it needed another containment indicator to put the 'hr in' in 'sk'?
I appreciated the mentions from Chrise, Paulh and Granama.
Thanks for hosting, Spike. I hope you keep well.

@Jafo - on reading your post I thought that i had accepted the triple crown erroneously but turns out we both got 5 votes! Thought yours was excellent though.