Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Thanks to Philistine for an enjoyable Prize. FOI was 1a, so I thought it would go quickly, but then it was slow/steady. I found several clues quite difficult to parse, so it took a while to finish. LOI was 16, just after 25 (guessed them fairly easily, but parsing lagged). Many good clues, will go with the (21, 13) combo as co-COD. I'm not good at themes, can see two candidates, but not sufficiently confident to assert one.

Your experience echoed mine from Foi , Loi and rate of progress .I read somewhere that Philistine is a surgeon .His clueing is as precise as you would expect from a man from that profession .

Well I think we can take 2d as the theme in that it’s referred to in 4 and 24. Not very extensive use of a theme so maybe I have missed some elements or simply got it wrong.

My clue of the day is 1a just because it made me chuckle. 5a is clever and amusing but a bit 21a.
17d’s “reportedly” element is maybe a bit of a stretch, and perhaps works better in some accents than others but I still like it. 7d is a pleasingly old-fashioned word - maybe I will add it to my lexicon.

It took me a ridiculously long time to work out what “21” in 13d was referring to - trying to think of Roman numerals or something to do with card games. Duh!

An all-round pretty sound crossword I thought and not too difficult/frustrating. I agree definitely an enjoyable one.

Thanks for “hosting” the thread, Geeker. Wonder where Brendan is he’s usually quick off the mark.

Chrisxxxx, thanks for pointing out that Philistine is a surgeon. It's mentioned in his Guardian "Meet the setter" profile
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2013/jan/31/crossword-blog-meet-the-setter-philistine

That’s interesting Chrisxxxx @2
I very much appreciate precision! Am sure others here do too. Maybe I just became a fan of Philistine. Will seek out other xwords of his.

femmenoire, that's one of my candidate themes. But I see a possible medical one, considering 5a, 7, 1d, 17, 20 and 21. After learning that Philistine is a full-time surgeon, I consider the latter more likely. But I usually fail to grasp themes...

Yes a medical theme makes sense Or could be unintended just words that the setter came across and decided they would make good crossword words. I have never seen a setter post on this forum and tell us what was actually intended re themes etc or defend the structure of a clue maybe, but I would love it if they did!

Morning all,
Similar experience to others, made lots of early progress on first pass through the clues, then slowed down for a more tricky final few. Very enjoyable and something of a stroll in the park after last week’s prize.
Liked the precise use of small words such as ‘my’ and ‘us’. Can’t see any more theme than others have noted. I did enjoy the theme in yesterday’s offering from Picaroon.

Similar to the previous posters. I'm still stuck on one bit of parsing - where do the first and last letters of 16d come from?

I wondered about that Chris. I don't think they are clued as such, only that without them (unclothed) you get the word in the middle. Maybe someone can come up with something better