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Xwordfan @29 no sorry no prizes yet. See https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/series/prize for info.

This week’s Prize was frankly a bit of a slog for me and I would never have got beyond a handful of answers if it wasn’t for this forum - thanks to all for the hints.

On the whole, not my cup of tea unfortunately, although 24a made me smile, which seems appropriate!, 10a is fairly pleasing, and 14a is kind of neat.

The use of “in” in 1a and 26a is confusing and, for me, rather annoying. In seems to be there to create a good surface, but in both cases the clue itself is left wanting.
I would be interested to know what others think about this

And thanks Chrise for the italics, bold, underline info!

- really want to see if it works!!

He FemmeNoire,

I know what you mean and it can be very confusing. I'm never entirely sure if these small words form part of the wordplay or if they're, as you say, just there to improve the surface reading of the clue.

It seems pretty much everyone found this to be on the difficult side.

PS 24a made me 😃 too 😉

😁😎

Hi Femmenoire, I know what you mean regarding the use of ‘in’.
With 1a, ‘in’ should really be ‘is’ or ‘resulting in’ for a strictly Ximinean clue, and as you say is there for the surface.
I have less problem with it’s use in 26a where the meaning is more along the lines of ‘to be found in...’ which I think works ok.

Jono thank you that is an excellent point - “the meaning is to be found in” is the key that I had missed in 24a.

foi 17a, loi 8d, i made this crossword overly complicated by entering 5a the wrong way round, it took far too long to recognise my mistake.

Hi everyone

Started late as usual and finding it hard even with the help from this forum. My FOI was 1ac, so I was hopeful I'd find it easy. Not feeling 5ac then, but getting more so. Some clues are easy, but others are fiendishly complicated. I think I have the second word for 12,6d, but am not sure of the first word yet. I shall now attempt to work out the anagram for 5d.

I think 22d is misleading by having an "s" on the end of drug.

Can I have a hint please for 20ac. I only have the last letter.

What is the definition for 9ac. I'm not sure I've got 4d right as I can't parse it.

I'll be back soon to re-read the thread and see which ones I can solve with its hints.

20a splits up 4,2,6
9a is something on cans
4d shape is a verb

Hi Roof,

20a - 4 letter "fault" + 2 letter "check" + 6 letter "pilot" - definition is "number two".

9a - definition is "can feature" - 4 letter "token of love" + 4 letter "attraction".

4d - Single letter "second" + 3 letter "split" around 2 letter "album" - definition is "shape" as a verb.