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A busy day helping a friend prepare to move house (from Norwich to Chester area - she's sold but still seeking the new house!) means I'm late joining in although I finished this this morning. Largely enjoyable, FOI 9A quickly followed by 10a and I thought 'have I stumbled on the quiptic by mistake', but soon desired down drastically. LOI of course 13d, had the first word half-remembered and a tolerant non-Google search engine corrected it for me! Not my favourite clue ever, disappointing in what was largely a very satisfying puzzle, with a number of COD contenders (probably 1a at the top of the list)

Looking forward to a special next weekend... See you all then, take care and best wishes

Got it, thanks Jono.

Hi Luko, that 13d seems to have caught nearly all of us out:-)

Hi all. Late to this today and agree it was tricky in parts.
Stuck on last 2 - 20D & 23a.

For COD, I'll go for 14A which raised a smile

Hi Barry,

20d - 7 letter type of "baked goods" with the S(econd) replaced by R(un) - definition is "celebrations"

23a - Is a double definition - a type of "shark" and also a member of a profession referred to as "angel"

Did that while watching the football yesterday afternoon in what turned out to be the vain hope that Leicester would qualify for the Champions League.

I don't think anyone could have solved 13d from the clue alone. I'm a tennis fan and knew that Andy Murray used this in his training regime - and there's a studio in our High St - so got it fairly easily. I wondered about a better clue and came up with "A big army, OK? That's exercise sorted" but expect others could do better.

On the subject of anagrams, hadn't we something similar to Eric Clapton with Enid Blyton recently?

Will4jan yes the Enid Blyton one was tiny blonde in Everyman 3875. Very pleasing, as is the Eric Clapton one.

1a I have to object to the juxtaposition of scab and snack. Most “unsavoury”!

16 the misdirect of “round” threw me for a while before managed to to see past it - looked like one word should be placed round another.

Many lovely clues today.
Thanks for the virtual camaraderie which makes these crosswords so much more fun.
All the best to all

Would someone please tell a newbie what is meant by FOI LOI COD ?

First one in;
last one in;
Clue of the day

Hi MikeCh,
A perfectly reasonable question…
FOI - First One In
LOI - Last One In
COD - Clue Of (the) Day

There are more such acronyms, I have list somewhere which helped me…

FOI - First One In
LOI - Last One In
COD - Clue Of the Day
DD - Double Definition
CD - Cryptic definition
PDM - Penny Drop Moment
DBE - Definition By Example
Anagrind - Anagram Indicator
Anagrist - Anagram fodder
Nina - hidden message
TILT - Thing(s) I Learned Today
Tichy - Tongue in cheek
DNF - Did Not Finish
BRB - Big Red Book (Chambers Dictionary)
CAD - Clue-As-Definition. Also known as “&Lit” (and literally)
WIA - Wordplay in answer (also known as a reverse clue)
225 - The fifteensquared blog