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My solving experience for this week's Prize by Tramp was decidedly odd, in that, some of the answers were virtual write-ins while I found others to be utterly perplexing.

Case in point 6d and 19d where I'm pretty sure of my answers but just cannot see the wordplay. Posting my tales of woe often has causes me to have a PDM so, hopefully, that will be the case here.

If you do get stuck there are at least two long anagrams in the acrosses.

Some of the definitions are extremely well hidden so you will need to think way, way outside the box this week.

COD - I really liked 23a, 15d, 16d and 22d but my favs were the ooh er 4d and 14a,24a for it's brilliant definition:-)

Thanks to Tramp for a fun, witty and challenging Prize puzzle.

Stay safe:-)

Okay, I think I see the wordplay in both 6d and 19d but it wasn't the Eureka moment I was hoping for, more a ... "well, that must be it" 🤔

Brendan,

My experience was similar to yours. Maybe not as many virtual write-ins, but many perplexing head-scratchers. "Way, way outside the box" indeed!
Thanks to Tramp, one of the setters I find especially difficult, for an extremely witty and challenging puzzle! Couple of naughty entries of the kind we expect from a certain frequent Prize setter.

I have no idea of the parsing for 19, which is one reason why I didn't want to start the thread. 🤣 My vague and not really satisfactory parsing of 6 is a three-letter "hole" surrounding 2 single letters.

FOI 21. LOI (in grid) 13, though 19 remains unparsed.
Too many good clues to list!
Co-COD 20, 16, 26 and 17. (14,24) gets mention for the sheer challenge.

Hi Geeker,

I parsed 6d the same as you and Chambers does give "hole (in a .....)" as one of the definitions for the outside letters.

19d - I think it's 2 letter "for" reversed/"up" + 3 letter "dawn" + "island" but I'm not at all convinced so let's hope the some Forum members can do better:-)

Thanks for the link on the chess thread, I really enjoyed it but I couldn't understand why White's final move was Re5+ and not Rf4+ - both give a discovered check from the Bishop but the latter picks up the Queen?

Sorry, 19d - 3 letter "dawn on" ...

Brendan, sorry for the chess digression, but picking up the Q with 33.Rf4+ would not be enough, as White previously sac'd both a R and the Q!
33.Re5+ leads to mate after (ignoring futile Black interpositions on b1-h7 diagonal) 33....Kf7 34. Re7+ Kg8 35. Nh6+ Kh8 36. Rh7#.
Giri's resignation sadly denied Duda the chance to demonstrate this on the board.

If (like me) you failed to spot the hidden snakes and ladders in last week’s puzzle by Brendan, take a look at the blog over on 225

I'm happy with 6d, but have little idea for 7 or 19. It's really surprising how many matches wordsearches find for 19!

Shouldn't 2d be "borders" rather than "border"?

Hi Chris,
7d is one letter ‘sun’ + three letters ‘journalists’, with one letter ‘over’ + three letters ‘great‘ inside.

I can’t do any better than Brendan’s suggestion for 19d. I can just about think of some usages where the first two letters reversed would be a synonym for ‘for’ but it’s a stretch.

Agree with you re 2.

Thanks jono
7d is rather good, in fact, but, if the most obvious answer is right for 19, it has lots of looseness in a short clue!