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And yes it was tough. When I do this online, setter's name does not appear, but I guessed who it was early on. And you are right Geeker - and it helps a lot.

Spot on with the Nina which, obviously, I completely missed.

Ilippu, I get your "good heavens.... " and know the answer like I said but, and how can I say this without a spoiler, there's only one R in Eliot.

Ugh, 5 in and I've stalled. Will have to come back to this later after the hangover has abated. Too enigmatic for me right now.

Was the mis-spelling of Guardian a dig at the august organ's editing, Brendan? :-)

Brendan

Can't see the R issue you are grappling with.

Ilippu, Eliot's first name only contains one R

Hi Plutocrat,

No, just a sign of how tired and disorientedI was after completing this ultra challenging puzzle.

Just about to start this (I shouldn’t have read the comments first!).

Does anyone know who the setter is for the “bonus jumbo puzzle”?

Brendan, a belated reply to your post #6. I found it a slog. I mainly had to guess an answer, then reverse engineer to see if it could fit the parsing.

For those of you struggling and/or feeling a bit downhearted as a result, it's worth keeping in mind that John Henderson aka Enigmatist, is also the editor and occasional setter of the Inquisitor in The i on Saturday as well as sometimes setting the Listener in the Times and the Toughie in the Telegraph.

I mention this because The Listener, Inquisitor and Enigmatic Variations (Telegraph) are collectively known as 'The Holy Trinity' and are considered by many, if not most solvers, to be the epitome of barred puzzles.

Hi Mattrom, that was pretty much the was I tackled it too.

Hi Brendan, is the bumper holiday nasty only in the print edition? Many thanks

Hi Samuipete, I believe the bonus jumbo puzzle is only available in the actual newspaper.

If anyone know differently please correct this asap. Thanks