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geeker

15th November 2025, 00:31
Thanks to Kite for the weekly Prize.
No spoiler to say there's a topical theme.
Fun but definitely gentle IMO, perhaps a nice contrast to last week's impalement.

FOI 2, LOI 27 (which accounted for a good portion of the fairly short solving time).
COD 7. Also liked 6, (14,19), 5, and 25.

Quibble: there seems to be an indirect ("ghost") anagram, which is unusual and likely to raise eyebrows.
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rogerm

15th November 2025, 00:47
Pretty much the same experience as you, geeker, except that my FOI was 5, which immediately opened things up. LOI 27 - knew what it had to be, but had to come back to it after solving the thematics which required a bit of parse and check for me, as my knowledge of the theme should really be better by now.
To you CsOD, with which I agree, I’d add only 4, just because it was a Spoonerism that made me both groan and grin.
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geeker

15th November 2025, 00:57
Ditto on 27, roger. Though LOI, I had the solution in hand all along and parsing was the hitch.

Agreed as well on the Spoonerism, which I should have credited with COD potential. I almost always struggle with Rev. clues but was lucky to get this one quickly, which might account for the underrating.
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brendan

15th November 2025, 01:17
I didn't find this as easy as you guys but was helped enormously by the theme and "Google, please give me a list of all the major .... in ....," and the relatively high number of anagrams.

There are still 3 clues I've been unable to parse, namely 16a unless "too much" is a 2 letter acronym, in which case I have parsed it, 13a and 29a which I'm sure I have right but cannot see the wordplay?

COD: I liked 7d and 10a but think I'll go for the rather Paulinesque 17a.

Thanks to Kite for, at least to me, challenging but enjoyable puzzle.

Stay safe:-)
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rogerm

15th November 2025, 01:26
Hi Brendan
I think 16a is a 3-letter abbreviation around English with the Andalusian at the end. A slightly oddly constructed clue.
13a, which I liked, is a 3 (half a word) inside a reversed 5.
29a, which I didn’t really like, parses as 1,3,3
Hope that helps!
Rog
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geeker

15th November 2025, 01:27
brendan, in 16a the "*has* too much" is a 3-letter acronym, or rather 2-letter acronym followed by another letter. The insertion wordplay is tricky.
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ilippu

15th November 2025, 01:31
Thanks, Kite.

Engaging - theme didn't make it easier.

Likes incl: 4d, 5a, 6d,10a, 22d, 27a.
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brendan

15th November 2025, 01:39
Thanks Rog, thanks Geeker,

I saw 13a as soon as I posted and now, thanks to you guys, can see 16a.

However, still puzzled by 29a. Yes I can see the "king" and then a 3 letter abbr. for the "quuen's descendant" but still don't understand where the last 3 letters come from. The first could be "king" again, but no instruction to repeat so probably not, and the last a Roman numeral but what about the middle letter of the three?
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geeker

15th November 2025, 01:43
Brendan, in 29a the "queen's descendant" is (3,3)
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rogerm

15th November 2025, 01:46
Brendan
I think you are trying to reverse engineer the wrong theme word!
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