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geeker

20th December 2025, 00:37
Based on some discussion from last week, I was expecting a holiday jumbo, but thanks to Philistine for a standard 15x15 Prize.

Mostly very gentle, but a few confusing clues kept it from the super-easy category. Spent a lot of time on 4, 6, 10 and 11. Pleased to notice a (topical) special feature! A few solutions hint at a related theme, but not clear to me yet.

Didn't care much for 24, but the rest was entertainingly clued.

FOI 1, which was a big help. LOI 11, for which the answer seems obvious but I can't nail down parsing.

COD 6, with 17d and 18 co-runners up. Also enjoyed 17a and 4.
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ilippu

20th December 2025, 00:50
11 is 2, 5
There is a message at bottom.
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geeker

20th December 2025, 00:52
Top and bottom.
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ilippu

20th December 2025, 00:52
Actually top and bottom. I was thrown off by stopping.
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geeker

20th December 2025, 00:56
Thanks, I should have googled the 5 (in 11), but thought I'd try getting through a Prize without resorting to search engine.
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swarbrules

20th December 2025, 01:04
7d

There is a word that needs a misprint in the clue or a word that I can't find in Chambers.
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geeker

20th December 2025, 01:13
7 seems all right to me. But I'm permissive about cluing.
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swarbrules

20th December 2025, 01:14
Re-read it. OK now.
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rainman

20th December 2025, 01:51
I've had a torrid time with the midweek puzzles so this was, relatively speaking, a pleasant relief. I'm a little puzzled by the Nina, since the whole phrase seems to be historical rather than topical, so why did Philistine put it in now? Of course, the last word on its own does, sadly, dominate politics on both sides of the Atlantic. Has the whole phrase been revived in a new context in UK politics, which, as an ex-pat, I could have missed? Or is there some anniversary?
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rainman

20th December 2025, 01:56
On a different, more pedantic note, I really liked 10a, except that the typographer seems to have got it wrong. Without wanting to give anything away, part of the clue is too small, isn't it? Perhaps, it's right in the printed edition.
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