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actonhighstreet

20th December 2025, 14:12
I agree with rogerm, I think "O lover" would have been perfect.
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chrise

20th December 2025, 15:12
Thanks all. I've got 24a now.
I think that Philistine is aiming for something like "Capital O lover", but I can't see that his clue gives this.
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chrise

20th December 2025, 15:13
...as ActonHighStreet said about an hour ago!
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rainman

20th December 2025, 15:23
Chris, I don't think it's that at all. The first word of 10a is the answer. Every single character after that, including the '-', is needed to get that answer. 'lOver' uses lift-and-separate to give 'l' for left, which is a reversal indicator in an across clue. So everything to the left of the final word is reversed, including the '-', and gives the first four letters of the answer. The rest of the final word just gives the final letter. Of course, this might be completely wrong, but I don't think it is.
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rainman

20th December 2025, 15:32
Just to be clear, when I complained about the typography last night @9, it was the '-' I was referring to. Technically, it gives the wrong two letters. I would agree that my explanation is tortuous, but if I am wrong, it's an extraordinary coincidence that it seems to fit.
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geeker

20th December 2025, 15:32
Agreed with quisling on the Capital parsing of 10.

I thought of that when trying to parse, as it's a parsimonious solution, but at the time couldn't reconcile it with the "over" part.
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jono

20th December 2025, 15:37
I see what Rainman is saying. “-“ as opposed to “–“ is critical.
Interesting that we have these different interpretations.
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rainman

20th December 2025, 15:39
Geeker, I presume our posts crossed, but I would be interested in your opinion of my parsing in @44, which is completely different. I must admit that, last night, I had assumed that everyone was parsing it this way, so my original post must have been quite confusing.
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jono

20th December 2025, 15:42
However, I don’t think that a lower case l (el)on its own (especially when it requires separation) is sufficient to indicate a reversal of what precedes it.
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quisling

20th December 2025, 15:43
Rainman, thanks for explaining. I finally see what you are getting at, if the apparent en dash was an em dash. It certainly is a bit tortuous, and I’m not sure capitalising the O would be necessary to indicate the last four letters were an indicator of just one letter. I think if that was intended, “Lover — or l over” might have worked better. Perhaps we’ll never know what was meant!
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