Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Absolute beast of a Prize from Vlad, and I predict a high number of DNF's.

There a still a few clues I haven't fully parsed but I'm pretty sure they're all correct.

I have a query with 25a in that there appears to be either a letter too few or one too many depending on how you read the clue.

COD: I quite like 18a, although in these times of cultural sensitivity I'm not sure if it's PC.

Let us know how you got on. Did you find it as impenetrable as me or was I just not on Vlad's wavelength?

Stay safe:-)

I'm going to change my COD to 17a.

It was one of those I hadn't properly parsed but, now I have, it's an absolute doozy!

Still on the subject of parsing, I can't see where the 2nd letter of 19d comes from and as for 24d, I know my answer is correct because of the letter pattern and definition and I'm pretty sure the parsing needs to split, but into what I don't know.

Hi Brendan.
Thanks to Vlad.
I found this difficult, but not so much as to call it a beast.
On first pass it looked nearly impossible and I almost quit. Never got on the wavelength, but eventually made steady progress. FOI 8. LOI 3, though 1d accounted for most of the delay.

Didn't post anything earlier because I can't parse 10. Wrote in a likely solution but it only parses halfway. A few other parsings don't feel exactly right yet.

I think 25 is OK. It's an anagram of "Alpert releasing record" plus two words in the clue.

My co-COD are 18 and 17. 7 is just behind, and I also liked 15.

24d parses as a 6 letter word for "clear" with first and last letters removed ("content to clear").

Did not find this too tough, although The Impaler is often at the mote challenging end.

Thanks Geeker, for 25a I inexpicably added an S to the first of those 2 words you refer to, meaning I ended up with 2.

Regards 24d, I have no excuse - I thought of exactly what you explained but was convinced that word meant something else (a word ending ET that is a type of armament)

10a is also one of those I haven't fully parsed.

Amazed you got 1a!

Brendan, I had to look up my answer to 1a on Google before writing it in. The solution isn't hard: the anagrist is clear and the second word comes to mind almost immediately. But the phrase was a "NHO" as they say on 225 and in Guardian comments. :-)

Actually, reading through this again I don't know why I to mean I thought it was so difficult - I hope I didn't put anyone off.

The only clue I still haven't parsed is the aforementioned 10a.

It can be read to mean 'check whether I'm royalty' referencing a picure he recently posted of himself, but that can't be it because one of the letters would have to be the king's name, and that doesn't fit, plus it ignores 'rejected' so that can be dismissed.

Thanks Vlad.

Superb.
Had to work hard.
18a top favorite, followed by 17d, 11a and 1a.

I know 3 is a small sample size but we all give 18a and 17d as our CODs - now that's what I call a consensus;-)