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1d. is a four letter word for want reversed around a single letter for Charlie. Then another single letter abbreviation not given in either Chambers or Collins…

…however, it is given in the ODE with a very specific reference to its use in designating sports clubs, they even cite “Mansfield” as an example.

Thanks Brendan. I've even been to 16d!

Hi Neville,

1d - 4 leeter "want" reversed/'round' goes around "Charlie" then finally, although Chambers doesn't give this, I presume the last letter is an abbr. for "town"

5a - 2 letter "Corporate body" (a specific one recently involved in a massive scandal and resulting enquiry) then an anagram of a word in the clue around "start of enquiry" - definition is "revealing these" what I and many others think several of the witnesses did which will hopefully result in perjury charges.

Hi Rocky,

I have absolutely no problem with 18a but was referring more generally to where people just love wallowing in invented victimhood and, as a consequence, go out of their way to find offence in the most innocuous of comments or forms of address.

Jono @41 - thanks for the clarification:-)

Probably the reason why 5a did not float my boat was because I knew nothing about that corporate scandal. Having just googled it I realise what a good clue that is now.

A good challenge today, I thought - still a couple to fully parse. I don't think there's anything wrong with 18a, the conflation of "Punjabi" with "Sikh" might be statistically inaccurate but I wouldn't call it offensive. It's no worse than the equally inaccurate use of "Ulster" for NI, which pops up regularly in cryptics.

Thanks Brendan and Jono - like rocky7 I hadn't heard of the scandal in question

No-one else seems to be having trouble with the parsing of 15d. Just me? I get that the last 3 letters correspond to a word in the clue, and 4 (overlapping) letters also do. And i guess the whole thing is a blokey banter way of referring to someone stereotypically suspicious of younger women. But it doesn't seem very precise.

Hi Castafiore,

15d - 4 letter "so" goes around "young woman on the internet" which is 1,4 (with 'on the internet' giving you the 1) - the definition is who might get suspicious of you spent all that time with a young woman on the internet.