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Amazing what a break can do, finished very quickly .
FOI 10
LOI 15
COD some excellent clues but has to be 7 for me.
I usually avoid Vlad if he comes up in Guardian Weekly , never seem to be able to get on his wavelength but this was great and two new words 4 and 19.
Re 225 discussion agree this forum is very friendly and helpful, I use 225 to check on parsing and themes.

Hi, all. Strange puzzle for me. Half of them seemed too easy for Vlad, and the other half provided the usual impaling. I had several I could not parse last night, but in the light of day I saw them, the exception being 3. I was not even familiar with the term. We use a different second part. But if someone can point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it.

Hi Darla, the solution is an instruction to do something to the usual two letter abbreviation for the first word, thus creating hesitation

Commiserations, brendan. You may have jinxed them...or not, given the history you cited. 😭

Thanks, Jono. Clever. A little too clever for me I guess.

Morning all, I found my way here whilst seeking some inspiration for the solving of 10a....thank you to those who pointed me in the right direction! It was a devil of a clue and definitely my COD.

Vlad nearly got me on this one - it took a fair bit of what I call Staring At Squares (TM) to breach the wall of abstraction, but once I'd filled in the NW quadrant the letters started dropping into place.

19d my LOI....7d my LOL - plus a murmur of "Oh Vlad, you absolute "....which, I imagine, is exactly the kind of reaction our tormentors are seeking!

Cheers 😎

geeker
I would now like to reveal that I was Tees.
(Not really)

Hi Nikonian,

If I read you correctly, this is your first visit here, so welcome aboard 😄

HI Brendan - yes it is and thank you. I guess "reading things correctly" is why we're all here! 😂

Hi everyone

I haven't had chance to read this very long thread yet. As I mentioned last week, I didn't get much time yesterday to attempt the crossword as it was my husband's birthday and we were hosting an afternoon tea, which was very successful. They all went home at 6.00pm, but I was shattered (lots of cooking etc). Then I saw it was Vlad. One of my difficult setters like Brockwell. After the quick cryptic and a short nap, I read through all the clues, which confirmed my worst fears. I got one!

It has just started raining here again - so I may have another look this afternoon. I must read through the thread. I may or may not be back.