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geeker

21st February 2026, 01:04
Thanks to Imogen aka Vulcan for an entertaining Prize this week.

It's been a tough crossword week. Found the NW quadrant easy, then felt as if I was struggling, but it wound up a surprisingly quick solve, time well below Prize norm. Must have locked on to the proverbial bandwidth. Still not certain of parsing for 23, but all else in place. Several solutions were near write-ins but took a while to parse.

FOI 1d, LOI 22.
As often happens, the LOI 22 winds up COD. Also liked 13, 20 and 1a.
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rogerm

21st February 2026, 01:05
Well that was fun, and definitely a crossword of two halves. Some easy clues to provide a way in, but also some very clever, tricky surfaces and parsing to hold me up.
FOI 6, LOI 13.
COD? Many to choose from, but the naughtiness of 13 swings it for me.
Thanks Imogen for the entertainment.
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rogerm

21st February 2026, 01:06
Sorry, I meant 7 for the naughty COD. 13 was good though.
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rogerm

21st February 2026, 01:09
Hi Geeker
23 parses as 1,3, where the 3 is a 1,1,1.

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ilippu

21st February 2026, 01:09
Imoge, good stuff, thanks.

FOI - 1a, LOI - 21d

13d, COD.
Also liked: 1a, 10a, 12a,20a and 7d.

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ilippu

21st February 2026, 01:11
Imogen, of course.
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geeker

21st February 2026, 01:14
Thanks, roger. Not having a smartphone I often miss that 3 = 1,1,1.

The naughtiness of 7 surprised me. That's one I wrote in (from some crossers) and parsed a bit later.
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ilippu

21st February 2026, 01:15
22d was a jorum for me.
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rogerm

21st February 2026, 01:16
For me too, ilippu.
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brendan

21st February 2026, 01:35
Thanks to Imogen.

Like others, I found this mostly on the gentle side but a few tricky ones nonetheless.

Have never heard of 22d and even when I worked out the letters from the wordplay I still had to check it was an actual word because, let's face it, it doesn't look like one:-)

Still a few queries with regards wordplay...

13d - why "As" chemist and not just chemist?

Also, I can't parse 16d and 25a despite being sure of my answers.
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