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Hymen,Just Sent It In,Must Be Easy, This Time.Just Thought I'd See How You Were All Getting On.Saw Comments And Thought I Had Done A Different Crossword!.Won It A Few Months Ago When Prize Was Still £100.I Know How The Winner Is (Or Was, Perhaps) Chosen And I'm Not Suprised That You Have Been Doing It For Some Time And Never Won.A Little Bird Tells Me That There Are Roughly 1500 Entries Each Time.Having Won Once, I Don't Expect To Win Again, either In The Near Or Distant Future!.I Still Send It In,Just For Fun,But Just Add A Silly Name,The Last Time I Signed It "Some Hells Angels".If Your Hoping To Impress Your Family, Friends,Or Anyone Bored Enough To Listen. Because You Think Seeing Your Name In The EYE Has A Certain Kudos, Don't Hold Your Breath.

Just A P.S,Can't See Any Reference To Cats In Any Of The Clues, Or Have I Walked Into The Wrong Sketch?.

Bauble, it might be nearer to 30 years that I've been a loser! I remind myself that there's only one prize, one prize per fortnight.

I have tried the system Ratusratus mentioned - the idea of using nonsensical or odd names - and it made no difference to my success rate (failure rate?)

Using my real name has won me well over 60 prizes, but that really is over a 30-year period. I've appreciated many of the prizes as they are from proper, tougher puzzles - the Private Eye crossword is basically just a little piece of fun!

Ratusratus, post 4 is the initial one where the 'cat' was mentioned, there's additional references later. These were asides to the clue, the answer.

…who let the cats out…

I Only Used Silly Names AFTER I Had Won.Started To Read The EYE About Two Years After Peter Cooke And His Palls First Started It.Did The Crossword, On And Off, But Never Sent It In.Only Postal Entries Then,Could Not Be Bothered!.Been Doing It And Sending It In For About Three Years.People, On Odd Occasions, Have Been Writing To The EYE, Suggesting, Possibly Tongue In Cheek,That The Names Of The Winners Are Made Up So That They Didn't Have To Pay Out The Prize Money!.This Got Me Thinking, So I Checked Back To See What The Names Of The Winners Where.The Same Little Bird That I Had Spoken To Before,Told Me That They Usually Got A New Person In The Office,Possibly A 'Temp' To Choose The Winner.It Looked To Me That,At One Point, The Criteria Was Funny Or Unusual,But Real,Names.My Surname Is One Letter Short Of A Small Furry Animal And My Address Is Mildly Rude, So This Sort Of Bore My Theory Out.Running Out Of Space, Will Carry On Some More.

Other Patterns I Have Noticed,Are,Probably By Different People, Have Been-Entries From Couples I.E, Man And Wife,Females,And Entries In,What Appear To Be Childrens Names, But Clearly Carried Out By Their Parents.So, If You Have, What To A Casual Observer,Is Either An Ordinary Name And/Or Address,It May Explain Why You Have Been Doing It For So Long And Never Won,But You Didn't Here It From Me.

Ratusratus, I am sure some of your points are interesting, but your way of writing - all those capitals - means I have given up. Sorry!
PS Remember, it may be Private Eye, but it is only a crossword - a nice prize, maybe, but hardly a Nobel prize!

No Stamina, These Three-Toed Sloths!.

Please can someone help me parse 8ac- ‘malice spreads anytime leader is kicked out’- I have ‘enmity’ which fits with the cross clues and is a synonym of malice, but what about the rest of the clue?