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Thanks to an uncharacteristically merciful Vlad for this week's Prize entertainment.

Great fun and an ample supply of tricky/worthy clues. I must have gotten on the wavelength, because the expected impalement never arrived. A couple of clues required Google to solve, though.

FOI 9, LOI 23d.

2 has to be my COD by a wide margin, even an all-time classic of its kind IMO. The pack of 23a, 23d, 21d, 17 and 18 tied for runners-up.

About half my solving time was spent on LOI 23d, a fiendish clue. Was breezing through the puzzle until the SE corner.

Thanks Vlad.

Tough, but fair. A few unknown words or phrases.
Gettable.

Haven't parsed all to my satisfaction

Long list:
5d, 6d, 7d, 8d, 14d, 21d, 22d and 22a.

COD: 6d or 22a

Hi Geeker,

I think this is the second Vlad in a row where he's left his impaling gear seems to have been absent. - no complaints here:-)

There are still 23 clues I cannot fully parse, although I'm sure of my answers (and 2 of those answers are connected... if you get my drift!

2d - Master on board climbing wooden mast stops playing (8)

I know who the "master on board is" and can see what could be a "wooden mast" but as for the rest?

23d - My best friend’s letter to Times? (4) I can why the answer could be "my best friend" (although ther's nothing in the clue to suggest a superlative) but why "Times"?

18d - Where do soldiers go? Are they required at the front during
occupations? (8)

I chuckled at the "where do soldiers go" definition but the laughter soon stopped when trying to unpack the wordplay.

Thanks to Vlad for a fun chasllenge.

COD: two-way tie this week between 5d and 12a - both are good surfaces and made me smile.

Stay safe:-)

Hi ilippu,

5d - 1,4,6 with the 6 "careless" missing its last letter/'almost'

6d - 4 letter "tea" goes around 3 letter "with" and 1 letter "touch of nutmeg" - definition is "mint"

7d - 3 letter "in" + 2 letter "post office" + "beginning to sweat"

21a - "empty Montreal" goes around 2 letter "books" and 1 letter "sweetheart"

Brendan, in 2d you have the 4 ("mast"). It's inside a (1,3) reversed ("climbing") where 1 is "playing" and 3 is "wooden"). I thought the 1 was extremely clever, not to mention the solution's subject matter.

18d parses as (1,1,1), a string of "first letters", inside 5 "occupations".

23d I found very tricky. The "letter" is a 2-letter word, no stranger to cryptics; "Times" accounts for the other 2 letters.

ilippu,

8d - split 2,3 minus last letter/'pointless'

14d -2 letter "like" + 1 letter "Kelvin" (abbr. in physics I think) + 3 letter "and the others" all go inside 4 letter "bed"

21d - 1,3,2

22d - 2 words in the clue "gutted" and reversed/'flipping' give "rubbish"

Thanks Brendan.

That is my list of likes - they are aĺl parsed fully. 🙂