Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Hi mattw
My parsing of 14a doesn’t involve a 2,2. I have 5,2,6. I did toy for too long with an obvious 2 element, but it didn’t work.

Got the paper late due to some kind of virus / flu and boy - been some tough ones recently but this is hard.

Not very often I do a pass of all clues and come up dry. Gonna put it to the side and come back tomorrow with a hopefully clearer head.

Thanks to Enigmatist.
Brilliant puzzle but very challenging.
Got home late last night (US), filled all but two solutions in the grid but many were unparsed.
Finished the grid today and parsed most. A few stragglers.
FOI 15, LOI 18.
A plethora of excellent clues but can't rank a COD yet. Holiday weekend so not much time for crosswords.

Thanks rogerm! I confess I can't see where the 6 would come from. though mine isn't precise at all--a 5, 2 for "involve," a 2, 2 describing "Amtrak, possibly," and a literal 2, although there's no envelope indicator for the last 2 and the 5, 2 is very loose.

In the light of day, I have parsed all but the much-discussed 16. I found the definition in Chambers, but I have no idea who Mr. Pearce might be. Like others, I considered and ruled out the Australian actor. Should I be looking in entertainment, politics, sports, or what? Or should I even care? 😂

In my parsing, the only envelope indicator is ‘to acquire’. My 2 is the Amtrak one.

darla
Very unfair for overseas solvers. It's a very old English folk song (quite famous, in its way).

Darla, you can be forgiven for not knowing Mr Pearce. He’s a character of English folklore, specifically from my home county of Devon.

Devon, jono? I'm originally from Barnstaple.

Grew up in Exmouth , Chris.