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brendan

10th October 2026, 00:37
Thanks to Philistine for a moderately gentle Prize, though not without its, at times, complicated wordplay.

FOI was 9a followed by the crossing 1d.

Still two I haven't fully parsed, namely the last 2 letters in 4d and pretty much all of 7,8d bar the definition.

COD: I think I'll go for 18a, closely followed by 10a.

Let us know in the comments how you got on.

Stay safe:-)
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rogerm

10th October 2026, 00:43
Hi Brendan
For 4d, reverse the last two letters and look at the last word of the clue.
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brendan

10th October 2026, 00:43
Ah, just figured out the wordplay for 7,8d and am making it my COD.
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rogerm

10th October 2026, 00:46
Thanks for saving me the trouble of trying to explain the brilliant 7,8dn without resorting to spoilers!
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geeker

10th October 2026, 00:46
Thanks to Philistine. This was fun, but a surfeit of "low-hanging fruit" clues, particularly in the SE quadrant, somewhat detracted from the experience.

I thought this was extremely easy until I got flummoxed by the intersecting 6, (7,8), 10. [Had a wrong answer for 6 which I didn't realize until seeing the brilliant (7,8).

Still wound up right around Prize norm solving time.

FOI 9.
LOI 6, though (7,8) was the real hangup.

COD (7,8) over 10. Also liked 11, 18, 12, 15 and 1.
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brendan

10th October 2026, 00:47
Hi Roger,

I considered that but came to the conclusion, having double-checked in Chambers, that it pretty much means the opposite of "return". Plus, if 'return' is the definition of the last 2 letters, does that mean it's doing double duty regarding the order of the letters?
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geeker

10th October 2026, 00:51
Agree with roger on parsing of 4d. The device used for the final two letters is really clever and I should have given the clue COD consideration.
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rogerm

10th October 2026, 00:51
Hi Brendan
I think it’s fine. If you return you (2) back, giving you the reversal of (2).
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brendan

10th October 2026, 00:53
Ah, of course - I completely missed that the reversal was part of the cryptic wordplay.

Thanks Roger, thanks Geeker.
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swarbrules

10th October 2026, 01:18
Another one to praise 7/8. One of the great clues. Well worth remembering.
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