Author: Chris

Congratulations on a double century to Tracy and many thanks for all the entertainment you’ve given us. 
The SE proved tricky to break down. I was taken over 10 minutes by 20ac, 15 and 17dn.

I had great problems in the NW with 3dn and 8ac. The rest went in surprisingly smoothly in 6-7 minutes but, having done the blank-staring bit, I managed to break them down and ended up on 10 minutes.

Taken over target to 11 minutes by Breadman today. Holes all over the grid needed filling in. LOI 7dn.

There’s an interesting intersection/crossing in the centre of the grid.

Despite not getting 1ac on first pass, I zoomed clockwise round the grid from the NE finishing back with LOI 1ac in 6:29. A pretty fast time for me – anyone breaking PB’s today?

I found this a very enjoyable QC taking 8:10. All very gettable, I thought, but interesting enough to have me referencing the dictionary for some fine definitions and the unknown instrument at 3dn. It’s worth taking a post-solve read through the surfaces – excellent stuff – thanks Breadman.

The first five across flew in but then things got stickier all round. Major problems were 7dn which threw me with the spelling and, finally, 15dn was a dnk but a fair bet.

Lots of double definitions and anagrams. Just crept inside 10 minutes again but it was very tight. POI 9ac gave the final crucial checker for LOI 3dn. Thanks Trelawney.

Some tough clues at 1ac, 5dn and LOI  16ac held me up and I ended up taking 12 minutes. I suspect that newer solvers may struggle – but I hope to be proved wrong. 

Quite a few missing first letters, a couple of upside downs and a couple of interesting clues (23ac, 12dn) pushed me to within one second of my 10 minute target. Highly satisfying all round. Thanks Pedro.

There was a lot of ‘going backwards forwards’ and some unknown but clearly clued terms but the answers kept on falling into place.