Futhorc Forward (Sept 12 - 18)

9106 is a zephyr, which is breezier than a breeze. The only holdup was putting LANDS in at 4dn which also meets the wordplay. Up, up and away -

I liked 18A, I must say. Nothing hard though. First 5D. Last 18A.

Stalled for a while on 28ac, if you can believe it. Actually, I wonder if that clue was impeding me on 18dn (tut tut, setter!). And then 25ac and 18ac fell. 18ac gets my vote too, Bon.

Some excellent deception in the surface readings today - 17ac, 23dn (even when I figured the likely answer early on, it took an embarrassingly long while to see it!), 26ac...

And I guess, 13ac, as it managed to fool me into parsing it as some kind of humorous dd. No 'streak' for me today.

Just had a look at the Rubicon. No wonder you only do it twice a year, it must be a nightmare to set. Very nearly foxed me on the Macquarie definition - and I spent most of year 5 in the study of the requisite field from which the term came!

Fairly confident that it at least is one of the six, and that the first clue is not ;-)

Also, fwiw, the two-forum idea might lure some of the Times-triers to persevere. From that point of view it could be good.

Loved 4dn, and thought 2dn set in the wrong tense. Those two observations aside, a mild-mannered yawner, though the anagram in the central clue is artful.

I'm afraid I'll disagree with you on 2dn, DA - 'checks' is suitably present tense.

The biggest yawn was the almost verbatim repeat of 3dn. And 22ac was fairly weak.

15dn was my pick today. Take away the first word, and it's perfect.

You're right Anthony - 3dn could well be an oldie, but it is a goodie too. Or Good-o anyway.

If 2dn is not the wrong tense, it's clumsily couched. Can we agree on that?

I'll grant you that it could be done with the leading clause in parentheses, before or after the verb, but it doesn't bother me as it stands. The most difficult part is the absence of a subject. Especially with an object supplied. But let's be fair about this...readability has always been the first victim of the cryptic cluer!

9107 in the bag too - not too hard. Agree with the clumsy couching of 2D - such "reverse clues" need to be properly worded for the minnows... !

...and 9108 in as well, I hope. Not sure about wordplay in 18A (vernacular usages?) and 21D though I think my answers are OK.

Liked 1A and 7D.

DA: re the spoiler post - I agree with the idea wholeheartedly in principle, but I wonder if our core group is too small at this stage to justify the time spent running it. I haven't seen many newcomers on this thread of late.

@Bon - tend to agree. With an ardent nucleus of four solvers or so, we may get well lost between the two forums. If we get a critical mass down the track, then I'll revisit the idea.

As it stands, post-mortem spoilers late in the day, or the following day, may be the MO. Or that refined knack we all seem to be gaining of outlining [vs blabbing] the answer.

I'm in for 9108 too. And I too liked those two Bon, plus 26, 27ac. I think you're OK on the curious word play... they seem top be UKisms.

20ac my last in... due to the large number of equally possible answers. Seemed a lazy clue to me :)

It's been a bit of a crazy old week so far, but I managed to get to the crossword today.

I've just got 3 to go in the SE, and have decided my 20ac has to be wrong, even though it seemed so right. Now that I've read Anthony's thoughts on this clue, I might have a rethink.

I think the concept of a separate forum allowing spoilers is worth a shot. If nobody's interested, you haven't lost anything. This spoiler-free zone began with just me and DA for ages (what a good sport he was) and now we've grown to four regulars! (My apologies for being somewhat irregular of late though.) I say, give it a try.

9109 is a fill-in, really.

1A first in, then the dominos fell without too much resistance. Last was 5D, needed the checkers to be certain of it.

Liked 10A, 3D. The rest were so-so, IMO.

This would be a good display X-word for those wanting to join in this list.

Did anyone else notice: 11ac has a second word play that works, even if it relies on an indirect anagram?

9109 is the easiest Times in yonks. Four luminous anagrams, one to open each corner, and a ute-load of lenient wordplay. No zingers, but soothing nonetheless.

Don't quite grasp your indirect anagram, Anthony. What's your alternative?

And will experiment with a spoiler forum next week, RK. See how we fare.

@DA: I was thinking of a 'flat' synonym for 'one' of the words, shall we say....

Agreed that this was the easiest ever, that I've seen. Which makes it particularly annoying that I picked the wrong last word in 5dn. Call me verging on irritated :)

You fellas weren't wrong. That's the fastest I've ever completed one of these things. I ticked my favourites along the way and lo and behold they were the same as Bon's two. I liked your alternative wordplay for 11ac Anthony (if indirect anagrams were allowed of course, and it would probably have to be 'eccentrically', but even so).

Hmm. Silence abounds. Does that mean everyone was as flummoxed as I was yesterday? I gave up on it in the end - the farmer was obviously never going to pay out, and I knew that 'duck' would be an omen.

Anyway, new day, new puzzle, and lots to like in this one. A curious number of recently learned shortcuts reappear. Just one left (12ac) but I'm hoping for inspiration.

Meanwhile, 14dn was impressive, 23ac is one for Geoff Bailey (what, nobody's curious), 2dn took a while to figure out even when the answer was obvious, and 24dn you'll probably want the checkers for! 19dn my biggest bullet-dodge - drove past there in 2000, but the split second impression (well, I was driving) was lasting.

Yup, that didn't take long. A slightly ironic finish for a Times puzzle. One in a row!

Kudos, Anthony. I'm a little distracted today, with a World Cup belter, an AFL bottler, and an NRL pearler in store.

After so much quizzing, and wording, sometimes the visceral joy of sporting can be the best elixir.

Well the Irish match was a downer, but the Subiaco skirmish a game for the ages. Wonderful contest.

As for 9111, how does Barnet [in 3dn] equal hair? And why bother with spring in 11ac? And ask yourself, does TOPIC really sound like TO PICK? And please give me a dollar for every time I've met 1dn - a chestnut.

Those whines aside, enjoyed the engineering of 3ac, and rate 8dn a classy clue, no stretch.

"Barnet Fair" is apparently rhyming slang for hair. No...I didn't know that either.

I have 2 to go.

Sorry...that was me. No clue as to 25D (except for the last letter) but i'll keep mulling.

Maybe "spring" is there as a red herring with "cleaning"???

Me again...grrrr