Times Sep 19-24 No Spoilers

yeah, profiterole flambe is quite something :-)

Yikes, a tough one today. I feel like I've already dodged a few bullets, but have three still to go. Unfamiliar with 9dn, 24ac, 19dn - and 22ac required an educated guess. The last of these is a cracker of a clue.

@JPR - Tut-tut, that comment needed to go on the Spoilers thread...

A tough finish in the NE flank. Love the snowball sleight (and story) in 13dn, and 20dn is likewise artful. My stab was 7dn, and after checking, I stabbed good.

Yep, that was my last one in too. Not the sort you can enter with piles of confidence, but again, anything's possible in English!

This (9113) is one heck of a trip. I feel like I'm the guy in Slumdog Millionaire, plucking obscure bits of information from all sorts of odd places in my past. 3 to go still, with 5 additions to my vocab so far!

Better get on your bikes, one and all...

hi Bon, I don't think a jokey non-spoiler need go onto spoilers thread? or did i spoil malgre moi?

@JPR - OK, that's fair enough, now that I've solved 9112 and found that your joke was quite good after all! Consider my tut-tut retracted.

Like you DA, I punted on 7D and came up trumps. Now beavering away at 9113, as time permits and will report in soon, I hope.

That was me, last

Still stuck - 21 and 26ac, 16dn. I can't even tell which one I should work on! Has anybody got through today?

Inspiration finally struck. 16dn is a lovely clue which took a bit of parsing. I'd considered the answer at length, and still (perhaps somewhat densely) not seen it. 26ac is pretty tough to parse, too.

Leaving the four letter word. None of the candidates is working for me yet...

Believe I'm home on 9113 - pretty tough today. Have my concerns about 21A. This was a top-notch puzzle IMO, lovely heavy letters throughout. 15A and 16D are what I'll call double cryptic, hence the QMs. Took a bit of solving.

I may have been unlucky starting with a toughie in 9113. Got 15A but not 16D. Liked 12A. The link to the Spoilers thread is not working so I'll put that one down to experience and get cracking on 9114.

So far 9114 is falling in fairly quickly.

I'd like to reinstate Boniface's tut against JPR. Just saying.

Tuts aside, I confessed a 9113 skip in the other forum. (Early reports of gruel-like fare, and a ragged day, kept me away.)

But I can recommend 9114. No walk in the park, I've cracked a dozen inside 6 minutes, and all worth solving. Especially liked the surface of 12ac, and the setter's resistence of low fruit in 1dn, which is so often a container clue.

Look forward to nibbling more, as I drive the desk this morning.

@Anthony - Yes indeed! [start Twilight Zone music...]

Enjoyed 9114. Gee 1A took a bit of work to justify, but got there in the finish. The whole thing's rather good and there's that bloody fruit again...

Hmm. Must have missed the fruit, because it's not coming to me. I'll finish soon, it's as easy as 1, 2, 3...

9114 was good. Still don't get 1A. 9115 may be a little easier but also enjoyable.

hi anthony
could u say more about reinstating bon's retracted tut? ..... what is your concern.... [or is it that a 'retracted' tut-tut is still a tut-tut ?!?] confused JPR

It was a joke - FLAMBE turned up yesterday, so I was implying that you'd tipped us off earlier in the week! Really I should be saying thanks for laying the groundwork :)

In other news, it's gonna be tough to spoil today's - too easy by far.

wow! I apologise and unreservedly retract my 'reinstate retracted tut-tut' query !!!! (something about 'pooh-poohing the pooh-poohers?' blackadder DA theme spoiler alert.....)I should know that humour doesnt always convey in this medium! could have been a flam(b)e war getting going on there but no!!!!! cheers JPR

9115 got out due only to 3 hour delay at bris airport....

Don't fully get 5A or 15A but don't really care. Cracked one of these for the first time in many months. :)

9115 got out due only to 3 hour delay at bris airport....

Don't fully get 5A or 15A but don't really care. Cracked one of these for the first time in many months. :)

Good one RobT.

9116 A picnic at first. Transparent definitions and wordplay, and not much chop really, just a crossie, but I've run into a couple that put a dampener on the day.

Phew. Everything went in easily, bar the NW, where I was stalled by the 1s, really. Finally twigged to the across. Embarrassing really.

2dn my last in, and a little lucky - I'd misinterpreted the parsing correctly.

5dn the best today, for its inventiveness.

DA - a suggestion that next week, these two fora are labelled "Spoilers Required" and "No Spoilers" - there's too many comments going in the other one that need not be there, and it means I miss out on the interplay until everyone's been and gone!

Another one bites the dust - and this may be the first time I've completed one in one (albeit extended!) sitting, courtesy of a quiet Saturday.

Last in was 19dn, but only because I'm dense. It's a tough clue if you assign the wrong word to indicate the clue type. 25ac the second to last, and annoyingly I'd picked both of them early but failed to find the parsing for ages.

COD goes to 15dn, for the wickedly misleading component of the clue.

That brings up my trifecta. How are others doing?

Think I got a clean sweep this week, but will have to go back and check for my last fail. Should be on about 9.

That's impressive - the opening couple were quite nasty!