Well, I’m glad I voluntarily rescheduled my blogging duties from Tues to Wed – as this puzzle was a real humdinger.  I think I only solved one clue on immediate inspection, but none were so impenetrable as to bring solving momentum to a complete standstill. Plenty of nice penny-dropping moments too. I’m a great advocate of the view that “setters should fight the battle of wits to the death but, ultimately, always expect to lose gracefully”.  This puzzle epitomised that for me – and could well be my fave so far this year from the FT.

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Solving time: 4:27

Another cracking construction from Brendan, with the rotationally symmetric across clues forming pairs where the first is of the form AB and the second BA, e.g. SIDE ROAD/ROADSIDE and SAUNAS/NASSAU. This puzzle was worth solving for 5dn alone.

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An excellent offering from Dac.    Solving time: 18 mins.

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