Guardian 29,294 / Jack

89 comments on “Guardian 29,294 / Jack”

1. Hello Sailor. Jack is becoming one of my favourite setters and I ticked just about every clue with SCHOOL TEACHERS being the standout. No theme for me either. Nicely done.

   Ta Jack & Eileen.

2. Thanks Jack and Eileen
   Very much on Jack’s wavelength, so this scooted in. Paused over HOLLOWNESS until I saw the (rather weak) double definition. I don’t like Spooners in general, and this was particualrly awful – what happens to the T in NESTLING?
   Favourite CONSTIPATE.

3. I found this full of neat cluing too, snd did look for a Nina, but I’m not good at seeing them.

   Thank you to Eileen and Jack.

4. I found this much more accessible than usual for a Jack puzzle. The version on my app doesn’t give the setter’s pseudonym and I couldn’t identify the compiler. The perimeter entries are a good way of pulling together a grid that would otherwise be four mini crosswords.

   A lot of good clues – special mention for PLUTARCH, FACTOTUM and the clever anagram/surface for SCHOOLTEACHERS.

   Thanks to Jack and Eileen

5. Liked STAMPING G, LIVE WITH, N E (a beauty!) and ASSIST!
   Thanks Jack and Eileen!
   (I am usually theme-blind. Today is just another routine day!)

6. Thank you Eileen. FACTOTUM and CONSTIPATE also two of my favourites.
   ASSIST my FOI. Made me smile and look forward to the rest, which I enjoyed. Every clue a gem.
   I loved the Spoonerism. Waiting for the naysayers. Some will say they say the ‘t’ in NESTLING, and others will say that lessening is 3 syllables, but as a homophonic purist, I say that’s good enough for me, and very clever.

7. Really enjoyed this, especially the handyman (Jack of all trades?). Last in was LIVE WITH: given all the crossers I was looking at side with, bide with,… until I suddenly realised that “by” was part of the wordplay and not the definition.
   PS. I know that NE officially stands for Nebraska, so I assumed you just have to separate N for New and E for England.

8. I liked ASSIST (when the -ist suffix penny dropped), REAP/PEAR (we are picking that fruit right now) and FACTOTUM. Very interesting fodder for SCHOOL TEACHERS, too. It is hard to see how NEW ENGLAND is anything other than a straight definition (it is the North East of the US), despite the question mark, and I am entirely with muffin @2 on NESTLING. Thanks, Eileen and Jack.

9. Neat find re 9ac and by/with, Eileen, I did wonder. A pleasant puzzle this, thanks Jack. A few acrosses, a few downs and then with the long’uns it sort of wove itself. Plutarch was nice … I thought Utah? at first scan, but needed the h before it clicked

10. I’ll add ASSIST to my ticklist. I haven’t come across that re-analysis before.

11. Blaise @7 – no need for any separation: both Collins and Chambers give NE as an abbreviation for New England; as I said, it caused discussion last week!

12. I am really enjoying Jack’s puzzles and this one was no exception.
    I liked the doubles around the edges very much, especially the already highlighted SCHOOL TEACHERS at 16,27a. Also ticked 16d Plutarch and 17d BORDELLO. I have to admit I couldn’t understand the Spoonerism NESTLING at 11a until I came here.
    Many thanks to both Jack and Eileen.

13. paddymelon @6 I do say, or at least indicate, the t in NESTLING, so lessening passed me by.

14. Like others, I particularly enjoyed ASSIST, FACTOTUM and SCHOOLTEACHERS. I thought NEW ENGLAND, which is, of course, a north-eastern area of Trumpton, but also references the separate standard abbreviations N = new and E = England, was quite neat. The surface for BORDELLO raised a chuckle.
    We should perhaps just accept that Spoonerisms and homophones are Marmite. Muffin @2 and Tassie @8 loathe Spooners, which is fine – I have often argued that the more excruciatingly awful the better, and like paddymelon @6 I thought this was excellently ghastly.
    Thanks to Jack and Eileen.

15. I almost didn’t attempt this, as I’ve had some unpleasant experiences with Jack’s, but I must have been on the right wavelength today, and thoroughly enjoyed it, with plenty of smiles. With/by in 23a was the only head scratch, and Plutarch the only one I hadn’t heard of. Nice to see it wasn’t STOMPING GROUND, a pet hate of mine!

    Thanks Jack & Eileen.

16. paddymelon@6
    NESTLING
    If it works for a purist, then it does a great job for someone like me.
    (I can guess that the Spoonerism of nes’ling will be something
    like les’ning—of course, with the help of you and Chambers.
    Still no joy taken away!).

    grantinfreo@9
    LIVE WITH
    Agree with you. Very good thinking on the part of Eileen!

17. Thanks Jack: very enjoyable. Lots of smiles like ASS-IST and CONSTIPATE, and a potentially unfriendly grid neatly dealt with. If there are themes or Ninas or similar clever-dickery, I can’t see any either. NESTLING works for me.

    I liked all those already mentioned, except for NEW ENGLAND. The trouble there is that the surface reading of the clue is such a straightforward non-cryptic definition of the answer that there’s no motive to look for any further wordplay, however good.

    [There’s that annoying worried=ate again. Do other people have bugbears like this? You know it’s valid, you know it’s In Chambers, you usually remember to look for it, but it irritates you. A=per, r=take and do=cook are a couple more for me.]

18. Thank you Eileen and Jack. I loved this. I’m not sure anyone’s got the bottom of NEW ENGLAND yet. I certainly haven’t. Could it refer to the hamlet on the A1017 between Sible Hedingham and Haverhill? No: but why is it called that? I loved what Jack did with the edges of the beautiful but controversial windmill grid: no-one could object on “four separate puzzles” grounds. I also greatly admired LIVE WITH, which is like a conjuring trick with words. CONSTIPATE was my last in, PLUTARCH my first. It’s a great week for Guardian subscribers.

19. The Spoonerism in 9a took a bit of consideration, but it seems fair enough to me. It’s a better homophone than most of Paul’s and you have to afford a certain amount of leeway, I feel. My experience of the puzzle was the same as the majority here. I found this easier than Jack’s previous puzzles, just held up briefly by CONSTIPATE (too fixated by ‘gen’ for inside information) and HOLLOWNESS. My likes have all been mentioned with double ticks for PLUTARCH and FACTOTUM. Thanks to Jack and Eileen.

20. I found this much easier than Brendan’s and Paul’s most recent puzzles, but didn’t spot the amusing justification for the ASSIST clue, which I solved on definition only.

21. In 24ac I had the injury largely as
    Hurt le[g]

22. Very enjoyable. All our setters seem to be defying our expectations this week, with a hard Brendan, a (relatively) easy Paul and an (apparently) Nina-free Jack. I wondered about the Spoonerism but on 1 down I can 23 across it.

23. NESTLING muffin et al.
    nestling in British English. Take your pick from Collins online:
    (?n?stl?? IPA Pronunciation Guide, ?n?sl?? IPA Pronunciation Guide)

    lessening
    Oxford Learners
    /?lesn??/

24. HURTLE
    A doubt:
    Was responsible for=LED to or LED?
    (I parsed it as in the blog but just want to understand LED better)

25. Me@23. Oh, dear, the IPA script didn’t work. Where is Essexboy these days? I miss him. Gervase may be able to help?
    Anyway, nestling and nes(t)ling are both possible, as is lessning.

26. Worth it for ASSIST – lovely groan-inducing clue.

    Birthday puzzle polished off in just under 30mins (which for me is good) – with a few parsings making me think I had missed something clever (New England). An enjoyable puzzle with an actual laughter iproducing clue – thanks Jack

    Thanks Setter and Blogger.

27. Thanks Eileen (and Jack). I was reading the def of 23 as STAND BY (as in “I can live with him in the chair…” but that leaves WITH unparsed. Your way clearly works better and makes this a very good clue alongside several others here (eg 2d, 13d).

28. I’m with NeilH @14, love a groanworthy Spooner.

29. This was the fastest I’ve ever solved an oeuvre by this setter – so I must be getting the hang of Jack’s wavelength. Lots to like, my faves being CONSTIPATION and FACTOTUM – which made me grin, and the pleasing surfaces of BORDELLO and SCHOOL TEACHERS.
    I agree wholeheartedly with Muffin@2 regarding the so-called Spooner, but then the ones that are genuinely clever and/or witty are rare. Most just seem a tad desperate, and I’ve always assumed are something of a last resort on a setter’s part. Which is perfectly allowable: lord knows setting a crossword must be difficult – and English is so flexible that there will always be a solver somewhere who can find a regional homophone or a dictionary reference to make things ok. Live and let live.
    Many thanks to Jack, and to Eileen for the enjoyable blog.

30. …and incidentally forgot to mention the lovely FACTOTUM. And the Spoonerism works nicely for me: one of those nice heteronyms where the number of syllables is different (2 for the noun, 3 for the verb/participle). Is there a word for that?

31. PLUTARCH, FACTOTUM, and SPIRIT were my favourites. I didn’t parse LIVE WITH and couldn’t see why NEW ENGLAND was cryptic until coming here. Thanks for the blog as always Eileen and thanks Jack for a nice mix of clues and an enjoyable challenge.

32. Brilliant!

    Brava, Eileen, for sporting the by/with example.

    Jack is a master of putting words together that need to be separated. Short story, stand by are 2 examples.

    Lovely stuff, more please, Jack.

33. As another homophone purist I didn’t have a real objection to NESTLING, but I disagree (NeilH@14) with the sentiment that the more groan-inducing the better. If you have to try to imagine how someone with a specific accent might pronounce a cryptic answer, often with no indication, then the clue is unfair in my book. However I have long since given up hope of any consensus on this.

34. Tough and enjoyable.

    I did not parse 11ac I only got as far as as LESTNING and forgot about the possibility of a silent T in nestling – it is not a word that I ever say out loud tbh; 23ac apart from LIVE =active; 2d – haha, that is quite amusing!

    Favourites: REAPPEAR, PLUTARCH, CONSTIPATE (loi).

    Thanks, both.

35. I would normally gabble ‘nestling’ and ‘lessening’ as ‘nes’ling’ and ‘less’ning’ but potentially would say either one of them as here syllables if I was talking particularly slowly and carefully. The main problem is the part of speech though – as a noun it’s ‘nesTling’ with a clearly pronounced ‘t’ but the verb form (participle/gerund) ‘nestling’ has a silent ‘t’. I’m not one to dislike groany homophones though.

36. Very Mondayish, almost a write-in, but enough to ponder and entertain.

    I always thought it was stomping ground so that was my only hiccup until ASSIST became obvious.

    Thanks Jack and Eileen

37. Another good one from Jack with nice perimeters, I particularly liked the anagrams for SCHOOL TEACHERS and DOUBTING THOMAS. I also liked the wordplay to give FACTOTUM. As one who always argues for dictionary pronunciations, I see that Collins gives a second choice for NESTLING that sounds like nessling, so that passes muster for me, although, like Michelle @34 I wondered what ‘lestning’ could be. 😮

    Thanks Jack and Eileen.

38. Thanks Jack and Eileen

    I tend to the view that Jack puzzles have a ‘signature’ rather than specifically a theme or nina (though they may be the most common), so took the four paired solutions linking the quadrants to be it today.

    No problem at all with the pun at 11.

39. Pronunciation is weird: does anyone pronounce the T in “nestle?”

40. Problem with 4 for me is that cryptic clues ought to be non-redundant with straight clues, or at least involve a self-definition that is tortuously worded enough. Something like “US region that starts to make its own points?” would be more acceptable.

    Also, as I understand it (& confirm in various dictionaries), for “nestling” as a baby bird you pronounce the t, but for “nestling” as a gerund verb you do not.

41. Picking up on Komornik @18 and going cheerily off-topic, if you are looking for ancestors on the Ancestry site and incautiously note that they were born in “North Wales”, you will go seriously astray. Because Ancestry defaults at the first opportunity to assuming that you must be interested in stuff from the States; and it turns out there is a place in Montgomery, Pennsylvania, called “North Wales”.
    Bit like the search engine the Court Service came up with a few years ago to enable you to find your local county court. If you searched against Keswick it insisted that your local court was Norwich. Because it had been told about Keswick, S. Norfolk, population about 200, but not the place in Cumbria with the same name and many times the population…

42. I had never realized, until I started pondering 11ac, that I pronounce “nestling” differently depending on whether it’s a noun meaning a baby bird or the participle of the verb “to nest”. For me, the former has at least a hint of a T sound, and the latter doesn’t. But no doubt this is something that varies widely, and I have no objection to the clue. (Well, other than a general dislike of Spoonerism clues, on the grounds that the indicator gives away the clue type, reducing opportunities for the setter to lead us astray. But that’s just me.)

    TILT that “sluttish” means something quite different on the two sides of the Atlantic. In the US, where I’m from, it only means “sexually promiscuous”, in my experience. (And it would almost certainly be “slutty” rather than “sluttish”, anyway.)

    I understand how 4dn (NEW ENGLAND) works, and I’m not saying it’s an unsound clue, but it’s too bad that the answer leaps out, at least to an American, so clearly from a straightforward non-cryptic reading of the clue. If New England weren’t in the northeast, for instance, so that one were forced to interpret NE cryptically, that would have been much more satisfying. But we can’t relocate New England, so there’s nothing to be done about it.

43. Many thanks to Eileen for the excellent blog and to everyone who has taken the time to comment.

    I should perhaps say something about NESTLING and NEW ENGLAND.

    My criterion for homophones is that they should be supported by a pronunciation given in Chambers, although I recognise that there may be alternative pronunciations. According to Chambers NESTLING (as a noun) can be pronounced nes’ling (or nest’ling) and LESSEN is pronounced les’n. So I felt the Spoonerism worked, especially as it was possible to generate a reasonable surface reading.

    NEW ENGLAND was intended to work in three different ways: NE as an abbreviation of New England is one definition; area of united states (as in joined together) is a second definition; and the whole thing is a third. So it’s a sort of double definition &lit.

44. thanks Jack – I think those are pretty defensible reasonings. I really struggled with your earlier puzzles but am now “mentally aligned” and really enjoyed this one.

45. Thank you @43 Jack. Just read it that way, and it makes perfect sense. Good puzzles don’t have to be hard: this one is not very hard, but it is very, very good.

46. Many thanks, Jack @43 for very helpfully dropping in. I’m mightily relieved to hear that I didn’t miss anything obvious this time – apart from the &lit aspect of NEW ENGLAND.
    I totally agree with Komornik’s last sentence @45.

47. Just shows a walk along the local Teignmouth promenade with all that ozone does stimulate the brain cells.
    Went there with LIVE -I-H as my only unsolved clue. Came back ‘with’ the answer.
    (Others seaside walks are available.)

48. Thanks Jack and Eileen. I liked the broken doorbell.

49. I must be particularly dense this week! Unlike many, I struggled to finish and got there in the end only with several unparsed and the long answers around the edge almost the last to go in. Still, it was a fun challenge and better that than a write-in. Favorites included 14A, 26A, 10A, 6D and 16D.

    Thank you Eileen for the parsings and Jack for the puzzle and the explanations.

50. I’m not going to get into the “how do you pronounce stuff” about NESTLING except to reply to gladys @39, no I don’t pronounce the T in Nestle, but I sometimes pronounce it with one of them funny French accents on the second E when I’m talking about chocolate.
    Just for the record per above comments, Chambers has ‘E’ as an abbrev. (see what I did there) for ‘English’ but not for ‘England’. I read the clue as per Jack @43.
    This was a fairly slow but steady solve for me as I waited in the queue for the MRI machine. FACTOTUM ended up being my favourite. For some reason I kept trying to fit Tale around TT and got into a rut trying to make Tattle equal to well in 20d. As a result LITTLE was my LOI which occurred to me just as I was finishing up in the MRI.
    [The scan result concluded I had a brain, btw, typical for my age, which is encouraging me to continue solving and setting crosswords]
    Thanks Jack for the welcome distraction today, and Eileen of course. I’m off to bed. It’s been a long day. 🙂

51. I thought LIVE WITH very clever. Even when you know the answer, it doesn’t pop out when you read the clue.

    I happened to be in NEW ENGLAND the day before yesterday, and lived there in the 70’s and 80’s. In my experience (note sample of 1) the term is never (maybe rarely) used in weather reporting, but North East is instead, because neighbouring states such as NY can also be included by the latter term.

52. Well, successfully completing Jack’s puzzle has been the high spot so far for me today. Was hoping to travel up on the train to meet up with student friends of mine from over 50 years ago in our old STAMPING GROUND of Norwich. But just as I polished off the last clue they announced that there was a broken rail between Cambridge and Ely. Sometimes you simply can’t be too CAST DOWN, and have to LIVE WITH fickle fate, don’t you? And some very nice clues today…

53. Thanks to Eileen for the blog & Jack for setting & popping in to clarify.
    For what it’s worth, (not much, I know!), I would pronounce “The nestling was nestling in the nest” as “The nestling was nessling in the nest” just to be clear on the heteronyms.

54. Nice to see Jack coming here to explain some of his reasoning, thanks for that.
    It was only yesterday that I was applauding the greater range of difficulty we seemed to be seeing since the accession of a new crossword editor at the Graun, so it would be inconsistent as well as churlish to moan about this being on the straightforward side of straightforward. But it was, with a brief pause at the Spoonerism and the hint of a raised eyebrow at LIVE WITH, a very rapid solve.

    Thanks to Jack and Eileen.

55. “The children were nestled all snug in their beds / While visions of sugarplums danced in their heads.” That NESTLED definitely lacks a T when that poem is read (and that may be the most frequently read-aloud poem in the language).

    The main place I’ve seen NE as an abbreviation for New England is on football scoreboards (the Patriots of the NFL, hated everywhere east of Connecticut, or possibly the Revolution of MLS). Dr W @51 is correct that New England and the Northeast are not exact synonyms. New York is certainly in the northeast; most people also would include New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

    My last one in was what I’ve come to think of as the dreaded 13 down. I’ve been noticing that in a surprisingly large fraction of the Guardian’s grids, 13 is a long down entry that links the top half with the bottom. If you solve, as I try to, from top to bottom, switching back and forth between across and down as crossing letters open up, it also often happens that when you’re ready for that 13 down, it’ll be the first entry in a while that doesn’t have much in the way of crossing letters. Hence the dread. But today’s (CONSTIPATE) was fine.

56. Great fun!

57. Thanks to Jack for a really enjoyable puzzle today. It seems to have gone down well with the regulars! I had to come here to get the Spoonerism at 11ac explained but given that I think that Spoonerisms and homophones are entirely valid weapons in the setter’s armoury and I don’t mind homophones that are a bit of a stretch, I’m not going to complain. Thanks E for the excellent blog ( as always).

58. [Me @55: I meant everywhere west of Connecticut, obv.]

59. I enjoyed this…especially because this was the type of cryptic I would have given up on before. Some of the novel anagram indicators nearly stumbled me, but overall I was happy because I didn’t need to reveal any and it feels like my confidence with the daily cryptics is increasing.

60. My target for the daily Graun cryptics is to have no more than one failure per week. Having been comprehensively trounced by Brendan on Tuesday, I approached this one with great trepidation as I often struggle with Jack. However, I found this to be my favourite of their puzzles since they started appearing in the Guardian. Lots of people have mentioned the clever FACTOTUM and ASSIST. I also thought PEDALO and SPIRIT were exemplary clues of their type, and I would endorse the sentiment of Gervase @4 about how the long clues (all of which were great in their own right) nicely united the grid into a coherent whole. Thanks Jack for a fine puzzle.

61. Thanks Jack for a great crossword. I couldn’t parse the Spoonerism and I incorrectly guessed ‘side with’ instead of LIVE WITH but overall I thought this was gentle for Jack. My top picks were ALLOCATION, UNTIDY (neat anagram), FACTOTUM, ASSIST, CONSTIPATE, and PLUTARCH. Thanks Eileen for the blog.

62. I briefly worked at Nestlé in Croydon (pronounced Nessles)

63. For 3D, I wanted the definition to be “using one’s own manpower” (not including the “craft”) with a reference to the expression “paddle your own canoe” so PADDLE. But the rest of the wordplay would not parse. Doesn’t the PEDALO stir up Andrew Flintoff memories?

64. Very enjoyable.
    A lot of this went in very quickly then hit the wall in the SW corner. Could not get the second half of 1d, I don’t understand why it is THOUGHTS, hopefully the hint will explain. Much to like, for one minute I thought I was going to finish, but it was not to be.
    Thanks both.

65. Never saw that anagram for 8 down but guessed it from the clue. And entered New England without knowing why.
    But now it all makes sense! Thanks Jack & Eileen.
    Is that a John Mellencamp song:) ?

66. I am a little late starting but what a lovely crossword, just the right level for me.

67. HoofItYouDonkey @54

    Having SECOND THOUGHTS might make you doubt – and perhaps change your mind.

68. What Shanne@3 wrote.

    Thanks Jack and Eileen

69. I’m impressed by the attempts to justify “nessling” as the pronunciation for NESTLING, but several accept that the T is pronounced in the noun form – which is what we have for “individual still living at home”.

70. Loved this for the way it slowly revealed itself even though the long perimeter clues took a while apart from 26/27. Clever to unite the 4 mini-puzzles in that way and a very rewarding solve; I’m chuffed to have completed it.
    Thanks Jack and Eileen

71. My solving routine involves ten minutes during coffee break in the morning, twenty minutes at lunch and then the evening to finish off comparing how much I’ve done with mum who potters with it throughout the day. Each time slot today was productive so managed to finish. This also means I get to wallow a bit in the clues and enjoy them blossoming into answers albeit slowly on occasions. For example, I knew Utah was key but it was only this evening when the Greek finally bore his gift. Thank you Jack and Eileen.

72. I’m really enjoying Jack’s puzzles and this was true to form. Nothing too complicated but every clue was interesting. I took a long while to get the spoonerism because I was trying to incorporate “individual” but I had a chuckle when I cracked it. Sound-alike clues generally appeal to my sense of humour whether they work in my accent or not.
    Thanks Jack and Eileen.

73. New England is the NE of usa !

74. Paul the Plumber @73 – please see Jack’s comment @43.

75. Eileen @67 Yes, I didn’t connect THOUGHT = BELIEVE, get it now.
    Many thanks for the hints.

76. [Paul the Plumber @73: Yes, New England is the NE of the U.S. but that designation also includes New York. And no New Englander will ever accept a New Yorker as one of them!]

77. Pianoman @71: I really enjoyed the wholesome picture you depicted there.

78. Well, I hear what some of you (including Jack) are saying about NEW ENGLAND, but if a pub quiz question was “NE area of United States?”, then I would think that 100% of those who got it right would not for a second have considered that the question was in any way cryptic (and many would most likely get it right). Could that be said about any other of the clues in this crossword? Or any cryptic crossword?

79. Could I ask for some hints please?

    I’m trying not to resort to reveals/blog yet.

    I have solved 9/11/14/23a and 2/3/4d.

    Any hints for 1a & 1d would be nice – no idea how to approach them.

80. Shouldn’t the clue for 1D, 15D say “…8, 21…” instead of just “…8…”?

81. Hi steffen @79, if you’re still there…
    Sorry for the delay – here to help, if I can: I know you like to try without looking at the blog…

    1ac is a charade: a word for ‘making an impression’ + a word for ‘good reason’ – usually found in the plural. It’s easier than you think: the definition is ‘favourite place’.
    1 15dn relies on having the answer to 8,21 (DOUBTING THOMAS – don’t think of this as ‘cheating’), who might have 1,15dn. The wordplay is a word for ‘believed’ inside a word for ‘another helping’.
    Hope that helps – I’ve said more than once how much I admire your tenacity. 😉

82. Thank you Eileen. I’ll have at look at those clues again.

83. AndrewTyndall +80

    Well, yes, strictly speaking, I suppose the answer is ‘Yes’ – but I think this ‘shorthand’ is sometimes used by both setters and solvers.

    If pressed, I would defend the clue, without reference to 15dn, as ‘(one/those) doubting’ or similar… but it wouldn’t be half so good.

84. just to explain my comments on the G, for what little it’s worth.
    NE is a dubious abbreviation for New England imo. It’s not a state. (NE is Nebraska) and it wouldn’t be used in any postal address where an abbreviation might be useful. If anyone actually used N.E. to abbreviate New England, you’d have to wonder who, why and how it managed to become accepted by dictionaries.

    and since no-one else seems to have mentioned it, i read ASS-IST as ASS 1st, which made the sense of being biased against fools confusing. Had to chuckle when the vase became two faces.
    That said, those troublesome “~isms” in my thoroughly public-service-indoctrinated mind are always discriminatory, rather than biased: an important distinction iyam.

    all up, apart from NE and the uses of ‘sluttish’ and ‘disorderly’, i really liked the puzzle. Thanks Jack.

85. Andrew@80 I thought that, too. I considered doubting for a while, then variations on what else 8 might signify, so it put me off solving 1d for a while. My feeling is that most setters would give 8, 21 in this case; do you have any examples where they don’t, Eileen?

86. A few downfalls, possibly all due to being American. I couldn’t parse the spoonerism, because in my dialect “nestling” has two syllables while “lessening” has three. STAMPING GROUND took me a while, because where I grew up the phrase is “stomping ground” and it made the clever ASSIST impossible until I figured out what was wrong. Would never have believed UNDERPIN = “corroborate”, Chambers notwithstanding, but guessed it from the crossers. Oh, and NHO PEDALO but it was inevitable from the clue.

87. Late thanks Eileen as I couldn’t parse 13d nor 8d, the latter now added to my highlights of this, which I found difficult but more enjoyable than others by same setter, thanks Jack.

88. 1,15d – SECOND THOUGHTS – should be “What may trouble 8,21…” – It makes no sense without THOMAS.
    [Edit – I see AndrewTyndall@80 has said the same]

89. ASSIST is definitely one for the Uxbridge English Dictionary, although I’m sure the Clue panelists would produce a less savoury definition.

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