Jumbo Blogging Day

Times Cryptic Jumbo No 1352 - 17th November

So here it is my turn again to blog the Jumbo. Hooray! On the plus side, I get 2 weeks to complete the blog. On the minus side, I do the blog not knowing if I've got everything correct... 100% submitted, but will I get the dreaded "With errors" tag? Lol. I hope not, but I got this response with all 3 other prize crosswords I entered the weekend this was published!  Today's (or maybe 2 weeks ago's as you read this) was nicely positioned as not too hard so that people run out of energy or time and give up (which has occasionally happened to me), but with plenty of sweet nougat to savour*. I had to trust to the wordplay for 1A, but otherwise there no unknowns - just some tricky clues. I liked 24A, 52A, 2D, 12D and 23D, but my COD goes to my last one in - 22D. VIP... what a brilliant bit of wordplay! Thanks to our setter for 49 minutes (for me) of entertainment. How did you all like it?
*I'm in trouble. The Missus left a box of nougat which I thought she had aready opened on the desk in the study and I had some while composing this blog. Apparently it was a meant to be a present for an elderly relative! Oops!

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