u/deeppotential123

Thanks very much to u/zc_eric for picking my very dry clue. https://www.reddit.com/r/crosswords/s/zgMVmXr5jJ

We’ve been neglecting our down clues a bit, so let’s rectify that somewhat this week by tackling 14D, which has the crossing letters H?N?I.

Good luck everybody, and I’ll be back on Sunday morning (UK time) to pick a winner!

———
ASIDE: I briefly toyed with the idea of setting a “double” AOTW, where a single solution spans two slots in the grid. But unfortunately I couldn’t find any pair among the remaining slots where this works — OneLook comes up blank each time — so it wasn’t to be on this occasion. Have we ever tried this before? If not, it might be fun to try at some point when we have the next community grid?

And if you have nothing better to do, here are some unsolved AOTW entries: https://www.reddit.com/r/crosswords/s/zPDFYnGxO0

- Occasionally I forget to bother (4)

- Naughty child rule-breaking? Smack! (4)

- Balls of stone?! (4)

[Though I’m a bit less fond now of that third one. Not sure it quite works.]

And if you have nothing better to do, here are some TOTW submissions that are yet to be solved:

- Nolan’s movie about his pet egret (3,8)

- I think Nolan’s Inception succeeds where Batman Begins derails in its middle section (5)

- Somewhat withdrawn confidant to ill ET (7)

https://www.reddit.com/r/crosswords/s/Jpi5N8X74K

And if you have time for some gardening, you have a few hours left to solve these TOTW submissions (hint: >!they’re all &lits!<):

- Underground bits of rounded stem? (6)

- Where seedling starts to wax? (4)

- Central part of daisies, say (5)

https://www.reddit.com/r/crosswords/s/19lfmCbnrK

And if you have nothing better to do, here are some unsolved AOTW (`_I_H_R`) submissions https://www.reddit.com/r/crosswords/s/T0nFOp2xcx:

- Instrument that’s plucked from jacuzzi — thermometer? (6)
- Cryptic hacker’s “alternate letters” transformation (6)
- In Delhi, the river gets to here (6)
- What?! Reddit hereby incorporates Twitter?! (6)