Jack’s jolter 14/09/24

Been a while – sometimes there are other things to do at the weekend, such as https://standuptoracism.org.uk/ events. But my enormous readership of approximately 9 billion has begged me to get back to it, so here I am with this week’s Guardian Prize Crossword three standout clues. The puzzle itself is here: https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/prize/29488

15 Across : Part of service broadcast can’t work out clips (7)

It’s SANCTUS. The clue is full of red herrings, which drives newbies, and many oldbies, mad. The definition is ‘Part of service’ — ‘cos it’s a word used a lot in certain religious services (I don’t know more that that – I’ve just seen it a lot on the telly). The crytpic part tells you to mix up (broadcast) the words CANT and SUSS (work out), but leave out an S (clips). ‘OMG’,to put it mildly.

14 Down : Who might use manoeuvre to stop army division retreating (8)

EMPLOYER. This one deserves its place in this week’s trio on the basis of its sneakily hidden definition part (Who might use) and it’s use of a lesser known, but just about valid, abbreviation. Manoeuver is PLOY, and it ‘stops’ (as in ‘plugs in’, like a stopper, REME backwards. REME is the army division – Royal Electical and Mechanical Engineers.

19 Down : European country just east of France is far from sea (7)

FINLAND. The definition part is ‘European country’. The cryptic devilry in this case is not something I remember seeing before, but anyway here it is. FINLAND is made up of F (for France), and just east of that (i.e. to the right of the F when it’s written down) is ‘INLAND’ which kind of means ‘far from sea’. A bit naughty considering it’s a down clue.