Nimrod has an individual style and I enjoyed working my way through this and finally getting there. Solving time, 51 mins. I found the definitions is what mainly led me there. There are a few where there may be subtleties in wordplay that I missed

* = anagram < = reversed

ACROSS

1/26 RUN AROUND LIKE A BLUE-ARSED FLY (UK Labour leader as unfriendly)* When I saw this 26-letter anagram at the start, I knew this was not going to be a quick solve. I eventually found the top row, and the bottom row came easily enough from the remaining letters. Not quite sure if there’s a link between the anagram fodder and the phrase. Labour red, Tory blue perhaps?

8 OFF-PISTE An excellent cryptic definition which was a big step on my way to solving the puzzle

9 Y ((h)E’S M) AN M = male nay< &lit This was very good too and one of the first I solved.

10/26 AERO/BICS Chocolate bar and biros

11/19 THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA spirit = phantom opera = works, not sure if there’s more to it. Book and musical

12 THE GOLDEN FLEECE Wrote this in straightaway - again cannot quite see full wordplay fleece = excessive charge, something precious = gold, maybe there’s more to it

17 CRIMINALISATION (on racialism in it)* A fairly obvious anagram and I got it when I’d sufficient crossing letters. Implied definition was a little vague, I was somehow surpised when that was the answer.

24 DES RES I thought of this from early on, because of the enumeration. I don’t understand it though, something to do with I = current leaving desires, perhaps

25 VERB O TEN This was very good It shows doing = verb O X (ten)

DOWN

1 REF R ESHER Sandown Park near Esher

2 NA PO O I was looking for a reversal here at first, but the definition is ‘used up’

3 RESIT Another one I got from the definition - I don’t understand the wordplay

4 U(KEL) EL E lek< leu< e = euros Albanian and Romanian currency.

5 DAY SHIFTS (Sid fat shy)*

6 I BSE N I think n = no, but not quite sure

7 ERA TO The Muse (OT are)<

13 G (E) M e = electronic as in email, I think but don’t understand the rest

14 LANG OUSTE(d)

15 EF (for)T for = pro

16 CROTCHETY Double definition, my favourite clue, thought for a long time ‘cross’ was in there somewhere

18 LIE OVER

20 FR (T)ED A

21 HORAL A very clever hidden, with misleading ‘regularly’ suggesting alternate letters.

22 A GREE Don’t quite see this GREE might be a word for bore - I thought of ‘augur’ with an e = energy removed

23 BE OFF (F (FO) eb)< Short time = Feb for February

Brilliant puzzle. Very tough, but completely worth the effort it took to solve. I could have said something complimentary about almost every clue but I was afraid that might give the impression that money had changed hands. No theme that I could see but with “Spurs” in a clue and 8 as an answer I can only conclude that Bannsider is trying to curry favour with his editor.

After the recent US Open puzzle, here we have another crossword themed around one of golf’s 4 majors. For the non sporty amongst you, The British 3/4 starts today at 16/8, with the notable absence of the injured 22/2!

Am unsure on a few bits of wordplay, and one or two names used were a little obscure (at least for someone of my age), but there was some excellent material with many thematic references throughout, so overall a thoroughly enjoyable way to start the day.

Mixture of some very easy clues and some much trickier ones, I thought - solving time, 20 mins.

One runs out of superlatives. Every clue here is pithy, elegant and utterly fair, and my slowness in completing some of the clues in the bottom half of the grid is only the result of incompetence.

Dac seldom seems to have hidden words in his clues. Yesterday, on the other hand, Virgilius had three. They both, however, like to use complete anagrams.