correct

solid C4

hehe

"They were involved in a platonic love tetrahedron."

People have listed various tools they use in constructing puzzles. I thought I'd mention one that I don't think I've seen mentioned here: the BYU corpora, which I use to find collocates of a word (or phrase).

Erm, excuse me, the formerly-BYU corpora. The Davies corpora.

CCCC: Decision-making tool used in business out of necessity - it's banal... (4,7,8)

@Stiv cost benefit analysis anagram ("out" is the indicator and "of ... banal" is anagrammed)

As a side note, it seems cost benefit is also commonly hyphenated

Oh, I thought the decision making tool was a coin. ;)

@oAlt Yep. Quickly found, well done. I was pleased with that surface.

hah, pretty hard to see "out of necessity" not being a unit there

Yeah "out of necessity" felt natural there

CCCC: Rewind time in New York's capital (5)

clicksaver service: it's albany

@oAlt Y(are)N <

@msh210 correct

CCCC: Minister slept with a man? (8)

@oAlt Didn't you have another Pacific island capital recently?

checking…

@msh210 yep

@msh210 chaplain = lain with chap

@oAlt yes indeed

CCCC: Energetic group almost breaks detector (6 7)

PALIKIR*

seriously, maybe geiger counter*? It looks like it may be an anagram.

@msh210 yep!

oh, without the p, hence "almost"

CCCC: There's water mixed with bevvies, primarily! (3,3)

@msh210 (water + b_)* = wet bar &lit, where bevvies = alcoholic drinks

> A wet bar is a small bar used for mixing and serving alcoholic beverages that includes a sink with running water.

So water from the sink, and bevvies from the bar, "mixed together" since they are in the same place

yep

CCCC: Standing out for oAlt's books (9)

I'm among those lining up outside the store the night before a new oAlt book comes out.

Lol

oAlt's books = my vellum ≈ marvelous = standing out #GreatC4Solutions

@oAlt PROMINENT (standing out) = PRO (for) + MINE (oAlt's) + NT (books)

@Stiv Yes!

@msh210 Lol I don't know how I didn't see this

My backreading skills are waning

CCCC: Where Malta play Qatar, perhaps with one having switched sides? (2,4)

@Stiv TA' QALI (where malta play) = *QATA(r->L) + I

@juicifer That's the one :)

Ta Q– jk I was too late

here's another football one :)

CCCC: In brief, New England's football team captured 2017 Super Bowl in comeback - that's what you need for a Lombardi Trophy (6)

Tiffany's wouldn't happen to be owned by two people named Patil, would it? checks… No, I guess not.

i was thinking "pi lats" because to have any chance of winning the lombardy trophy your body needs to have at least π lateral muscles

Victory or winning is needed for a Lombardi Trophy but both are not 6 letters long...

@juicifer nice surface, anyway

thanks :)

@juicifer oh this is silver (what you need for the trophy) = S(IL)VER < for the NE Revs football team in brief. Nice clue!

AGH! Was just typing that out!

nanananana (puts thumbs on temples and hands splayed, waving his fingers, with his tongue out)

Agh, just found ittt

For some reason it seems like the maturity level in here just dropped a few degrees.

@msh210 yes it is!

glad I was able to get y'all with the gridiron bluff for a little while at least

I got it by working backwards, actually. Figured, yeah, he's right, you need victory or winning, but what else do you need for the trophy? Ah, silver is 6 letters. Is there a football team called the revs? Time to Google…

CCCC: It was discovered in Iceland, some distance down from a G-man's hideout (5)

@msh210 hey if it works, it works

@msh210 this is _m a G-ma_, which was discovered below ground in iceland

@juicifer yes indeed

CCCC: Famous sergeant and lord getting very quiet (6)

pe(pp)er

ye(pp)er

CCCC: Cynthia's a streetwalker (7,4)

@msh210 WORKING GIRL (ddef)

(ref: Joan Cusack in the movie)

Never seen the film but Wikipedia makes it sound like Tess, not Cyn, is the titular character… no?

Anyway, that wasn't my intention.

Ah, wrong reference then

@juicifer lol

Ran with it before checking the details fully!

Hey, it beats being ninjaed. :-D

@msh210 painted lady ddef (Cynthia; a streetwalker, noun sense 4)

@oAlt yep!

CCCC: Grab a Qatari from behind, held in port city – the only one, in fact (5)

@Sphinx Interesting

@oAlt _aQ a ba_ is the only port city in jordan

@juicifer correct!

CCCC: Utter darkness meeting cosmonaut Gagarin somewhere in the solar system? (7)

@juicifer Mercury = "murk Yuri"

@oAlt indeed

CCCC: Yuri Gagarin sinks hearts of America somewhere in the solar system? (6)

@oAlt URANUS = _UR_ _A_ _N_ + US

@Stiv It is

CHALLENGE: Clue each planet of the solar system using Yuri Gagarin's name each time somehow...

2 down, 6 to go...

CCCC: Simply, what went wrong around football match result? Obtained Holland's reaction to loss (10,8)

@Stiv I'm about to sleep so I can't solve it but it was nice following the thing you knew msh knew :)

@oAlt Haha, I would be interested to know who else worked it out as it went along :) This series was meant just to be a lighter one than some of my more involved ones of late (the Premier League winners series comes to mind...) and I was interested to see how long it would go unspotted. It gets harder to sneak things past you all now you know to look for it! :)

:)

I figured it out at some point last week

There's definitely been a few where knowing the pattern helps you find a solution much more quickly!

Holland's reaction to loss

@Stiv withdrawal symptoms (reaction to loss) = simplywhat* around draw + Tom's

(sorry, I thought the preceding discussion meant you're done already)

@msh210 That's right :)

@msh210 CCCC: Streetwalker with no threads jumps up and down (11)

@msh210 TRAMPOLINES = TRAMP + 0 + LINES

@Stiv yes indeed

Great. Time to finish this then!

CCCC: One answer left to ascertain: Quality rating that can be assigned to this series?! (3)

@Stiv feels a bit presumptuous to claim your series is A A A_ but I'm not gonnaaargue

@juicifer Well, technically I merely said it could be assigned to the series, in the same way all the other clues could ;-) And over to you!

hehe fair enough

CCCC: "America's Chernobyl"? Expression of disbelief surrounding core of Three Mile Island, having left neighborhoods without protection (8)