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Grunger,
6a. Def. is 'workmanship'
Following + something done + obs. word for 'practice'

29a. Def is 'peace proposal'
Country + new + image

mattrom

many thanks for the hints. I have got 29A now and will work on workmanship

mattrom

Thanks again - finished now. Really enjoyed this one as the great sequence continues.

Grunger

I agree with you. The last line of the poem indicates a relationship so the words must be in pairs. I had the king, a librettist, and had to look up the third for which there were two options.

I cant see that there is any connection, but Ifor's puzzles are so good that there must be.

Has a consensus been reached as to whether the names are in pairs? I think they would have to be famous people, like our former king - I mean you could take any two names at random, put them in Google, and there's probably someone of that name with some kind of achievement.

On reviewing the poem I've noticed a few things:-

"if you can FORCE your heart" - one of the names is a unit of Force

"Except the WILL which says" - one name is a familiar term for Will

"worth of DISTANCE run" - one name is a Distance

"Don't GIVE way to hating - one name is a synonym of Give

"Or walk with KINGS - obvious two names

Of course this could be me reading too much into it:-)

Brendan

That is absolutely brilliant!! I knew there would be something more to it than has been mentioned. There is always something special about Ifor's puzzles and that is it. I was obsessed with the pairs idea, but he has chosen the names to reflect the poem, or the sentiments in it, I think he said.

I dont usually attempt Ifor's puzzles as they are generally too hard. If If or made the clues a bit easier, and that's a big If, I would try more of them.

So very well done for cracking the mystery.

It's an interesting idea, brendan but I think it relies too much on the block capitals you've added.

I think the puzzle would work perfectly with any six masculine names, so I've chosen a line from the poem with that in mind -

''If all men count with you but none too much''

Ifor occasionally reveals the extra details in his puzzles when the blogs appear (who knows?... you might have beaten him to it this time).

Brendan

Well done. I didnt think of reading the poem, but Ifor has chosen those names to fit the sentiments, so it is an even better puzzle than I thought.

Jigjag

I liked your second paragraph - very clever.

Brendan, good afternoon.

I've just read Ifor's comments on the fifteensquared blog. You were perfectly correct … you WERE reading too much into the male names!