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I wouldn't say I found this difficult, but there were definitely a couple of clues that took a fair bit of working out - namely the two crossing clues 17d and 24a, and I still have no idea what 1a has to do with 3d - even though the answers to both are clear!

There are some excellent clues, 25a and the simple but elegant 20d, but for my COD I've gone with 2d for it's super smooth surface.

All in all a fun puzzle.

Thanks Everyman.

Stay safe:-)

3 down is not the clue number

agree 2d

Hi Clark,

For 1a the relation to "3" is clear, but why "down" - is it to do with cards?

No. Hard to say without spoiling. Try visualising a 1ac

Ok, I'll think on it.

Thanks Clark.

Google it

17d and 24a were my LOIs. Finally saw why 24a works and raised a smile. Agree that 1a is opaque at the moment. Scoring at soccer?

1a: the first part with three letters means a bowler. Remove the letter r from the second part to get a ‘second’. It is a standard term in cricket too.

I really enjoyed this today! There was some clever parsing that played with the conventions without being unscannable.

I too puzzled at the relationship between 1ac and 3d until I realised that a result of a 1ac is to be 3 down! Yes I suppose someone who got 1ac could be a 3d but that’s fairly oblique compared to the more literal reading.

My COD, and a contender for COM (month!) is 9d. What a beautifully economic piece of wordplay - one of my last in and when the penny dropped I just said “wow”.

All in all I thought that was rather good. The 3 down reference had me scratching my head for a while, happy to see I wasn’t alone.
I found the lack of a homophone indicator in 24a a bit strange, perhaps it’s implied by virtue of being musical? Enjoyed 2d. :-)