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This week's puzzle is by more illustrious namesake.

I found it fairly easy in some parts, but tricky in others.

There were quite a few anagrams, unlike last week, and these allowed me to make a good start. I then saw a few hiddens and initial letter clues and I thought I was on for a relatively quick solve. Alas, my optimism was short lived!

10,23 took a while to figure out, but luckily I had a Eureka moment.

Then I had to check that 13a had anything to Kansas - it does:-)

1,24 also took a while to figure out - it was one of those clues where I guessed the answer but still took an age to work out why!

21a should please regular poster Lucy, our resident theatre director, but it was another one that held me up.

Then came 2d........I still have no idea what the answer is, despite having 3 of the 6 letters - I'm hoping for another Eureka moment, but two in one year would be a record for me, let alone two in one night:-)

COD 18d because of it's it's smoothness - wink wink!!

Thanks to Brendan (feels weird me saying that!) for a fun crossword with a wide range of clue styles.

It's been great to see so many new contributors to the Forum in recent weeks, everyone is welcome:-)

Stay safe:-)

2d I've got a word that fits in and is a synonym of "adapt", but whether they're a comedian or not - who knows?

Ahh!! got it - now, of course, I think it's really clever and can't understand how it took so long to see - isn't that always the way.:-)

Hi Brendan,

Same experience with 2. It was my LOI and I had to resort to Google.
My COD is (10, 23), closely followed by 14 and 18.
Fun puzzle. On first scan it seemed very difficult. Once I got going it wasn't quite as tough as some recent Prize entries, but it ranks high in terms of clues that made me smile.

Hi Geeker,

Agree totally, some very witty clues.

Did not spot theme until crossword was done and dusted

OMG! I had completely missed it - That is brilliant:-)

I am a big fan of theme and I think subconciously I must have noticed somethong going on .

Wow! I have been using a pad to put under my paper when I draw out crossword grids for weeks and it's a promotional booklet for ..... in the form of an MOD file. It's got "top secret" and "restricted" written on the front and then there's 9 pages of info about it - I can't believe I've been writing on it all day and then completely missed it tonight - what a klutz!

My favourite grid pattern (54A in the Guardian grid library, if anyone’s interested, I’m sure you’re not, but hey ;) and one Boatman uses extensively. Only got the theme right at the end but I had a suspicion something was going on. Made a silly mistake with the 3 letter word early on which held me back and got a little bogged down in the SE corner. All in all very satisfying, especially after some very hard (imho) mid weekers this week.
Loved 18d, and 10/23 and only now understand the relevance of 18d. Cheers all!

Hi Jono,

10,23 is one of those "icing on the cake" type clues.