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No problem, I'm always a bit wary of homophone clues, given the wide variety of regional accents, but this one seems pretty safe.....lights blue touch paper and retires! 😉

Thanks, Brendan. I missed your post when I replied to Yevrah.

Completely stumped by 12a

Doh . It just dropped

Hi Cosmo,

definitions is "big beast" (a large dog) single letter for "Dutch) + 3 letters for "award" + R(ejected) + 4 letter "German author".

Couple of quibbles.
How is taking just one letter from aioli justified in 20a?
Shakespear's verses have a two word description, only one of which is given in 21a.

Hi Chris,

It's funny, I had included 20a in my list of gripes for exactly the same reason - where's the "initially" indicator"? But I didn't want be too hard on the puzzle so I decided to delete it.

Indeed, Brendan.

Signing off now - we're away for a few days.

Hmmm... didn’t enjoy that much compared to recent weeks’ offerings. Totally agree with you Brendan, some really awkward surfaces. 10a one of the worst offenders! Also I can’t see any connections this week, which suggests to me that this is not the usual setter, but who knows. For many years Everyman was set by Colin Gumbrell but he stepped down at the beginning of last year due to ill health as I recall.
20a doesn’t work for me unless I’m missing something...

We crossed Chris while I was typing. We agree on 20a then, it’s not just me. Have a good break!