Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Well, that was quite a toughie! As others have already noted, it seemed to be quite a bit more difficult than the last few weeks' puzzles. I nearly gave up with less than a quarter completed, but getting 34 gave me the letter I needed to establish the venue for the thematic event.

As I'm more of a fan of e.g. 13s than of the thematic end product, the endgame took me a bit of guesswork and Googling. Still without a parse for 28 though - please could someone supply one? Thanks!

Hi pentlandsound. For 28d... take H out of the first word in the clue (hotel lacking), the next three letters mean purpose. ‘Poet’s set on fire’ is the definition. This is one of the answers that jumbles to make a real word

Thanks merenz - I think I'd heard of the shorter, regular form of the word (most commonly found suffixed by -er), but was unaware of the 'poetic' variant spelling!

I think it took me as long to complete the NE corner as the rest of the puzzle combined.

Still, an excellent crossword from Quixote.