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Another very enjoyable Everyman, following on from last week's well received puzzle.

You know, it dawn on me week whether the Everyman and Guardian Prize might have got accidentally switched - but anyway, I digress.....

FOI was, unusually for me, 1a followed by 1d.

As the quality of clues continues to improve the number of 'charade' type clues has also increased. These are ones where the answer is built up from many parts - 21a is a good example.

In terms of difficulty I'd say it was a bit trickier than, perhaps similar to last week's.

If you do get stuck there are two very long anagrams in the downs along with a "primarily" type clue (which I'd never heard of) and a fairly clear "hidden" in the acrosses.

There's only one I haven't fully parsed and that's 27a where I'm struggling to see the different elements.

As always, please feel free to leave a comment and/or ask for some hints if you get stuck. It's been great to see so many new posters joining our friendly Everyman and Prize threads.

Thanks to Everyman for a fun and challenging crossword.

Stay safe:-)

I've only done a few Everymans, but this seemed like a good one. FOI 1d, all went smoothly until the LOI 3, which took me forever despite having all the crossers. I often have trouble with "sounds like" clues, got the second half right away but struggled with the first half. Funny, because of this the Everyman wound up taking longer than yesterday's Prize, though it was overall less difficult. Thanks to Everyman.

Hi Geeker,

I know what you mean about 'sounds like' clues - so much depends on where the solver comes from.

3d - I'd convinced myself that the last 4 letters were a homophone of "seen" - caused all sorts of confusion!

My last one in was 5a which took an age to figure out and I still haven't parsed all of 27a, even though I'm certain of my answer (brave words 😜)

Agreed on 27, almost certain my answer is correct but I can only parse half of it.

As a relative newbie who enjoys the easier puzzles I certainly enjoyed last week's Prize more than the Everyman. I found this a little easier than last week but still needed help on 2 - 3d (still not sure I get the 'monster') and 18a (though admittedly I should have seen that one!)
I also feel sure about 27a but not the parsing

Oops. While I was preparing my comments, yours appeared. Apologies, Brendan. Just pretend that my comment appears in your column.

Hi Tim,

27a _ I'm beginning to wonder if "we're" should have been "we'd" - but in the past, whenever I've suggested there might be an error, someone always comes along moments later and explains it all - much to my embarrassment 🥵

3d - the first part is a homophone for "monster" as in a you might call a little naughty child.

Thanks Brendan.
I guess 'we're prepared to' could be 'we would'?
But then I still don't get the final 3 letters

No problem Alzy, it's easy done.

I've just emailed Norah and asked her to delete the duplicate thread.

Hi Tim,

You're absolutely right, it's "we're prepared to" reversed/"go back" + "the old" + "you once" + single letter for "a little delightful" - what was I saying about suggesting there might be an error! 🥵