Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Thanks, Brendan.

I like 22d because of the misdirect too, Brendan. 13d has a pleasing surface. 23a takes you on a tortuous route but that’s kind of why I like it, having recently learnt the candle making word from another crossword.

I’m sure we had something similar to 7d recently in one of the weekend crosswords.

The nuce alliteration in the three long answers would have helped had I spotted it before completing the whole thing...

Hope all are doing OK

Typo nice

Hi FemmeNoire,

You're right about 7d, I thought it looked familiar - there was a similar clue in the Guardian Prize the week before last.

11a: apparently Ely is a cathedral, and the last three letters are for a midweek day.

A lovely puzzle, although I still can’t parse 15d. There’s only one word that appears to fit, but even as a former farm boy I can’t find a farm implement in it.

Hi Richard,

15d - Is the plural of a "farm implement" with the "end of agony" replaced by the "beginning (of agony)" - definition is "causes injury".

Ahh, brilliant! Thank you. I’d written in the wrong answer pertaining to a knife-related injury, hence parsing being completely lost. That is a clever clue.

I love the efficiency of 12ac, and 17d is a lovely witty homophone, joint winners for my COD.

Also interesting that with regard to 15d, we hear the antonym “un...” so frequently, but hardly ever this word itself. It’s a bit like Wodehouse’s observation re being disgruntled but never gruntled...

Morning all,
Enjoyed that, took longer than usual, but I’ll put that down to being distracted by the cricket. 22d, 23a and 25a were fun to parse.
Nice to see an alliterative trio this time, in fact this is the same grid as the ‘penny-pinchers/pencil-pushers’ puzzle from three weeks back