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Stuck on 13a and 14d. Spooners are always loi - I just don't get them. I'll persevere with 14d if someone can help with 13a. I have S*E*L**

Fop, 13a your crossers are correct. It’s a cryptic definition, someone good with letters and how a sorceress might be described. Making the answer an ‘agent noun’

Tx Jono. Had been trying to see how that agent noun worked with rest of def. Think I'm getting there now. Just have to reverse engineer my solution to 14 and work out Spooner.

Another in a sequence of very good puzzles. 2d is even better because one the singers major hits could be considered a synonym for screech!

Yes Excellent and quite difficult never heard of 2d and eventually remembered the Glaswegian screecher! 4d and 5d also very good as is 13a more simple but love the word play. Several words new to me including the mushroom and Harry Kane's trophy.

COD for me is 27A for the delicious irony of HK and trophy appearing in the same sentence. Would have been good last Sunday on NLD day but maybe even better after Thursday's debacle. COYG

Enjoyable enough, about in the middle of my difficulty range

FOI: 14d, I love a Spoonerism
LOI: 5d, yuck

COD: the aforementioned 14d, honourable mention for the very clean 2d (although it did briefly) have me looking for the composer of the musical "Time".

The carbon copy answer the most obscure to me.

Help, please, with the parsing of 4. How do we get from moat to B? Is it something to do with moat/beam?

Well, it was a struggle, as I’m not an experienced puzzler, but I’ve finished it, and I don’t think Everyman has ever given me so many satisfying lightbulb moments! Great puzzle!

Hi GasmanJack,

Remember that, in a moat, the b????? needs to be able to be pulled up so you would need a d???b?????