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Chrise, 23a might not be a great clue, but it does work as an &lit, and the wordplay does generate the answer, not a homophone of it, as Jono says in #14

23 now makes sense. Tx Jono

Hi Pfalloon,

Thank you and welcome to the Forum.

This Everyman does seems to be from a different mould than the usual - it's good to keep us on our toes:-)

Quite a slow grind this morning, not helped by the fact that I had never heard of the song - I assumed it was a Beatles classic that fitted the crossers I had at the time, though it didn't make any parsing sense. That of course rendered 18d impossible until I used Google to solve 17a. Perhaps if you have small children you might be familiar with the song but alas mine are far to old - as am I obviously! Thanks to Everyman, Brendan and all other threaders. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

It was good fun although it took me a bit longer than usual.
I put in the wrong song for 17a and struggled with the wrong fish/sleeper at 9a.
However, I eventually sorted those out and was able to solve 3d which is my COD.
I had to go back to find the rhyming pair which are not on the edges this time.

I also managed to enter the wrong song for 17a. No wonder I couldn't parse it! And it really didn't help with finding a solution for 18d.

Thanks all.
24a gets my vote for COD, and I would have failed to parse 23a without help from other posters!

17a - I think quite a few of us saw that letter pattern and thought ah! The Beatles! Although I'm not sure if Everyman is a fan of Disney or James Bay - perhaps both 😜

This week did feel like the sublime to the ridiculous. I had the same issues with 17a and 23a , but luckily got the right 9a

Focusing on the positives, COD 20a , which is also the part of the world where my brother lives

24a is nice too. I always think of the Giant version of this, which is literally an oxymoron if you translate the word!

I agree with what everyone has said. Comments were invaluable in solving it. I also had the wrong song (never heard of the right one) and was led down the garden path in a few places. Would appreciate a clue for 25a, which will be my LOI if I get it.