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9a - Ignore my squid reference - I was looking at a picture of the 20d fruit.

Agree with everybody on here about the difficulty level, but I enjoyed this one. FOI 21d, LOI 3. COD - many contenders but plumping for 16d

Happy bank holiday to all here

I’m going to blame the sunshine and a glass or two at lunchtime (🤫) as have ground to a halt!! Got halfway and feel in need of a clue or two now….. can anyone help me out on 11d, 18a or 21a? Thanks!

11d is one of today's complex parsings (with 4 IMO).
Breaks down as 2 (Pepe's bowels) + 1 (hard) + 6 (prune stone), defn "Passing".

Hi Noeyedeer,

No problem, it's certainly been a lovely day for sitting in the sun with a cool drink:-)

11d - First 2 letters are "Pepe's bowels opening" + single letter "hard" + 7 letter "stone" minus its last letter/"pruned" - definition is "passing"

18a - 3 letter "cherry" + 3 letter "ever" around/"cut by" ME - definition is "saviour"

21a - 4 letter "flavour" + 2 letter "lychee lacking pulp" all inside a 3 letter "conclusion" - definition is "confused".

I neglected to specify a favourite earlier. It would be 11d, in fact, for the "prune stone".

I liked that too Chris, though I did wonder if, in a down clue, one should prune from the top?

Got them! Thanks folks!

I see your point, jono - you wouldn't prune plants from the bottom!

Hi all, sorry I haven't contributed the last few weeks. The weekends were so manic I didn't actually manage to finish the crossword! But I enjoyed this fruit cocktail of a crossword, even though it was on the easier side and not quite what I expect of Paul.

First in was 1d, last was 3d. Lots of favourites - 4d, 10a, 12a... and it was great how he incorporated the theme into all the clues, but for my COD I'll go with 5d. Love its simplicity and the fact that the opposite is true for the puzzle.