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After last week's incredibly difficult puzzle, which generated a record number of posts, this week's effort by Philistine is a much more relaxed affair.

There are still three I can't fully parse, namely 6d, 1a and 13a, but I'm sure of my answers so am hoping the penny will drop soon:-)

If you do get stuck there is a long anagram in the acrosses and a hidden in the downs.

FOI was 11a followed by 7d.

In terms of enjoyment I rank this very high, with lots of very clever and witty cluing.

COD - Lots of contenders with the wonderful 9a (I'm not sure I've ever seen this answer in a crossword before), along with the simple but elegant 2,22d - but I have to give this week's COD to the outstanding 5d "The fisherman's bringing up food for the city" (10,5)

Thanks to Philistine for an excellent puzzle and a great way to kick off the weekend 😃

Yet again last week we had more new posters, so welcome to JossyP, TwoShortPlanks, HaverMonkey, and Artemis - we look forward to hearing from you in the future:-)

And, as always, if you get stuck - don't hesitate to ask for a hint.

Stay safe:-)

Hi Brendan,
Thanks to Philistine, I really enjoyed this one.
Above the median level of difficulty, but less intense than last week's Prize.
FOI 4. LOI 26, the answer seemed clear but I had to consult the NSOED (I don't have Chambers) to clear up usage.
Agreed on the abundance of witty (nudge, wink) clues, several intricate and tricky constructions. My list of COD candidates numbered 12, with some good ones left out. Will go with 6 over 20, (13,18), 10 and 5a.

It's tough to discuss 6 without spoiling, but I suggest spelling/writing out the abbrev. that ends with the "special character".

Hi Geeker,

I parsed 1a and 6d literally 10 seconds after posting - isn't that always the way! 😜 If I'd parsed 6d earlier it would have been a definite COD candidate.

That just leaves 13a left to unravel.

13 comes from (13,18), which parses as a 4-letter anagram inside a 4-letter Pauline synonym.

I'm still not seeing it Geeker - My answer is a word meaning "rubbish" and I'm certain it's right, but I can't see any word that could mean "dump" or any word meaning "platform"?

For the inner anagram, split the last word of the clue in half...
For the outer synonym, I think it comes from scatological [Pauline] US slang; 4-letter word more commonly used as a noun, but as a synonym for a word in the clue used as in "to take a ...".

I get what you're saying, and yes, I can see a Paulinesque synonym for "dump", but that leaves 4 letters which, no-matter how I arrange them, I cannot get to mean "platform" .....

.....unless ..... the "form" is an instruction?

Yes! Split "platform" in two to get anagrist and anagrind.

Got it, many thanks Geeker:-)