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In fact, Brendan did it in a Guardian Prize!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLunE_UfYvA

I probably solved this one...

I definitely didn't only got back into crosswords during lockdown.

I assume Brendan is not the guy who starts most of the prize/everyman threads in this forum... since he takes time to solve them if he is ;)

It's always a thrill (3 times so far) to beat Brendan to it!

I'm pretty sure this forum's Brendan is not the Guardian setter. He's denied it! :-) And he also resides in the UK; setter is on US West Coast.

Setter Brendan has been profiled in crossword land:

https://www.crosswordunclued.com/2013/03/interview-brian-greer.html

The Guardian's "Meet the Setter" series is worth perusing:

https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/series/meet-the-setter

I've been doing Guardian puzzles long enough to have read the inaugural entry (Paul).

For Brendan, see also

https://www.theguardian.com/profile/brendan

Yeah I have read his meet the setter article in the graun.

I'm also assuming Paul on here is not the graun setter known as Paul despite him winning the peer review nearly all the time ;)

Thanks for all the links to articles about setters I will enjoy these. As for today's I thought it was going to be tough on my first run through when I drew blanks. But as with Spurs yesterday got a winner at the end (excellent result). Loved 14A. My COD. Liked the pairing of 7d and 8d. Have a good day and watch the wind.

Agree with Yevrah. Thought this was better than last week. 14a was the stand out clue for me too. Cheers all

Can anyone explain the soldiers in 1A? None of the usual abbreviations etc. seem to fit with the answer.

phil - 5th and 6th letter - standard xword abbreviation

Sorry, I thought this was poor. I have quibbles with 8 different clues.

1a I've never seen spelled like that, though it is in Chambers. If you Google it, all the hits have the other spelling. Also, where do the first 2 letters of the second word come from? All I can think of is an acronym backwards with the first letter missing!

12 no idea how it parses

23 needs "one who"

26 is it a sensation?

4d what's the "good" doing?

6d needs a question mark

22d only works in some accents, not mine!