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Maybe I'm just off the boil lately but I definitely found this at the harder end of the scale.

That said, I really enjoyed it and there were some nice little touches.

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

I didn't see any rhyming pairs or theme but did notice some major alliteration with the long clues.

COD - Like I said, lots to enjoy here but I think my favourites were the short and sweet 15a and the lovely 16a - both having great surfaces:-)

As always, please feel free to leave a comment or ask for a hint if you get stuck - new posters are particularly welcome to our friendly Everyman blog.

Stay safe:-)

Hi Brendan,
Slightly more difficult than usual, but not overly taxing. Fewer write-ins than usual, several clues took serious thought.
Agreed on your hints, stress "at least one" :-) . The customary "first letters" clue was unusually good.
FOI 8, LOI 21.
23 was quickly guessed but took a long time to parse, that ends up COD. Also liked 3, 11, 15d, 13 and 16. Thanks to Everyman.

Hi Geeker,

I think the surfaces of the clues was of a higher standard this week. Clues like 8a, 9a, 15a, 16a, 1d, 15d and many others read very smoothly both in terms of grammar and story-telling.

PS - I've started adding "at least" to my 'if you get stuck' section after it dawned on me that people might take me literally when I say "there is one ..... in the ....." and stop looking for others!

PPS - After I finished this I went out the kitchen and made a bowl of porridge - I didn't really know why until you mention the "first letters" clue - talk about product placement and the power of suggestion! 😂

It was delicious, by the way 😛😋

Took me an hour today... the only sticking points were 23A (never heard that term before) and the last one in which was 12A (never heard of him either, had to guess and google). Thought I was going to break my record 43 mins until those last 2.

I'd say all in all it was pretty good for an Everyman.

Back in the day ('70s and '80s), a famous composition by 12 was practically ubiquitous, played exceedingly often as background music in restaurants, shops and the like.
To avoid spoilers, https://tinyurl.com/2yn3pt3z

I think it's one of the most played pieces of music at weddings ( it might even be the most popular) and I even tried to learn it on the guitar - pretty unsuccessfully, I have to say 😥

Yeah I've heard that before, probably as elevator muzak! Hadn't heard of the composer though.

Obviously start with Romance d'Amour for something nice to play on the piano, although it was also the music from the Phoenix arcade game.

I wrote piano but I meant guitar obviously ;)

It's beer o'clock it seems!