Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

After the beast that was Saturday's Prize, this excellent puzzle from Everyman is just what the doctor ordered:-)

Not too difficult but several clues did take a lot of unpacking, like 1a where I had to read it quite a few times to pick the correct choice of first letter to the second word.

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

The only clues I'm still a bit perplexed over are the wordplay in 22a and how 20a is related to Peru - there is a famous honey-loving ursine who hails from there and I did wonder if maybe Everyman got mix-up but it's infinitely more likely that I'm missing something blindingly obvious!

Ah, and I spotted a rhyming pair:-)

COD - 3 contenders this week with the snappy 3d along with the well constructed 8d, but my winner is the amusing 27a - After brief second, press "one" endlessly for operator (7)

Thanks to Everyman for some great Bank Holiday weekend amusement.

Stay safe:-)

22 dance=trip

20,what does the Peruvian bear wear on its feet?

Got it, thanks Buddy, although I had to look online to see what you meant! I completely missed these stories as a child, I went from Chicken Licken to a James Bond annual - explains a lot really 🤔😂

I liked the puzzle, thanks to Everyman. Didn't find it particularly hard, maybe about median difficulty. FOI 1. Forgot to note LOI, though 20 must have been close. COD 14, which is a clever wrinkle IMO. Overall high level of cluing.
No way I have the GK to parse 20; content with an unparsed solution!

Passed on this week's Prize, as Maskarade's jumbos are not my cruciverbial preference ;-). Refrained from comment in the relevant thread. They're popular puzzles and I didn't want to inject any negativity...
Some good alternatives, though: Julius had his customary bank holiday jigsaw in the FT and Serpent one of his musical Ninas in the Saturday Indy.

Hi Geeker, glad you're back:-)

The Prize was a real trial so I understand your decision to give it a pass. This Everyman was a much more gentle affair. I'm with you on knowing next to nothing on 20a, still - always happy to learn:-)

Good day all. Enjoying this week's but stuck before I can really add to this forum. Could I ask for a steer on 8d? I have ???U?E ???T?N? I need a PDM. Thanks in advance.

"Judges" (7) followed by "AT" inserted into "royal personage" (4); defn "Olympic event".

Hi again Geeker, I don't know if you're aware of the theme of this week's Prize, but my first thought when I worked it out was that it would be right in your ballpark 😉😉

Brendan,
Thanks, but funky jumbos like that Prize take too much time, I'll wait for 225 coverage next week.
Further irritation: I filled in a good chunk of the online Prize grid (with some guesses) at warp speed last night, but lost interest before attacking the theme. Just revisited the site, and the bastards have eliminated the online grid, so my work went to waste. Definite write-off, not going to duplicate the effort.

OK (hint), Brendan, you shamed me... 😳🤣
I've filled in about half the Prize grid and figured out the theme. But giving up for the night.