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I really enjoyed this Everyman, there's lot of wit in both clues and some of the definitions and some of the surfaces a truly excellent.

In terms of difficulty, I'd say it sits towards the easier end of the scale, although it took an age for me to understand 11a - more of that later.

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

Regards 11a, the answer emerged very early from the definition and crossing letters but I just could not see how the answer was arrived at, and had written as much in this post. Then, as I was giving my COD's, I suddenly had a truly revelatory PDM and all became clear.

COD - I liked the wonderful surfaces in 22a, 13a and 13a, but my COD is the aforementioned 11a - Seven colours shown by End artist?

As always, if you get stuck, please don't hesitate to ask for a hint.

Stay safe:-)

I don't believe it! For once I actually spotted a rhyming pair and then, probably due to shock, completely forgot to mention it - typical 🤬

There are 2 pairs, a bonus short pair

14d I liked....a movie with a great theme tune!

Hi Brendan,
Agreed, thanks to Everyman for a stellar entry this week.
Lots of wit and excellent clues, maybe slightly above median difficulty, but I rarely sail through Everymans for whatever reason.
11 was also my COD! Others receiving consideration 25, 13, 22, 28 and 19. The short 4 and 18 also pretty good...I sometimes criticize Everyman's clues for short solutions , but today's were high quality.
FOI 2, LOI 22.
Maybe one could cavil about the wordplay of 15, but I like the solution (which I first encountered in Brian Glanville's old book The Olympian) and the puzzle overall, so will refrain.

Hi Geeker,

I was a bit concerned some of the wordplay in 11a might prove problematic to you, being an American - I should have known better! 😛

Hi ClarkGwent,

Is that a reference to the 70's film with music from, Wolf, Dixon et al?

Brendan, the 2 parts of the wordplay for 11 are both things I had to learn from crossword experience. My father warned/schooled me about 2-character British abbreviations, and many "East End" variants were imprinted via various defeats (I still often strike out on rhyming slang clues).

For me this was easier (or at least quicker) than usual. Thanks for the tips with parsing 11. Everyman's flamboyant writing style has copped a bit of flak over the last couple of years. Do you think he's just been grooming us for 21?

Good day all. Unheard of - sailed through with little need for assistance. Spotted the regular entries and tricks. FOI 1a LOI 26a not sure of COD. Probably 25d. I wondered if there was the beginning of a theme - 6d, 14d and 28a - are the workers up in arms? As one who might become one of the 90,000 going back to 2016 numbers I think we should be!!!

Must be a relatively easy one this week as I’ve finished it quickly. Enjoyed it but thought a better word than ‘gazebo’ would have improved the imagery in 2d. But that is probably just me being picky. My COD was 3d - I am a football fan and enjoy it when United have a bad season! ;)

Similar experience to others. My only quiblet was “let’s” in 15a which seemed a bit weak. And I wondered why the need for “former” in 5d, but Chambers seems to agree, so fair enough.