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Hi Izzythedram,

21a - A (from the clue) then a homophone/'we're told' of a 3 letter "system" - definition is "describes a raising anchor"

Thanks! Turns out I hadn't noticed the typo I had put in a down answer, so I was barking up the wrong tree altogether and working out convoluted parsing for the random word I put in 21a to fit: 'agenda'....gender could be a system of classification I suppose, but there was no anchor to be found.🙂

I found this pretty straightforward, must be the way my mind works. It makes up for all the previous puzzles others thought were easy that I found hard!

I only really struggled with 14a so thanks for the explanations

I like any primarily that doesn't include the word primarily, however my COD is 16a as the clue sounds like something my girlfriend would message me :)

I agree with Warden, as I also found (most of) this easier than usual. Got 1a straight away, which helped greatly. 1d a lovely clue, probably my COD, but there were too many to choose from.

Brenden, you are not quite correct by saying there were 'all the usual offerings' as for the first time in ages, there was no Spooner! These are my 'betes noir', so I wasn't sorry!

Lots of excellent anagrams, but noticed that 4 of them (two acrosses and two downs) which relied on one or more letter abstractions, indicated by 'wanting', 'denied' or 'losing'. Is this unusual? To have this many I mean?

Got 3d quickly, but couldn't parse it for ages. Another great clue!

Thanks Everyman for a very enjoyable offering.

I too thought this was straightforward - but recognising the alliteration grid before you start certainly helps! I thought there were many above average versions of usual clues today. Top work. @julesvern I’ve noticed more and more of those types of clue appearing lately.

24a anyone? Thanks

24: defn. "hollow", parses as 3 ("lair"), 1 ("edge of forest")

24a anyone? Thanks

Thanks geeker. Got it. Had the crosser wrong.

Harder than normal, last 3 in the southeast corner took most of the time, LOI 21A not heard of that before and took me far too long to get 22 and 24 (once I got 24 I got 22 easily though, then had to think for a while before guessing 21A).

About 1h40m which is slow for me.