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This week's offering is a heavily themed affair by Maskarade, who many of us know from his Bank Holiday specials.

I have to say right of the bat that, without Google, I could never have even come close to completing this, but that said, the wordplay was clear so maybe others won't find it so taxing.

If you do get stuck there are at least two long anagrams in the downs.

There are still one clue I can't fully parse:-

3d - I get "girl brought up" and can see a rarely used abbreviation for "small" but can't find any justification for the last bit coming from "notebooks".

COD - I really liked 11a and 20a but my clear winner is 16a - "Spoke of politician with kind of wooden raft" (3,4) - brilliant 😂

Thanks to Maskarade for a quirky and fun challenge.

Did you enjoy the theme or, like me, did you have to rely on the internet? Let us know and, as always, if you do get get stuck - don't hesitate to ask for help - we're a friendly bunch and there'll always be someone on hand to lend assistance.

Stay safe:-)

Hi Brendan. Re 3d, to parse split it into note and books.

Ahh that's brilliant - many thanks Lucertola:-)

Hi Brendan,
Not to be a spoilsport, but I didn't greatly enjoy this one. I avoid Maskarade's jumbo bank holiday puzzles, but did enjoy one of his regular-size crosswords.

Thanks to Maskarade, the puzzle's witty, but I just haven't yet connected with his style

I saw the theme quickly, was able to write down all the thematic answers except 7. Needed Google to solve 7 and to verify the other thematics.

FOI 4, LOI 7.
COD 16 over 13 and 20. Also enjoyed 8, 12 and 24.

For the parsing of 3, break "notebooks" into 2 words...😉
I can't parse 7, but my patience had run out by that time. 😂

Hi Geeker,

Yes, this is a theme I can't really get excited about but I'm sure there will be many that will love it.

7d - "Roles from Ken Loach film" is 5,2,3 then "first televised" + 4 letter "in fact".
- I'm guessing the film wasn't widely shown in the US but it's pretty famous here.

Thanks for 3d - I got the last bit of wordplay all mixed up:-)

Thanks, Brendan.

The thematic clues are good, but I groaned when I deduced the theme due to lack of the required GK. In fairness to Maskarade, the answers are reasonably accessible from wordplay, so even ignorami like myself have a chance.

Ken Loach's films are also unknown to me...😢...don't think he's very well-known Stateside.

Geeker, thanks for the Agadmator link last week. His latest upload is a Hans Neimann match which includes a link to another to a video from Yosha ( new to me) detailing the "evidence" against HN.

IMHO this 'death by rumour and innuendo' is a pretty poor - I think people should either put up or shut up.

Thanks, Brendan.

I've seen a lot of Niemann-related video over the past week.
The Yosha Iglesias material has gotten a lot of attention: apparently their (correct pronoun for trans gender?) statistical analysis is crap, but the "Stockfish correlation" of many Niemann games is suspiciously high, and remarkably often = 100%.

I looked at some of the hinky games. Yoo-Niemann (2020, 0-1), see 1:03:13 of this long video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE1arhF51uo

is really questionable and engine-like IMO. In the video, GM Caruana says (among other things) that Niemann's play is "out of my league". But that's still not proof.

FIDE has promised an investigation of both HN and MC, so there's hope for some kind of resolution. Maybe cheating, maybe slander...

Sorry, the "out of my league" remark was for Niemann-Gretarsson 1-0, about 57:00 into the above video. That game is also hinky, even more engine-like than the Yoo encounter.

As mentioned by Brendan, most unlike the usual jumbo puzzles by Maskarade. FOI 8 quickly followed by a couple of the long themed clues - helped by recollections of an old wooden jigsaw puzzle that I did as a child - appreciate the theme may prove tricky for non UK solvers.
Some clever and witty clues but alas the hallenge was over all too quickly.