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Hi Brendan. For 18a, the word is mainly used now plus d for greatness. Otherwise I agree that this was a fairly gentle solve.
HNY to all and COYG

Rogissimo, thanks for the reminder of that sketch. I’ve seen it many times but I had to go and rewatch it.

I suspect faster solve times may be down to the fact that there are only 25 clues here. More usually we’d be in the 28-32 range and for some Guardian grids 33-34.

Happy New Year Everyone.

Not experienced enough to comment on the difficulty but this might be the first prize I finished without having to come here first, so maybe that's some indication.

Also managed to parse almost everything but cannot fathom how '24' becomes the required letters in 10a. Any subtle hints?

JuniorBee, you’ll kick yourself I suspect. See your answer to 24d

Rogissimo. Thanks also for that little cultural reminder. I used to know the Cheese Sketch almost word for word but haven't heard it in ages and can't think where it occurs. It's very rainy here in Devon today so I'm off to YouTube to revisit.

How obvious.

Thanks Jono.

I also missed the significance of the numeric reference in 2. Had 2 completed before 14 but failed to spot the hint until after I had solved 14.

Yep, a gentle end to the year
FOI 19, 24
LOI 2
COD 1d - I like the ones that make me smile.
HNY to you all.

Philistine often includes a reference to his day job as a surgeon, I think in this case it’s pretty clearly 17,15,1A

Ahhh Jono I thought he must be a doctor.
It was a slow start for me, mainly due to an inactive brain, but then I surprised myself by finishing all apart from 6d. Please can someone put me out of my misery and give me a hint, I think it must be obvious, but has so far escaped me.

I did have trouble parsing one or two completely, eg. 11ac and the middle part of 16d. My FOI was 21ac and my LOI will be 6d and my COD was definitely 25ac. That's the one that made me laugh. It took me ages to get!

Happy New Year to you all

Hi Roof - HNY
6d the setter isn't a crossword compliler! It parses 2,2, with the first 2 reversed.
11 last letters of haplesS felloW...
16d first 5 letters are initial letters