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After the excitement last week of Everyman's 250th puzzle, normal service is once again resumed with a fun and not too taxiing offering.

I didn't notice a theme (when do I ever!) but did spot a rhyming pair.

Actually, I say there's no theme but 1a, 23a, 27a and 6d do hint at someone in love... perhaps off to13d on a honeymoon 😘 or maybe I'm just an old romantic 😍

The only query I have is with 2d where year seems to be doing double duty, being both as part of the definition and contributing to the wordplay.

COD - I'm going to go for a tie between 3d because it made me laugh and 4d due to it's elegance and brevity.

Thanks to Everyman for number CCLI 😀

Please leave a comment letting us know how you got on and, as always, if you run into problems, just post your queries on here.

Stay safe:-)

Maybe Everyman is getting married. Maybe add 26a to your list, but I think you meant 21 instead of 23. Agree that this was quite gentle, and I had the same reservation about 2.

Brendan, this was on the easy side but (paradoxically) very well clued, if that makes sense.

My crossword fantasy, not yet achieved, is the total write-in. I try to get one easy clue and then crawl through the rest of the puzzle (not in numerical clue order), writing in solutions based on crosser(s). Came within a single clue here: needed one extra crosser for 16, but all the rest went in straightaway.

FOI 1a, LOI 4.
Most clues were good with just a couple of clinkers (e.g. 22). Favo(u)rites and co-COD 14 and 10. Thanks to Everyman.

You're right Darla, I meant 26a not 23a and you can definitely add 21a to that list.

Geeker, I don't think I've ever had a write-in either, I invariably use an anagram solver so I suppose that disqualifies me 😥

Agree that the quality of the clues was particularly high this week.

2d - I made a mess of explaining my query with this.

What I meant to say was that the first part of the answer is clued by "Vietnamese festival that starts year" but then "year" also seems to be used to provide the wordplay for the a letter - have I misread this?

Brendan, I agree on 2.
It's a bit like the "Indian [reservation]" in Imogen's Prize, 8: logically dubious wordplay that gives a clever surface.

I saw it as 3 letters Vietnamese festival, one letter year with 4 letters offspring mostly in the middle. The fact that the festival does actually start their year is just a happy coincidence.

...or sloppy clue writing and poor editing - it's always known as the festival in Vietnam that starts the new year and I'm sure, with a bit of thought, that the Y could have have been derived from the clue being rewritten to include 'unknown' or 'variable'.

I'd be more inclined to call it an unfortunate rather than happy accident.

It DOES make sense. I thought the same; not too taxing but some lovely clues. COD 21a or14a. Not sure about 2d ( maybe a lack of general knowledge on my part). I can’t parse 16d either. Apart from that, very quick but satisfying. 😊

( I was replying to Geeker)