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All good wishes to you, Barry. bassman 🎄🎶🎄

Ah! Yes, thanks @jazzgirl. The penny has dropped.
Mary Christmas, one and all.

As usual, nobody has mentioned the clue I can't parse - 9A.Where does the cryptic clue fit in? Thanks for all the help with 2D, 4D and 8A. Happy crossword solving and helping incompetents in 2024 to you all.

The first 4 letters of the answer are an anagram indicator of the last 4 letters. So in that sense it’s cryptic

Thanks a lot, quisling. I shall now retire to bed content.

Just wanted to say MC & HNY to you all, how much I enjoy this forum, hope 2024 is good for you all, pleased to have got over the nervousness of occasionally posting first, so to make up for that, am really late today. Still keen to see the speverend rooner return.

Thanks Jazzgirl for explaining 2d - despite the earlier explanations I was still none the wiser.

Although I can now see how it works from the wordplay, I had never heard of a compound anagram before and I'm still very confused as to how you are supposed to know about the definition not being at the beginning or the end of the clue, and the subtraction of certain letters when there is no indicator that these letters are to be subtracted.

I appreciated that the rest of this crossword was a lot easier than last weeks, but I missed the usual grids and the rhyming pair. COD was 4d.

Julesvern, compound (composite) anagrams are uncommon, especially outside the thematic crosswords like the Listener, Inquisitor, EV.

They aren’t always easy to spot. In this case, the wording of the clue gives a hint. “can be arranged to give” might lead towards “Rice and” plus the answer.

But they are among the hardest clues you will find in crosswords, and frequently baffle even experienced solvers. So don’t be discouraged

Just to add to what Quisling has said, whenever I see the word “this” in the middle of a clue I am always on high alert for the possibility of a compound anagram.

Yevrah, should you need a “Spooner fix”, look no further than today’s Azed where every clue either contains or results in a Spoonerism. Not for the faint hearted!

I think "can be arranged" is also a pretty strong suggestion of an anagram. But why not "This curry and rice" instead of how it was written? Puts the definition first.

My COD was 20a because it made me think of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Gave me a chuckle.

Merry/Happy Christmas to you all.