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I'm still only a third in. Got a breakthrough on 10a this morning. I usually solve clues like this by establishing the 2 letter word, as there aren't many. As one of my consonants was already used up in a crosser, it meant there could only be one 2 letter word. Still took me too long to unwrap the anagram though.

I'll see how I go now. Definitely a US influence.

Much improved, thanks for pointers all.

I think I have the first part of 2d and of 8d. So 14a would help both of these. The only other one is 23 which, according to my crossers has no common word to fit.

Fernie, as a little nudge, “main” in 14a is that meaning we regularly see in crosswords, but rarely outside.
23d is a homophone.

Tada! Cheers Jono. I suddenly got 2d, as I suspected 23 was 'proper' and I learned to spell. But I still had to use a word finder for 14, then it was obvious. 8 was a little modern for me.

Good one.

Great, glad you got it sorted.

I had an issue with several of the definitions which seemed either too convoluted (eg 'supplier of stimulant' in 15d) or too loose/inaccurate ('may include many boxes' in 22a) Granted that box is a tree, but I highly doubt that any of the answer includes many (if any) of them. I didn't at all understand what the definition for 11d is either. And what/where was the anagrind for the last 5 letters of 2d? Surely it wasn't 'in resort'??

I'm still confused by the first part of 24a. I googled the four letters that surround the husband, along with band (as suggested upthread) but the only thing that came up was a singer of that name, not a band. And also, what about the 6th letter? Where does that come from??

I'll stop moaning now, but I definitely didn't enjoy this as much as normal. On the plus side though, I loved 4d and enjoyed the simplicity of 21d which made me smile.

Re 24, the 6the letter is the constant (in a maths sense). The band isn’t a musical band, but rather a strand or thread.
Hope that helps.

Has anyone invented a crossword hardness scale? If they have this would definitely be on the higher end of Everyman crosswords.

If when I started Everyman a few years back they had been as hard as this I think I would have quickly given up

As it is I've just got 5a, thanks for the hints. Now stuck on my last clue 8d.

Ah just got 8d and finally finished, phew! I definitely think of it as 2 words, not 1.

Ah, thanks Jono - I get it now, but I think that's a very loose definition. When I google the definition of it, I can't see anywhere that gives 'band' as one. No-one else on here seems to have come across that definition of band before either.

I'm clueless about maths, so I'm not sure what you mean about the 6th letter!!