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That was more to my taste than last week. 5d was a phrase new to me. A lot of clever clues.

I miss the days when Everyman was a pleasure not a plod.

Good day. I agree with you both, a little better than last week but still a slog. 5d I have never seen before and does not seem like a phrase well used. Have not got 19d yet. 13d I cannot parse but somehow got the word.

So a mixed picture for me. Rhyming pair, hidden, primarily, no spooner. No theme.

19d hint would be welcome if you are in the mood.

Have a good day.

Hi Yevrah
19D definition is hilly area. Think of it as two distinct words; if you were to reverse them, that would give you arrive (perhaps unexpectedly).
Agree, these Everymans aren't getting any easier, but I just about managed to navigate a path through this one with no help from fill in the gaps tools, etc., which was a relief after the last few weeks. Still took me twice as long as what I guess we now have to call the old Everymans, though!
COD 13D

PS Both 5D and 9A suggest that Everyman is now an American. Navy Seals? Why not the SAS?

In this week’s crossword blog on the Guardian site, the current Everyman (acknowledging that there have been many comments recently suggesting that the puzzle is getting harder) asks for suggestions of a specific Everyman puzzle, from at least before 2020, which is the perfect difficulty level and generally hits the spot. He may then recalibrate. So there’s the challenge!

Yevrah, for 13D the two phrases are examples of the solution?

Hi Jono
That's interesting... not least because it seems to imply that there was a conscious decision to make the puzzles more difficult. I wonder why?
Funnily enough, I thought the difficulty level was about right this week. It reminded me of doing Everymans 30 years ago (when they could take me all morning)! But, for me, the main issue in the last few puzzles wasn't the overall level of difficulty but the individual clues that were so convoluted (e.g. partial anagrists, obscure abbreviations, etc.) that they could only be parsed retrospectively, after recourse to a fill in the gaps tool. Thankfully, they were conspicuous by their absence this week.

Ahh, just read the blog in question and learned that he doesn't acknowledge he's deliberately made it more difficult at all. In fact, he seems to imply that it's a rather bizarre case of mass hysteria - someone said one of the puzzles was hard and we all believed it ... which, err, made the puzzles hard. Good to know it's our fault rather than yours, Alan.

I enjoyed this one and breezed through to the last 4 so bit of a return to form in my opinion. Thought there were some great surfaces eg 14a, 24a, 2d but many more. And, like Phil10000, really appreciated the lack of 'total dog's dinner' clues!