Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

I have a full grid and the two collaborators but completely bemused by 28 and 33 across. I think 28 was written by "Y" and 33 by "X", but I cannot parse either of them.

Hi giotto, 28a repeatedly discovered means remove outer letters twice and a synonym for tax reversed. 33a hermit is 1 type of crustacean, shrimp the other and the 3 letter answer meal as in maize.

Thanks ginge. I now see 28a, but 33a seems a little naughty to me. The 3 letter answer is fine, as is the 4 letter one for the immature hermit. The 5 letter one can, like you say, be a double definition, defined by the 3rd/4th words of the clue, but is not, as the 4 letter answer is, absolutely confirmed by the BRB.

Strangely deflated by this puzzle, considering that I am a fan of Ifor. I never felt completely on his wavelength at any stage. Some dense clueing and I was treading treacle much of the time. Ho-hum, perhaps I was having an off afternoon.

Certainly not an easy solve but produced a grin when the collaborators were revealed. Thank you, Ifor.

Not a pleasure at all. I feel that Ifor gave himself too many liberties. The top and bottom rows were of no help, being unknown. The down clues were, in large part, impenetrable, and it was only through a combination of blind luck and (increasingly fraught) stubbornness that I got anywhere at all.
The identities of the collaborators felt like a final flourish by Ifor: "Oh, how frightfully clever I've been!"

Yep. Managed to scratch out three answers then gave up. I think you can either have impenetrable rubric OR deeply convoluted clues but both at the same time is pushing it! Oh well

I must be a contrarian. 🙂 Once I'd got my head around the X and Y thing I enjoyed it. Tricky but do-able.

I agree that it was soluble, but I still felt that Ivor wasn't letting the dog see too much of the rabbit until a long way into the solve.

.....apologies to Ifor for the slip of the brain.