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A slightly tricky offering from Pasquale, with many clues needing some unpicking and one or two unusual solutions. An enjoyable, slightly longer than average, solve.
FOI - I had to go all the way down to 19a to find an easy ‘in’.
LOI - 25a: stared at it for a long time trying to make a wrong answer work.
COD - 27a, because it’s nice for someone in my profession to see the word in a crossword.

Pasquale has given us a Prize that is definitely on the tricky side, with some intricate wordplay and two words I've never heard before.

If you do get stuck, there is at least one hidden in the acrosses and at least one long anagram in the downs.

I'm still puzzled by 25a, where I can see a word that fits the definition and all the crossing letters and includes a "final word", but the letters around it don't mean "nick", in fact, they don't mean anything so I may have gone wrong somewhere.

COD - I'm going for 16d, it has a wondeful surface, is deviously cryptic, as well as being witty.

Thanks to Pasquale for a real challenge.

Did you find it as difficult as me or was I just not on the setter's wavelength? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Stay safe:-)

Aaagghh, I did have 25a wrong, no wonder I couldn't parse it - I had the wrong "final word"!

Hi brendan
Looks as if your first instincts were exactly the same as mine re 25a! And I’m guessing that Pasquale intended to fool us.

I think you're right and, if that is the case, he definitely succeeded 😂

rogissimo: have you really heard 27a before? Respect to you if you have, but I look at it and think "What?!"

I'm another one who was looking up the wrong tree as regards 25a. I wish I could have recorded the noise I made when I realised.

... the sound of copious amounts of pennies dropping:-)

Add me to the list of those bamboozled by 25. I wonder what Chris will have to say.

A very clever puzzle with just the right amount of trickiness for me. So many really smooth clues that I can't pick a winner. Suffice it to say I enjoyed this one.

Brendan

I'm in the same boat, trying to make sense of a non-word.