Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Thanks Geeker, and that is exactly how I read it - 3 (also) + 2 + 1 and 1 for the two "a"'s but I can't see where "poor" comes in.

Thanks on the thematics, Brendan. I hadn't thought of the "i puzzle" but should have. Call that one semi-thematic? ;-)

Really enjoyed that. Good to see Brendan back, looks as though his last prize slot was May last year.
I have 5 thematics for sure. 5 of the greats.

Re 24. The first word is split 3,2. The second word is 1, 3 (rev), 1. Poor defines the 3 when read backwards.

Theme?

I can't parse the second word in 24 either.

Quite quick, but stuck on my last two, 26a and 20d. Any hints? I thought the "extreme characters" in 26 might let me shoehorn a Z in, but it appears not!

Ah! The reason I couldn't parse the second word in 24 is that I had the wrong second letter. It seems that I have always got that wrong!

Chris, I made that exact same mistake.

26a parses 4 (cut from 5 letter word for county), 2 (extreme characters - these letters form part of one of the thematics).

20d I parsed this as 2,4 reading from the bottom.

Thanks jono. I had thought that for 20. Back to 26!

Thanks again. I carelessly had the last letter of 14d wrong.

Jono, I’m confused. My second and fourth letters of the second word of 24a are the same, so reversal is redundant. Maybe I need coffee ☕️