Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Not today Brendan. Gearing myself up to do the Park Run at 9am. Back to Italy on Monday though.

Agree with all this is not just an easier puzzle. It is very clever. 11a at first sight looks very simple but actually became my COD because it is beautifully crafted. Thanks Philistine. A good start to what looks like being a fine Saturday.

Very quick fill - 1,4 a write-in for a good start - but I too am puzzled by some that don't seem cryptic at all, or the construction seems wrong. I agree that 25a could just be a DD (I'm just about to give my attention to the second definition!). Not seeing the cryptic element in 20d yet, or the cleverness in 11a.
Doesn't 10a need to be the adverbial form?

Well that's the first time I have ever completed a Prize in about the time I usually spend on an Everyman. Very enjoyable, NW virtually a write-in, so a good start.

Enjoyed the spoonerism, still don't understand 13a but hopefully I will be able to parade later. LOI 8d which could only be one thing once I had all the crossers but needed Google to confirm what a Birkenstock was, so something learnt today.

Thanks Philistine, and good weekend all.

Same here, completed in record time and glad to see from other comments that I hadn't just missed something!

Chris, I agree about the grammar in 10a, I couldn’t resolve that one.
Also agree that the spelling options in Chambers for 25a make the wordplay element somewhat redundant, a “?” might have helped to show the option.
I assume 11a parses 2,3,1, but translation tools aren’t necessarily helping me.

I don't think I've ever finished a Guardian Prize this early in the morning. FOI 1A and LOI 20D. Easy and very enjoyable..

jono - it's a long time since I was in Spain or South America but I took it to be 2,4 ....

I've got my daughter, who is studying Spanish, to explain 11a to me. She agrees that it is 2,4.
A bit extreme to expect us to be fairly fluent in Spanish to parse it, though!

I'm still struggling to see the cryptic element of 20d. And given that the clue must be definition as well as cryptic solution, why is it plural? What am I not seeing?

Castafiore
The fact that you’ve spotted that the solution is singular but the clue plural should be your first step to seeing the cryptic element.