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LOI 13dn, and I wasn’t entirely sure about it until I zoomed out. If that makes sense. Bravo, Maskarade.

Thanks for starting the thread, rogissimo. I was about to (which I generally prefer leaving to others), so will just copy/paste:

Thanks to Maskarade for this week's non-jumbo Prize. I'm not big on the jumbos, but have enjoyed his relatively infrequent 15x15 puzzles.

Found this about average difficulty, maybe slightly on the easy side. Rather a lot of UK GK required, UK residents may find it less challenging. A significant number of short low-hanging fruit clues, but sufficient complex entries to provide good entertainment.

Can't see a theme but I often miss them. The grid is amenable to Ninas but none is evident.

FOI 9. LOI 13 which I also consider COD: even though I can't fully see the parsing, something very clever is obviously going on!

Clues 21, 8, 12 and 18 also came into COD consideration.

Hi geeker
There is a theme, which I only spotted when I looked at the completed grid, and which helped confirm for me what (I think) is the fourth letter of 13dn.

This week's Prize is a heavily themed affair by Maskarade (although I I do wonder how our American cousins will fare) but, that aside - and I know these things are very subjective and all that, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I think most solvers will find it to be at the very easy end of the scale.

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

I still haven't parsed 27a but the answer is clear and I'm also a tad puzzled by the use of the plural "partners" in 13d so I'll continue to mull them over for a while in hopes of a PDM or two.

Other points of interest:

2d - I can find separate definitions for "hair" and "fastener" but not one for "hair fastener".

1d - didn't we have a similar clue in last week's Everyman?

22d - did not know this little fellow was a parasite!

How many theme related clues did you spot? In addition to the obvious, I'm also wondering if there is any relevance to answers like 1d, 4d, and even if 8a refers to a specific c...........?

Thanks to Maskarade for a fun way to kick off the weekend 👍

Stay safe:-)

Sorry guys,

I'll contact Norah and ask her to remove my thread. When I finished my post there was not one up but then did a final bit of editing and neglected to check again.

I've got a few hours on most this week being in Australia but I think after a few tough weeks Maskerade was being very gentle on us here. On the easier side for a prize I would say.

Never heard of 24a and haven't parsed 19d yet despite being confident of my answer.

FOI 2d. LOI 10a. COD 13d or 16a joint. Thanks to Maskerade and look forward to other's comments.

Hi Brendan
27ac parses as 2,3, the 3 being a word minus left. Another clue requiring a bit of UKGK.

Brendan.

27a parses 2 3

Old name for railway plus freight less first letter.

Oh, and 2dn is a triple definition, and for 13dn ‘partners’ goes with ‘exchanges’ for the standard card game reference.

rocky7: in 19d you need to verbalise 2 and 3, if you see what I mean.