Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Hi FemmeNoire,

I think you've already answered 20a, so do you mean the parsing? If so it's an anagram of 3 words in the clue with the "Trump finally" replaced by "Biden at first".

Ah! I thought so.....

24a - 3 letter word for a "charlie" + 5 letter word for "values" - definition is "fertiliser".

Oof. Very pleased with those new - to me - words but stuck well and truly on 7d despite all the posts on it. I can find an answer it may be but seems so dissatisfying. Without wanting to spoil for others, what does old men have to do with it???

Hi Lucy,

7d - "old men" is the definition (but it's spelt with an acute accent over one of the letters - it's another word like "rake".

PS I bet you were pleased to see the much overlooked 19d get a mention:-)

Thanks Brendan - got it! My LOI and still not a favourite clue by a long way. And yes, very pleased to see 19d making an appearance. When I first saw 6 letters and Shakespeare I thought it's prob H***** again.... 11 and 20 CODs just for the joy of the words (though I needed one look for 11).

9a is also the name of a London theatre. I’m wondering if there’s a connection with our protagonist ??

Well spotted Jono, I completely missed that. And thanks to the magic of Google, can confirm that 5d attended a performance of the Chaste Maid of Cheapside
in 1973 and went backstage to see the cast afterwards - and complimented one of the actors (American) on his Welsh accent. No other connection I could find!

Thank you everyone

I've just finished. Like many of you I started well, but then ground to a halt, especially with the "new" words at 11ac and 20ac.

But I was grateful for some hints here to get some answers. Like many of you I was stuck on 7d and 16d and parsing 3d. My FOI was 18ac, but that's because I didn't get 1ac and 2ac. Fortunately, I got the actor straight away, which helped with some of the others.

Must go and eat, back next week.

Ah, well done Lucy, good to spot another theatrical connection!
14a is also connected I believe via a rather old ITV production

Hi femmenoire @69,
Regarding grid libraries, most of the English broadsheets have them:
Guardian: 65 grids
Times: 50 grids
Telegraph: 60 grids
FT: 16 grids
Independent: you can design your own subject to certain rules

Certain grids are favoured by some setters and some are notorious for various reasons. Very occasionally the grid design itself plays into the solution, as was the case with this ‘H’ grid in the past and more recently one with ‘plus signs’. I was given the Guardian library by one of the regular setters. I’m not sure how else you get hold of them other than by contacting the crossword editor (?). Let me know if you’d like to see it, though it comes either as a plug-in for ‘Crossword Compiler’ software or as 60+ individual pdf files which isn’t very friendly!