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I kept asking myself if this week's Prize by Vlad contained some sort of sub-theme - I finally decided it didn't, at least not one I can spot.

What got me wondering was the numerous references to contemporary (and not so cotemporary) people and events in the public eye.

We've got references to a new sports movement, 2 singers, an artist, an actor, and a politician.

FOI was 1a followed by the crossing 2d.

I didn't find it too difficult but there is still one clue I can't fully parse.

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

13a is the clue who's wordplay I can't quite see, although I am sure of my answer.

COD - Lots of great clues but I've narrowed it down to 16d - I wonder how Geeker and our other overseas solvers will fare with this? and the brilliant 10a - Took flight like Batman on drugs (7)

Thanks to Vlad for a witty and entertaining crossword.

Let us know how you got on and, if you get stuck, just post your query on here - we're a friendly crowd and there'll always be someone on hand to help.

Stay safe:-)

Hi Brendan,

Thanks to Vlad, one of my most feared setters, for a rewarding but tough Prize. Vlad's most recent Prize was on the gentle side, but this is a return to impalement mode. Not an outright beast, but far above median difficulty.

Started out really slowly, got frustrated and didn't enjoy things at first, but managed to chip away at a few short "low hanging fruit" clues. Surprisingly, 16 was one of the first in, practically a write-in!
Made grudging progress thereafter, and had a lot more fun as many ingenious clues slowly revealed themselves. [Hint: a couple of long anagrams, but they might require some crossers.]

FOI 11, LOI 27 (a real challenge, uncommon -to me- usage and still not absolutely sure of parsing).

COD definitely 14. Short list for COD included 18, 22, 7, 10, and 1d. Seven more clues on the long list, ultimately much to enjoy.

Can't see a theme but I often miss them. Noticed some music and perhaps cinema references, but nothing major.

Curious to see what other solvers think. I've struggled with some recent Prize puzzles that many considered easy. 😉

Hi Geeker,

It's always interesting to see how difficulty level is such a subjective thing.

I should have known better than to think you'd be stumped by 16d 😉😂

27a is tricky but I think it's 2 letter "very much" around both 3 letter "affected" and 2 letter "banker" with definition being "drink in celebration".

My hesitancy comes from the fact that Chambers thesaurus also gives the first 4 letters as meaning "affected"!

Brendan, that's how I parsed 27 and I hesitated for the same reason! That particular usage ("drink in celebration") was new to me and I had to consult a dictionary (NSOED). Maybe I got overconfident after seeing 16. 😉

BTW, I noticed a new and weird forum feature today. If I type in a fairly long post and wait long enough so that the "I'm not a robot" check mark disappears, parts of the post sometimes vanish from the screen! But they reappear when I check the (now blank) red box.

The exact same thing happened to me!!

On completing my post I opened the Forum in another tab to check if you'd already created a thread and then returned to mine only to see half of it missing with big gaps appearing as well.

I started to rewrite it only for the missing parts to reappear.

I don't know what's causing it but I'll notify Norah so she can tell her son.

Brendan, that really freaked me out a few times. I thought I'd lost a couple of long posts.
But as far as I can tell, you don't need to retype anything: Just check the "I'm not a robot" box again and the material reappears.

Reading comments below, looks like I had a similar experience with this one. 1a and 1d were FOIs which helped with the top half (1a reminds me of the Two Ronnies “crossword on a train” sketch - for reasons I can’t explain without a spoiler).

I heard someone on the radio explaining the derivation of that golfing reference just a couple of days ago which was lucky because I wouldn’t have known it otherwise.

Also struggled with 27a. I’ve heard the word used that way very casually but it’s not in any of the three dictionaries the Guardian uses as far as I can see.

I wonder if 23d required a last minute edit in order to reflect recent events ;-)

Morning all

1a was new to me and I didn't get it despite having the constituent parts.

Came here to find the parsing for 27a, so thanks for that brendan.

Brendan for the parsing of 13a, it splits into 2 parts. 2 letters from the clue and then 7 letters which is an 8 letter word (from the 2nd word of the clue) with one letter removed.

minty

Thanks minty for the parsing of 13a, obvious when explained!

i had to keep checking the setter - much easier than a typical vlad!
a couple of parsing problems, though.
i've got the copper in 7d, but don't see where at least 2 of the other letters come from.
if 20a is an anagram, i have niy unaccounted for.