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Apologies, yes, in 5a the ‘one’ is a two letter word. I do have the green tick

Hi everyone

Started late as usual - about 3.00pm and initially I thought it was hard but got 14ac and then they started to go in steadily. I finished most of the bottom half and thought of joining the forum then, but I plugged away and have finally finished. There are some I cannot completely parse. One was 6,24, but Jono has explained that. It was a real PDM as I'd got the second word for ages before the first word dropped into my head. The others I can't parse fully are 12ac and 20d.

So, I think I must agree that it was relatively easy as I'm usually on the Forum asking for hints ages ago. Like Geeker I had to look up 22ac and my husband, who is the musical one, knew the answer to 4d.

My FOI was 14ac, my LOI was 20d and my CODs were 21ac, 27ac, 28ac, 3d (I love this word)

I forgot to say - I'm having a pre christmas meet up next Saturday in Yatton with my sisters and their daughters. My daughter will come too. I like the symmetry. I have to deliver the xmas puddings and xmas cakes I've made for them. I hope to be back before dark and will start the crossword very late if I have the energy.

I expect we'll get a special puzzle for Christmas eve, so don't expect to start it until after xmas.

Hi Roof.
12A is clever - took me ages. The answer would commonly have ED at the end for when you're annoyed. It parses as a 7 letter word for a type of dog, with 3 letters removed (1,2) for an abbreviation of a good man.

Hi Roof.
12A is clever - took me ages. The answer would commonly have ED at the end for when you're annoyed. It parses as a 7 letter word for a type of dog, with 3 letters removed (1,2) for an abbreviation of a good man.

Hi Roof,
12 if you insert A and another two letters for “good chap” (a bit of an understatement) back into your answer you should get a (large) dog.
20d. Take the third letter and move it back up to be the first letter and you’ll see a word for ‘most outstanding’.
I’m also looking forward the Christmas puzzle!

Hello all. Today I'm stuck on:

26A - it can only be one thing with the crossers if the definition is 'move' but I don't know how it lost its independence.
10A - With all the crossers, I can't find anything that makes sense for the second word - and there aren't that many to choose from! I'm sure of 6D and 7D and I quite liked it so I don't think I have a wrong crosser. Maybe an expression that hasn't crossed the Pond?
19D is rather dubious if it's supposed to mean 'spur' or 'poke'? I looked it up on Wiki and I don't see anything about it being right other than the post suggesting that it's a word that is found to the right of "Cleopatra's". Maybe it isn't and therefore I have a wrong crosser for 25A that is throwing me off.

BTW, what is this 'green tick'? I finish this quite often but have never seen it.

Thanks to all the helpful folks out there!

Hi Jennaralissima,

26a - 6 letter "bird" (we had one as a pet when I was young) minus single letter "independence" - definition is "move"

10a - 3 letter "T-Shirt" (but could be any shirt) + 1 letter "fellow" + 5 letter "fair" - definition is "excellent"

You only get the 'green tick' on the Guardian phone app, not on laptops or other computers.

The app is available on Google Play Store for Android.

Thank you Brendan. I didn't think of 'independent' as being a single letter but I guess it could appear in an acronym of some kind.
Ah, of course: "IOF" for example.

I bamboozled myself by miskeying 6D (by reversing the second and third letters - easy to do on a keyboard but almost impossible with pen and paper) so once corrected, I got the virtual green tick (virtually anyway).

Thanks very much.