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Hi Roof,

1d - 3 letter "no" goes around/'rings' 3 letter "for each" - definition is "item of table linen"

4d - 1 letter "head on lap" + 2,2 "it's me" - definition is "cap"

16d - 4 letter "VW car" + 4 letter "one of thirteen" - definition is "driver, say"

How is your husband getting on?

Sorry Roof,

16d - should be 4 letter "VW car" + 4 letter "one of thirteen in pack"

Jono @5,

Thanks for the "oft disputed" reference in Wiki - I missed that last night:-)

A relative novice still, I finally made it to the end.
Are there two clues here using the same definition (5 & 23)?
First: 14,9
Last: the sneaky 6,24
Liked: 2,28
A long time ago I worked on legislation intended to regulate the sunblock referred to in 25 . . .
Thanks to Paul.

Some have commented that they found this on the easy side. Maybe only relative to Paul's usual hijinks. I still thought it tougher than the average Prize level of difficulty. Add me to the list of those grumbling about 5a as well. I was disappointed in myself for how long it took me to parse 12a, considering. Very sneaky, but then it's Paul.

A lot of fun here, with some nice inventiveness, in the service of which I’m happy to allow the whimsical 5a (great description, Jono!). 19d stands out (of course) but 12a , 6/24 (LOI) also excellent. As a (British) Republican I liked the bumbling yahoos in 3d, and we don’t see 17d linked to the 14a 9a nearly as much as they deserve.

Left with two , the intersecting 19D and 26A. I have ?E???D and P???N respectively. I assume that the 19D clue is phonetic but still at a loss. Some strong hints would be welcome.

Hi Cymro, your N in 26 is wrong which is probably what’s causing you problems.

26 is one letter for ring inside four letters for teacher.

Did you notice the typeface in 19d? As was said earlier, “say what you see”!

Thanks Jono. I should have paid more attention to 20D. I just thought that the definition was close, a colloquial synonym of miserly and didn’t bother to parse it.

Thanks to Brendan way back in this thread for the parsings. In fact, I'd worked out all but 1d and still can't see the rings in my word for table linen.

My query with 16d was with the definition as Google told me 16s come in packs of fourteen, not thirteen.

Finally, I have no problem with 5ac. I just thought it was meant to be how drunk people speak.