Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Brendan, on careful perusal it's much more than a mini-theme.
At least 20 thematics (many rather amusing), including practically all of the downs.

I recall Brockwell going for themes including all acrosses or all downs, but I don't quite see that here.
I hope he didn't incur the dreaded aftereffect of the thematic munchies you mentioned! 😬

Apologies for possible spoilers, but 12a / 21a is a wickedly funny thematic pair! I just figured this out, so bump my thematic total up by one. And I now think it's likely that all acrosses are thematic, but I'm too dim to get all of them.

I’ve counted 14 theme words.

All done bar 1d. Is this something you put in the ground? Any help welcomed.

Hi Lucertola,

1d - NO, it's a double definition. First is a 'teacher' and second 's 'nut'

Geeker, good spot. I saw 12a but not the connection with 21a.

Including the theme word itself I have 16 now.

Apologies for erroneous capitals and other erroneous keyboard symbols.

I turned on my laptop tonight and, for some reason, both Shift and both Ctrl keys have ceased functioning, meaning everytime I want to write an UC letter I have to use caps lock and any inverted commas or other signs that usually need use of the Shift button, I have to open a floating keyboard I now have pinned to my task bar - so annoying1 (see what I did there with the exclamation mark) - yes Bren, hilarious Zzzzzz 😪

Thanks, Brendan. I see the fact that it's a DD but am still bemused by the teacher bit. Is it a very good tennis player as well? Thanks in advance.

Thanks Lucertoala, but I think you might not have got it right yet

I'm not a tennis expert but am pretty sure none of the top seeds have that name.

For the 'teacher' think of a shortened version of the person in charge, and for the 'nut' think what it might be a slang term for.

Finished, but didn't find it easy. Never heard of 12a, and don't see the connection with 21.
Can't see any sort of theme. Is it a word or object one?
Can't see the parsing of 13a.