Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

That is an excellent line-up. I guessed wrongly that Rorem might have been in there as he was a Francophile. But to be honest I prefer the Americans you’ve listed!

ronpegram (from the duplicate thread)
For the parsing of 17d, cricket is involved....

Enjoyable but hard re 20a for the first word my crossers are ???g?i?g is that right. Any hints please for 21a & 23a

Thanks, ChrisE. There now. Previous puzzlement not helped by the fact that I had entered incorrect solutions for 2d and 20a! A lesson there - don't ink it in until you are sure.

Hi Birder,

20a - your first G is wrong.

21a - 2 letter acronym for "modern vehicles" then the "things like this" refers to crosswords so take the "interior" from "one who worked on.."

Thanks Brendan that helps 👍

Sorry - wrong crossers. Look again at 2d and think of a camp phrase for "how like Brendan!"
21a - last part of clue may refer to you. First two letters are a modern type of car
23a - Not the best clue in the puzzle. Definition if first three words - how you might need to be equipped to enter a theatre or a sports event, perhaps.

Sorry Birder, I forgot to mention...

21a - definition is "develop"

23a - 6 letter what you might have done had you wanted to show "clues you like" and that goes around 2 letter " extremes of theme" - definition is " ready to enter".

Thanks again only 2 to go now

Well that was a bit of a slog. I always look forward to a Brendan puzzle, and I've filled all the squares but it's one of the least fulfilling Brendans I've done. Too many answers I failed to 'get' - especially 5d (I went down the anagram rabbit hole too). As usual there' was a sort of leitmotif but not as pervasive nor as much fun as some of his other puzzles.

I was also wondering what the latter part of the clue for 12ac was about until I stopped looking at column 1.