Crossword Help Forum
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The clues...
Requests for help should normally include the clue itself, the number of letters in the answer, and details of any you already have. Any additional information or special instructions, common in Listener puzzles, should also be included.
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I'm heading out for a long, leisurely lunch - hence the early start for this thread.

Pleasant hour for the gridfill, short grid stare (even for me), pleasant finish, no parsing loose ends.

Pretty good for a close-to-beginner lever puzzle.

In full agreement with Smellyharry.

I agree with first two posts!

A good, clear puzzle, though, and, for me at least, a welcome respite from the tougher challenges of late.

I agree that this was quite straightforward. And a neat endgame.

As a ‘close to beginner’ myself, I can only agree with the comments already made. Certainly the quickest one I’ve managed to complete (including endgame) in the four months or so I’ve been trying, so either I’m getting better or it was very easy. I suspect a combination of the two.

I do have a couple of questions, though:

1) The only clue I’m struggling to parse is 3d. I’m sure I’ve got it, and know what the ‘corrected’ clue reads, but the wordplay eludes me. Any subtle hints would be appreciated.

2) I was surprised that 2d wasn’t indicated as ‘two words’. My Chambers, at least, shows it as such - unhyphenated. Have I misunderstood the convention relating to hyphenated and unhyphenated words and phrases? It wasn’t a problem - the answer was clear in this case - but I could imagine tripping up over this in future.

Barneya,
3d. parses as 'bill' (3), minus last letter, in 'rustic' + a 1-letter abbreviation.

barneyA - there's a little bracketed italic note at the end of the Chambers entry for 2d saying "also adj, often with hyphen";but since the entry is pluarlised it isn't an adjective and should be shown as two words

Speaking as someone whose professional career involved some responsibility for 2d, I can confirm the entry should be 2 words.

And yes, this is firmly at the easy end of the spectrum. (Uncanny how the time required seems inversely proportional to the free time I expect to have each weekend!)