An interesting gimmick that was not quite as terrifying as it first appeared to be although we got hung up on 34a which with hindsight is a perfectly fair clue.
Parsing please: 10A (Tartare) Tame changed on single sailors with eastern sauce. I'm supposing the single sailors could be tar twice, with e for eastern. But tame changed...? 13A US conductors have... ...
A nicely chewy puzzle, which was a good workout, for which thanks, Agricola. But a very well-worn theme. Are there not some unexplored cultural backwaters we could mine?
And Season's Greetings to you too, Lionheart. A bit of a monster, this one, with quirkiness all the way through it from soup to nuts. Not one for the purists, I'd guess, but I thoroughly enjoyed the...
A top quality multi-layered puzzle, requiring a fair amount of lateral thinking to complete, but which thankfully ends unambiguously. Many thanks, Yorick - that was one of the best of the year.
We filled the grid eventually but decided that the alphabetical caper wasn't for us. We took a huge leap in the dark and guessed what should be submitted. Will our hubris be rewarded? Thanks, Gnomish...
An excellent (and far from easy) puzzle - even after spotting the theme it was tricky to find the correct entries which needed adjustment. Some nice clues too - with very tricky parsing to be done to...