Lauritz

Just quickly chiming in to say that this has been an absolute pleasure to solve - witty, not trivia heavy and original hints. Such a pleasure to have something different from the perennial ETTA James. Been a while since I enjoyed a crossword as much!

As an ardent football (or for y'all, soccer) fan, I'm surprised by all the comments criticising the clue for 25D. I read 'penalty' as in punishment, got the clue without issue and it never even occurred to think of 'penalty' as a spot kick. Getting a red card is the ultimate penalty for any player to get in a game, after all.

Kudos, really enjoyed this puzzle! Great long entries, neat clueing and few obscurities. Whenever puzzles like 4/16 or 3/10 make me want to drop everything and cancel my subscription, I think of puzzles like these to keep me going.