Correct. I'm hoping my local Gedling lad will beat him into a pulp tomorrow, but I suspect Carl will lose. Well , Carl has said he is not retiring whatever the outcome. He should have been nominated for SPOTY

Yep, and he's a Forest can too I believe...thinking of our debacle of a season might fire him up a bit!!

The shop is trendy and cool for skirts

(Darts)

(6,8)

Martin Phillips? (Shop = mart, trendy = in, cool = Phil (rubberfaced impressionist), skirts = lips)

Superb! Well solved

Peculiar law trick. (Football)

Bit tricky this one as both 'peculiar' and 'trick' are anagram indicators.

Can't make anything out of 'law trick' as the fodder though, so maybe 'trick' itself is the AI.

Doesn't necessarily mean 'peculiar' and 'law' are both fodder though, could be a synonym of 'peculiar' and an anagram of 'law'. Or something completely different

Peculiar is the only AI. 'Law' isn't the fodder itself. Trick is surname clue.

Alfie Conn ?

Not Alfie Conn.

(4,3)

Ah! Ruel Fox?

law = rule = anag = Ruel

If you trick someone you can fox them, so Trick = Fox

Correct. Well done.

To be fair lots of hints were needed

Flower, I bet endlessly!

(Football)

(6,3)

Young player signed by a PL club recently.............

Must be Jordan Ibe then

It is

Popping in to say Merry Christmas one and all.

(Football)

Happy Christmas

Merry Xmas Ig and everybody

Merry Christmas all. Flower means river,I keep on getting confused by that one despite years of doing the Times crossword

(3,8)

Tiny could denote Tim someone maybe...

Would Tiny Christmas crackers be an anagram indicator for Xmas, someone called Max or Sam

No, it is something you would actually find in a tiny Christmas cracker