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Thank you.

Hi orson, I agree re the proofing of the puzzle or lack of ?
Cycling as a device is moving letter(s) in order from front to back or vice versa (like the motion of pedals) rather than using an anagram indicator; here pass => the required answer.
Lima is from the phonetic alphabet, L placed in "Looking like Paddington".

I am surprised that this thread has gone dormant for a couple of days. Perhaps everyone has either completed it or given it up as unsatisfactory.

I have still got 9 unsolved clues, and have no idea how to expand the thematic answers. I have tentatively fitted 8 answers into the SE corner, but they don’t seem to help with further progress, though they do suggest an end of a word on the main diagonal.

The hints on this thread are not as helpful as usual. The suggestion of ORATORIO for clue 20 has not been retracted, though my answer is much shorter than that. We have had suggestions of a 9-letter answer to 27 and an 8-letter answer to 23, both needing expansion, yet only one expanded answer should be longer than 8 letters.

Any further hints would be welcome. My unsolved clues are 3, 15, 23, 25, 29, 30, 34, 35 and 36.

Hi rad, expansion here is not increasing word lengths.
20 is (4).

rad - 23 is 7 letters, not 8, the suggestion for 27 is correct. The clues are pretty poor I think [eg - the wordplay for 23 seems to includes a non-word 'peac' to sound like 'peek' = ''spy'']. This, together with the carte blanche element, and the lack of answer lengths makes for a distinctly unfair challenge in my opinion - that's probably why the thread has gone cold.
The 'expansions' are relative substitutions for each of the thematic answers .

I'm afraid it would be a slog to count through the clues each time but here's a couple of the ones you've listed [assuming i've counted correctly] -
3 is an anagram of AU COAST V
15 starts with a 4 letter word for 'affection' reversed.

25 is the actor who appeared as 'Kent' aka...
29 a 6 letter word for 'gentleman' around R, all followed by the sound of the letter L.
By the way, 'relative' in my earlier post refers to size, not family (I'd hate to lead you further astray - the setter has done enough of that in the clues).

Many thanks, Ginge and Drxx. Plenty to ponder on now...

Still struggling for completion - if I hadn't got so far I think I would have given up. It's the NE corner causing concern, everything else is filled in. Clues:-
Mark runs
Go away abandoning son
Reportedly one might go round 'The Eagle'
Embroiled in a quarrel, a test for couple
Help please.....

Hi bigf, the 1st 2 are thematic (I can give more details if you need), 3rd homophones ( think (in)famous/embarrassing in terms of sporting achievement? British Olympian), 4th written within &littish.