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A cunning ruse that sets this one apart, unfortunately I'd got most of them before I twigged so not much benefit!

Is the cunning ruse, the answer to 1d or something else I’ve missed?

...And I only twigged after reading this post, so no benefit at all! Very clever though.

I'm having trouble parsing 13, and I hope people here can help! Obviously the first four letters come from the second two words of the clue, but I don't see how the remaining four words give the last six letters.

'Shop' is an informal term for the next 5 letters with 'one installed'

Yes, in 1d, there is no 21 across. The clue was perhaps taken from another puzzle without modifying the reference to this number.

Yes, shop=inform or tell also.

I'd never heard of shop as inform before, but now I know :)

In 1d, if I take ‘like = as’ straddling the rest of the letters, then it should have been animal, not animals. Correct?

no, there are two animals between the a and the s, mathi

Oh, ok. That is correct. I thought the first animal or nag there is also a synonym for straddle. Thanks.

Try entering the singular answer to 1d into Google and seeing what it suggests!