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Thanks prospero. Now all completed although my addled brain is still struggling with the word-play.

I'm still tuck on three. The first and last are thematic.

7a Sloppy cowpat in hood (6) -A-T-O
13a Cause to inflate? (4,4,2) -I-E, -I-E, -O
20A Red Planet discernible in detail, all basically looking to the skies? (4) -N-T

Any help would be appreciated.

I see you have them answered for you on answerbank

Yes I do.. Thanks..

I still haven't got 9ac, in spite of all the generous pointers. The 'inflation' in 17, 14, 8 seems to happen after the solving; which is grotesquely unfair.
I got as far as 4 answers to get, and was rather enjoying it. Then it became unreasonable. Boo!

You'll probably find this 'unreasonable' too (as I did) - it's a couple of, perhaps, pheasants around 3 letters, for an annual University competition.

Thanks, drxx - 'contest' is irritatingly vague; 'case' is stretching it too far.
I've noticed that my previous post was a bit incoherent; I knew what I mean, I think. The preamble was inadequate: I don't consider, say, 'sextet' to be a 'number'; finding the uninflated solution, then finding the split inflatable, then inflating it, and finally fitting it to the wordplay was too topsy-turvy for me.

Yes, that's pretty much how I feel, biggus.

This is only the second 'genius' I've bothered with (I quite enjoyed the first one) and it was noticing the amount of hits this thread was getting that got me interested again.
First, I grappled with the hint given for the clue everyone was stuck on (I'm another one who wouldn't have solved it without that hint!) then, when I'd got the answer, I promptly ripped up the puzzle!
Only sheer curiosity made me go back to it and finish it off. Some of the answers made it worth the trouble - but a few of the others went too far for my liking. Still, that's possibly the nature of the beast.

I realise we may have moved on from this now, but like many I had completed all but 9a, 17d et al and 20d. No wonder, I can see now. Perhaps I’m angry with myself for not thinking laterally enough, but agree with all the grumbles re the split synonyms and synonyms substituted sometimes by numbers sometimes by other synonyms and homophones not substituted and one number delivered in reverse. But surprised no one has mentioned the fact that, as far as I can tell, the university contest is two words, so surely 9a should be enumerated as (6, 2)? There might be an argument for saying that the split number joins the two words together, but by that logic 17, 14, 8 ought to have been enumerated not as (7, 3, 14) but (24). That would have really flummoxed us...

Had felt the recent vowelless genius to be the hardest I’d come across, but this is close. I suppose if the measure is clues left unanswered, the vowelless one still wins it in my world. But I do love these puzzles. Thanks, Paul. You b*st*rd

Hi I've been spending the weekend doing this and using all your help to complete it.
I have one left 19across. I think I know the answer but can't parse it.
can anyone help?
thanks