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Congratulations to Jonathan Crowther (Azed) on reaching the milestone of Azed No. 2,500.

I’ve been doing the Azed puzzles in the Observer for around 30 years, but that represents only about 60% of Azed’s output.

Looking forward to the 50th anniversary in a couple of years.

Hear hear Wintonian - I've only been doing them for a year but have grown very fond of his ways, and am hoping that we'll be allowed to go to his party in September!

Three cheers for Azed!

Mind you Wintonian, his effort today looks particularly fiendish - I think it could last me all week and still not be finished!

It's really not too bad once you've worked out what the instructions mean!

Many congratulations to Azed on reaching this remarkable milestone.

My congratulations, too. And my heartfelt thanks for many hours of brain teasing fun.

I remember doing Azed in the early 1970's, when I only had Chambers to help me, and had a VHC in the clue writing once. Stopped doing them when the children came along, couldn't devote the time. Been doing some of them recently, and of course I had to have a go at this one. Not quite complete, but getting there.

I'd like to add my congratulations to Jonathan Crowther. What a performance!
I've been doing the Azed for about 10 years but I can't recall many that were trickier than this. Fiendish sums it up very well!
The main difficulty is the four letter words - trying to work out if they're all correctly sorted.
I have a full grid as well as the missing clue. What I can't find yet is what goes with the second half of 15d. Also unsure of the final letter of 25a, and are there two same endings in the topmost down 4 letter words?
I made a list of them all and tried to coordinate but there's a limited number of time you feel like doing that!

As usual got them both minutes after posting. Still not sure about the similar endings in 3 and 6d . Time for another list I suppose...
It's a superb puzzle but quite testing!

aspria,
the preamble says there are two identical endings in the 4-letter answers, so they could be at 3d and 6d.

May I add my congratulations to the setter. Well done Jonathan for an excellent puzzle. I have been entering the clue competition spasmodically since the 1980s but never achieved better than highly commended. This may be that last time I rise to the challenge.

If any of the regulars are planning to be at the September 26th event would they make themselves known? One of my grand-daughters is intrigued by the pseudonyms and I'd like to get a picture.

Finally on 29 down what is the Scottish row? The answer is the music enjoyed by Cowboy Joe (with n) as far as I can see but I couldn't find the row in the dictionary.