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Another here who has a Telegraph subscription, purely for the EV. My subscription will also cease if they do decide to stop the EV. I use it for nothing else.

I also have a subscription to The Times, again only for the Listener. I have a three monthly battle with their subscription team to continue my subscription on a "deal" as I do not want or need anything else in their newspapers.

There was a big to-do a couple of years ago when the Independent, then The I, was about to cull the IQ. JH led a strong campaign to retain it which garnered a lot of support from the barred crossword community. Successfully.

I hope that the EV followers can do similar. I'll be up for any form of campaign. Never missed one for years and post every one in to HQ. (Until v recently, of course)

Oh and this week's was yet another cracker.

I can't tell you how many times I felt like giving up and posting here for the final 10,2,4,6 phrase - I have everything else bar the actual answer for 30a and the parsing for 10d (although I was able to see that the W from 30a came into play).

However, I persevered and, just moments ago...Eureka!! Eleme......

Good morning Brendan. Like you I had an Eureka moment yesterday on the phrase = and then promptly kicked myself.! The answer to 10 down can mean a longer 8 letter word beginning with those four letters but it is a rare usage.

AHHH! How did I not see that!!

Thanks AP, any thoughts on the 'vegetable' clue - I've seen all the hints but they've just made me more confused. I assume it's not MAR..... but what else?

It begins with C and is good for your eyesight. It needs to be completely peeled rather than just topped.

But that would create a TW clash in 25d which isn't a rare ....

Also, how exactly is it parsed and what does that make the 1st letter of 30d?

The root vegetable is peeled, i.e. both the first and last letters are removed which means that the last letter of the answer (def bolt) is unclued. Cell 30 is filled by the only single letter member of the group and this creates actual words at both 30a and 30d. There is some debate earlier in this thread as to whether the entries in both cell 30 and cell 3 actually belong to the group, Thank you for supporting the save EV thread.

Thanks brendan for your heavy hint to the final phrase - I was just about to post myself.
I too only have a subscription in order to access EV online. I have been doing it for years and it is highly satisfying to get to the end, usually with a bit of help from here. I will also be cancelling if EV goes, very sad...