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Didn't find the grid fill as easy as other folk - a good two hours. The end-game seemed straightforward, unless I've underthought it; just nine contiguous cells.

Very nice, easier than most weeks.
That said, I don’t have first letter of 33d, and not sure what Andy was to wear?

33d starts with T ....TIED is obliged ...change the i(one) for op(work) to get toped indulged /drunk excessively

he is wearing 42a ...you GET the a(answer)

Oh yes thanks, I had two foodstuffs for him!

Many thanks to drxx and malone for the posts above.

After I'd given up searching for the gangsters, my route was to look for word/s associated with kidnapping that could be formed by including andy.

This led me to the two word phrase solution.

I then spotted the possibilities of the two three letter words on that row but the abbreviation between them put me off.

So, thanks for the enlightment. And very humble apologies to anyone that I might have misled with my own earlier posts.

(Oh, and another embarrassing confession: I spent more than a few minutes trying to make sense of the indexed letters from the DOWN clues.)

Last one in...38a 'Name eschewed...' I have the crossing letters, pretty sure it's the food item etc. Haven't a clue how the clue works!

Hi Granama1,

A "Cambridge townie" is called a "snob".

....minus/eschewed N(ame) + A(rea)

Thanks Brendan. I tried putting the whole thing including the 'n' in an anagram app but forgot to knock the a (area) off so didn't even get close (:o(