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The first clue is a word for "incoming" (commonly used for flights) minus U ((the old U = posh/upper class chestnut which is well past its sell-by date).

Stretching out: def is stretching your neck when you're straining to see better. Wordplay is number of people in a baseball team minus last letter inside an obscure word for neck (2nd def in Chambers) which also means a rough steep rock or point, a cliff.

Thanks for C Bunty that has really helped, I have that in place now and see a new theme clash cell too.
Not sure about your tip for the I word though...the only 12 letter word goes elsewhere and doesn’t mean free from duty.

Hi Lumen,

The "free from duty..." clue is a 6 letter hyphenated word.

Sorry Lumen, I just meant it's hyphenated (obviously you know how many letters it has)

Thanks all...oo hyphenated, interesting, will think on.
Yes I didn't know that word for neck, but was reading it in Chambers as you were typing loge.

Got that, and finished NE too now. Slightly worried that my clash squares seem to have full symmetry, not just 90-degree...

I wouldn't worry about that Lumen, I think it just means the the two answers that make up each clash are at right angles to each other.

As a relative newcomer to the Listener I do find the instructions are often more cryptic than the clues. I eventually figured that any clashing square would have three corresponding squares when rotated 90 degrees three times. I then used this to highlight all the squares in the grid which couldn’t be clashing which gave me the locations of four unaltered answers to get me started.
Still not sure about the final instruction though.

Re symmetry, I took the rubric to mean 90 degree rotational symmetry, which is how the grid turns out.

Finished, brilliant construction. A lovely engaging workout.

I’m no expert but I still think the clash squares have full (or 360 or 180?) symmetry. Not 90 which confused me.
They are the same when reflected on both the vertical and horizontal centrelines?