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The clue for 1a(2) appears to be:
Sham cuts following number one in such circumstances (5)
F?C?S

Please help

In response to Bananabean from the other thread.

1 across part 2 clue is Sham cuts following number one in such circumstances

3-letter word for sham (also means to perform on stage) inside (cuts) F(ollowing) + S (number one letter in such)

Hope this helps

Thank you. I guessed the word but couldn't justify the wordplay.

I have several across answers which I've guessed, without fully seeing the wordplay eg 17ac (7), both of 18ac, both of 19ac!

Any tips welcome

thanks

17 (7 letter answer) Usual abbreviation for Royal Engineers + N(ew) + what steam engines had attached to store coal minus TEN

18 7 letter word is a stack of tables (also what birds build) around E + 3-letter word for to long (for)

19 7 letter word Abbreviation for Ecstasy + 3-letter word for error, crime or wrongdoing (usually used in religious context) round usual 3-letter abbreviated word for salesman

Hope that gets you moving!

I'm struggling with 13 (4-letter) and 14 (both). Is the 7-letter of 14 in BRB? I have most of the letters. I'm assuming the 3 defs are dry, pews and African (or possibly African predicant).

Yes, the 7 letter answer of 14 is in Chambers. Your defs are correct (including the predicant). The shorter answer of 13 is very fiddly - it may help to know that it's "about after skin on enormous turned dry".

Finally completed this brute. There are several answers I have yet to fully work out, but I think they are correct. Is the unch in the first 14a a "T", because I'm perplexed as to why it is. That has to be the toughest puzzle for quite some time, and for a long time I thought it was too tough. Another slog of cold solving most of the clues before you can even start to fill the grid is, in my opinion, stretching the limit of fairness. It was more like a quiz than a crossword.

Yes, Gitto. The clue is words 3,10,11,12,14. And 3 is what the sun might do