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Morning, all. Loge, if I am still WTFing after about fifteen minutes I jack it in - my life really is too short now🤣

On reading a preamble I am very often afflicted by WOE!.

(Standing for 'What on earth!' Which is a more drawing-roomish version of WTF. But nowhere near as expressive.)

Someone on here used to write finell to get round the censors. Took me ages to work it out, I had to say it out loud with feeling before I got it.

Got the quotation and think I've sorted the end game (6 empty cells?) but would welcome help with two clues:
21a Call up and (con)fine first female guards (6).
31d Fight started by (im)pious man is cancelled (6).

Hi Notnil,

21a - 2 letters for "fine" surrounded by "first female" - definition is "call up"

31d - 2 letters for "pious man" + 4 letter "fight" - definition is "cancelled"

PS - 21a is 5 letters not 6.

Brendan, many thanks. A mistake at 1d left me struggling with 21a. No idea why 31d was elusive. Happy now.