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For the theme count, I also made it 21 across clues (9c, 5b, 6v, 1c/v) and 17 down clues (10c, 4b, 3v)

cheers Mathi - very obscure! I know some Scots words, but never heard of it. Nor has my Scottish wife.

When I first looked at this I thought “I’ll never finish this” and I was right! I have a block of four in the middle left: 34 and 36 across and 25 and 32 down. I have respectively ...D.R..., ...T.ES,
.E... and .... Any firm steers would be very welcome.

Hi Cymro,
34a is a three letter theme word, then three letters for ‘the’ German and a three letter word for smell. I hadn’t heard of it but google will confirm.
That might get you going...

25d and 32d both have the same theme word added. So you need to find the first two letter for each. Both common crossword abbreviations for church and degree respectively.

Thanks, Jono and Abicoop. I thought that the theme words were there somewhere as I was a bit light on the count.

Wow indeed. The things we remember! I was just skimming over to see if anything caught my eye for a FOI when I saw 34 A. I was swept back to my parents' 1950s cocktail cabinet and the strange South African drink they had in it which I think was a type of brandy. As a child I guess the name amused me. It certainly stuck and that was a real bonus for me!

Finally filled in the grid, though I can't claim to have "finished" it due to abundant help from Google and the forum. Really not my type of puzzle (first knee-jerk reaction was exactly the same as chrise's :) ), but it was well-done with many excellent clues.

Really enjoyed this, thanks Maskarade.

The only one I can't parse is 12a.

Any hints?

Hi everyone

I had visitors in the garden this afternoon, so didn't start until 6.00pm. I got four on the first read through (first one in was 16ac, which led me to one of the theme words. I got a few more, but lots still to do, so doubt I'll finish it today. I'll need a break for the Young Montabano at 9.00pm.

I'll be back for hints.

Happy Easter to you all