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In retrospect, cockie's idea @21 was the way to go. I made it much harder, using frequency of digraphs (two-letter combinations.) The letters c and g in the clue answers are both digraphs and share the same first letter. Certain possibilities jump out at you especially when you consider that every "c" in the clue answers is at the start of a word. Also, with "i" appearing very frequently in the clue answers, it seems a good candidate for "e". I proceeded from there. Again, cockie had a much simpler approach.

I'm thinking! I'm thinking! No, I need more to go on... I now have all but two answers and still no idea how to start ☹️

Dsc, look at quisling’s post 61 and for number 1 insert R. This is what started it for me as I then used the Chambers app to list all possibilities. It narrowed it down to just one. Then link with 33 across. Hope that helps!

Great, thanks Unclued, that confirms what I was thinking for 9a which has given me at least 9 of the codings. Need to cold solve a few more clues though I think. Guessing there's no easy way to work backwards and get some letters for the solutions when it could be any number of coded letters.

All done. I still don't understand how 9a was the way in. I started with the assumption that the vowels were likely to encrypt to other vowels and that got me started as 4 of the 5 do (assuming I have got it right).

Thanks ginge for your tip re the title. That unlocked everything for me. Considering how I felt last night with half cold clues and an empty grid, I have earned my glass of red...

Unclued, thank you. Any hints for 22 please, anyone? I'm starting SO... but am not sure

Cancel that, I've got it!

I enjoyed this very much. 33a was the way in for me. Cold solved just under half. Using 33a managed to get a start on the coding, got about 20 of the codes from there then solved the second half in reverse by backwards engineering what I had in the grid, which was entertaining.

Incredible piece of construction, great effort Lysander.

Only loose ends for me are 8d seems a bit dodgy - I have a past participle but the PP of the verb in question shouldn't have the - ed on it as far as I can see, unless I've missed something?

And I can't see the wordplay for 23d. I have a word meaning stop short but can't see the not having a majority bit.

Thanks

23d is a 5 letter word for "stop short" (remove A), majority is the defn part.