Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Was somewhat unhappy with my parse - but took it to be - essential (noun: a necessity) outside abbrev. for what is commonly referred to as Holland with one of the letters being extra...others may have other ideas...

That seems absolutely spot-on to me, crates.

Thanks Crates and Will37: I had considered that parse, but could not make sense of the spare N. However, the penny has now dropped! Thanks again.

Thanks to Will37 and, again, Malone the grid is now complete and I can understand the purpose of the puzzle. I still however feel that 'symmetrically placed cells' misled - it certainly threw me off track. Once again can I stress how helpful this thread is.

Yet another great puzzle - thanks Aver! Just one query about the endgame - are all the instances of a certain letter to be shaded in, so as to represent the thematic figure (in the images I’ve seen online) before the “1 acrosses” are placed at the start of the game? Apologies if I’m overthinking!

I’m enjoying this, a bit stuck in SE corner. Can I get a tip for 43a Indian one? I have an Indian that fits, but don’t want a J there! As it’s not a clash cell, I’m pretty sure.
Otherwise, 21d is eluding me too.

Lumen, 21 D is a three letter My!, Golly, Gosh + three letters of a common four-letter word for Subsequent. The 'stop' is to do with organ, musical stuff.

Thanks for 21 malone. Pretty tough one! Interesting extra letter. ( I don’t have second half of message yet).
Are you going to throw me a crumb for 43a?

Thanks, Lumen. I hesitated about 43 as I'm not a great parser.

There's a three-letter small drink (a very common word in Scotland), reversed +the usual Died +most of a common word meaning 'parched'.

Thnx, tatters and malone.
Filled the grid, parsed all the clues and completed the endgame, without looking at this thread - for once! Makes up a little bit for England's dire performance on Friday...
Hats off to Aver for a well constructed and enjoyable puzzle.
(I haven't looked at the other entries yet, so I don't know if anyone else has spotted one of the 'rude boys' from the thematic source work hidden in six consecutive cells.)