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Thanks, Loge, for your kind words. I try to be on call 24/7, if I get up for a drink in the night then I have a look at what you are up to😇.

As regards the numbering, I don’t ‘do’ technical in any shape or form but I’m wondering if the symbols used in some of these spam posts help to throw the numbering out, hence the Smiley to see if it affects it.

From the solving point of view, it’s difficult to find a cure as it’s such an erratic problem, it comes and goes as it pleases. Ash’s solution is to start a new thread if it gets too out of hand.

This was about the right level for me and I have completed. Thanks KevGar for a nice workout.
Having said that I'm still trying too parse three clues: 16 down (what is the Latin phrase in English?) 33 down (despite the hint above) and 28 down which doesn't seem to have bothered others. Any help appreciated.

All this completed after an excellent lunch at Holt Rugby (near my sandbank) which celebrated Ben Youngs' record caps - if only he were Welsh!

AZED this week is a gem incidentally

WS, the Latin phrase in 16 is "one voice" in English. 33 down is a reversal of the IVR code for Norway + another Latin phrase (2,2) meaning "and elsewhere" or, more commonly, "and others".

28 is a 5-letter word for a group of ships around the usual ancient city that crops up in crosswords. The first word is the definition (noun).

Thanks loge - your help is appreciated.

William - there are a good many England fans that wish Youngs was Welsh too.

Done, dusted by Monday night - not bad for me.

Very clever construction - thank you, KevGar - which was very daunting at first, but got rapidly easier as filling progressed, largely thanks to the Chambers app.
The extra word cross-checking, once the thematic penny had dropped, was useful, but not absolutely essential to complete the thing; for instance, I'm still totally baffled by 12d and have no idea what the answer to the clue or the thematic object, either added or removed, could be - although everything else works and I'm sure the grid entry is robust.

Also, 35a doesn't appear to have a definition - unless it's some kind of obscure &lit; and I can't find any meaning for the complete answer; the thematic object removed to give the actual entry at 35a doesn't appear in Chambers, and
actually also commonly means something extremely rude in another language. But the extra word cross-checking confirms that there's only one solution.

Some hint on both these answers would be nice, but now only of academic interest.

But lots of nice words, some new to me, so thanks again, KevGar.
Setter takes exceptional material sacrificing length for general intelligence.

Hi Quixote,

12d - this was one of my favourite clues (once I trigged what was going on) - the "lady singer" is 2,2 and you definitely know her (pay particular attention to "lady") - grid entry is defined by extra word in 10a

35a - is actually a double definition and most definitely in Chambers! Original answer 2 letters - grid entry is defined by extra word in 22a.

Sorry Quixote, my chaotic cross-referencing again ...

12d - is defined by extra in 8d not 10a

Thanks to KevGar. This was my level - slow progress but got there in the end. Took ages to work out 19a/d - mainly because I wanted to put the last letter first. I can’t remember learning so many new words in the entries -e.g. 1,7,14,26
Had a chuckle at 12.

Ah - Brendan, thanks: I already had both the 12d and 35a entries sorted and cross-checked with the appropriate extra word definitions that you indicated, and also a perfect cross-checked fit in the grid in both cases - it was the 'real' answers to the clues that eluded me...

...as does 12d still - I can't get who the 'Lady' is, particularly as she's very short - only 2,2. But a happy half-hour worrying her out is in prospect.

35a, I had the whole 2-letter answer as only the first part clued by 'Live' of a postulated compound word, the second element of which, clued by 'element' was a different 6-letter element which gave the correct last 3 letters of the entry (as confirmed by both extra-word and grid cross-checks) minus a three-letter internal sequence that I could not find in Chambers, but that I convinced myself on Google was an authentic thematic item. But I couldn't justify what that made the 'real' answer to the clue - not a real word.

Of course, I was completely wrong - added thematic material, not subtracted - and the same material added twice, and interlinked, to boot; but a very convincing red herring - must have been a deliberate trap by the setter.

And I note that the correct answer to 35a brings up the whole elemental Upper-Upper case or Upper-lower case controversy again...