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OK! Like a lot of posters, I made heavy weather of solving clues, but I had a good day today. Now I'm stuck again, mainly in the SW quadrant.
Hints for 20d and 24d would be much appreciated.

Yes, Brendan, I fell into the same trap at first, but wasn’t happy with it. Wondered if someone who bundled from place to place as a lodger would work. If you check a word with 3rd and 5th the same, an alternative to a word with U second and doubled middle letter, you will see the pronunciations are identical, even though it looks improbable

That's brilliant, I've looked at the pronunciations and, as you say, they are identical,

I'll put it aside for the night and have a crack at the endgame tomorrow:-)

Thanks again for all your help Quisling,

Happy to help Brendan. I’ve bored people enough on this thread, so I’ll say goodnight. Disappointed with Alireza in the Candidates. Can Nepo hold on?

Thanks for the heads up,quisling, re the extra word in 28a. I had 'A' as the extra word, but it didn't seem very satisfactory!

I too have Bradford's on Kindle and find it very useful, though there are many oversights: TOILET, for instance, has 'Water closet' as a 10-letter entry but not 'WC' as a 2-letter entry.
Also, after a while of leaving it open without using it, the search icon disappears, and I have to re-open it to get the search icon back. Do you have this problem?

jif73
20 Down
Definition = last word (with 6 letters, 4th goes into entry at 6th)
Sides are used for hands shoes etc (? & ?)
They appear separately within a word for sharp associated with taste
24 Down
The clue includes a word to be removed, so, that apart, its normal.
Four letter saliva-spattered "music" afficionado with first letter removed plus 6 letter word for "confined", also beheaded.
Both beheadings involve going for a pee.

BRENDAN

Came late to your request for parsing hints and lost track of where you were

7 Across
The certain type appears in the clue at 2 Down
34 Across
Behead the first word to get Cuban ballet star, the operative word for his profession is French but not EURopean. For the skill levels think martial arts
28 Across
Definition last word, Hairy is an anagram indicator. One word in the clue is to me removed, so, removed word apart it operates normally.

Thank you Turast:-)

Oh goodness, I finally have a full initial grid with the spare letters etc identified. Slow but relatively steady progress as one clue / spare letter gave a tiny step forward for the next one. I think based on that experience, the initial grid fill was challenging but ultimately fair.

I think I have something that looks plausible for some of the final step (survivor) but need to do some more staring to get the characters wending towards something.

A long slog, I have the grid, I can see 5-letter and 9-letter names but not the 7-letter I think I'm looking for. I can see the destination. What I have accounts for 10 changed cells so I presume the 7-letter has 4 changes.
I think I see the survivor leaving the destination but for that to work (with the 7 extra words) a particular letter in 35a needs to remain unchanged. In my current solution 30d though changed remains a non-word. Any hints on the 7-letter please? And as for the graphical fate - beyond colouring, I have no idea!