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Arrghhhh indeed. I'm quite happy to kick myself once I get the answer. I have a complete mental block now. Help!

Sorry Martin - I seem to have inadvertently made things worse.....

it's Two Thousand

Thank you, Ixion. As they say, I couldn't see for looking - which would make a good clue in itself. I shall sleep soundly tonight. Many thanks again.

I have the peripheral clue but am bewildered by a few things. 26a: I don't get why the S falls outside the main grid; it seems to be part of the clued entry. 33a: I have STEMSON but don't get what the apparent N outside the grid is for. 7d: I'm missing a letter for tbis; don't know what the word is, obviously. 30a: I have FAR_P with O outside, but don't get either the five- or six-letter answer.

I have 30A, having realized that 25d isn't TOP HATS but rather POT HATS.

33a - three-master is ter-son

26a Defn part is "layers contributing to platforms" - cryptic part gives the answer in singular, hence the s is left as the extra

We take our pot hats off to the lot of you. We usually take two to three days to do the AZED but we just cannot get started on this one.

Thanks, ixion! I still have one letter missing from the puzzle, below the top A in 7d. As a non-Brit I really have to put a figurative pot (or shovel) hat on to polish these tricky little devils off.

if you have the Japanese broth - all you need is cheers up - thanks/ta