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I don't think it is a container, murky. The first word is effectively superfluous. You just have an initial letter and then a long reversal

To clarify, Ionacarr, that's what "line" is doing in the clue

Quisling, you are right. I had a ? beside the second word, not having realised that 'for the' was an adjectival indicator. That still seems a bit of a stretch. I was so relieved to have completed the puzzle that I didn't think to recheck every clue for its letter count.

I could be wrong, Ionacarr, but that is how I made sense of it. It was the last piece of my puzzle, too

I have solved all of the clues, except for 20N and 37W. But I really can't see how to deal with the clashes, of which I seem to have 34. Plus 19 letters outside the grid. From other comments here, I must have made some basic mistake - but I can't for the life of me see what it was. Any advice or tips welcome!

I had a breakthrough moment when looking at some of the cells that surrounded a clashing answer.

Luftmensch, this has been alluded to earlier, but to summarise:
in terms of clashes, one might argue that the preamble has omitted an important piece of information:

Note by Admin - I deleted part of post as I was informed that too much info was given

I certainly can't say more without infringing guidelines, and have probably already done so. If people consider this too revealing, by all means remove it

Quisling, if the first word is superfluous what's it doing there? That was the point of my original question. If 'Taking' is meant to be part of the cryptic, then there should be a link (a copula) between wordplay and answer, but there is none. Thus a clue might read 'Taking X with Y gets you answer Z'. 'Taking X with Y, Z' is cryptically weak.

That, and other things, such as a definition in 30N that doesn't accord with Chambers (which gives viceroy's wife), make me want to abandon the puzzle altogether. I don't recall a puzzle as hard as this.

It was only after solving 20N and squeezing it into the grid that I finally realised the entry method (maybe it'll help you too?).

20N - think of another setting for a 'king' (and what that makes it) followed by a shortening of the next short word, and '50' removed from...

It's obviously there for the surface, murky. You do indeed have "taking A with a reversal of B + C, D". But in my experience many clues simply juxtapose the wordplay and the definition. The "copula" you require is hardly universal.

With respect I think you are mistaken on 30N. It's an 8 letter adjectival form of the main noun which overruns the grid, not a feminine. I understand you are irritated, but I think those objections are unwarranted