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Thanks to my mate Don, and to one or two others on here, my problem with the initial letters of the solutions to clues which have an extraneous word removed, is now resolved. I still find it a bit of a frivolous weak link. I also share the apparent feeling of irritation with the wording of the preamble, which just seems annoying when you have completed the highlighting, which is entirely unambiguous.

I think many of the comments above are a little harsh. Yes the grid fill was a bit easy but I don’t think this would have been an issue if it had not followed a series of relatively easy ones. As with last week the timing of publication is relevant in relation to the achievement. This confirms the interpretation of the first letters.
I think the preamble was fair. I too was puzzled for a while but it was a clever and obviously intentional misdirection which added to my enjoyment.
Another thumbs up from me. I do hope we will get a tougher challenge soon though.

Wow - what a theme!

Perhaps perversely, given my recent posts, no real complaints; the topicality trumps the relative easiness - and I'm still totally foxed by the parsing of several of the clues; will ask about these later.

Apparently Stephen Fry knows the answer - it's all a lot of balls...

...Alice...base 13...you name it...

Thanks istenem, good fun.

Really liked a few clues, 19 across was fun and enjoyed the two containing multiple definitions.

Agree the preamble was a bit confusing, but I interpret that as a deliberate misdirection which simply made me think a bit harder, so all par for the course in my opinion. Didn't need the lengths of the missing words though.

Not sure what the title means. Why repeated?

And as others have implied, I am hoping for a couple of toughies to come along soon!

I believe the first word of the title is an adjective.

There is also a numerical significance

I must confess to being none the wiser about the title after gem94 & mprs's interventions. I just posted my solution off in the Saturday morning postal collection & hope that I haven't made any mistakes! Time will tell. In the meantime I add my thanks for a most enjoyable and instructive puzzle to
Istenem

I’m sure mprs is correct; reading it as adjective/noun would make it synonymous with identical outfit - I trust this can’t be considered a spoiler as it’s in plain sight - which is highly thematic.