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Finally got there. Chacun a son gout, but a bit mystified as to some of the praise for this. Just a cold-solving slog, not helped by the grid having the cardinal sin of double unches.

Then a fair amount of GWIT to figure out the quote. Then an entirely underwhelming finish.

Anyway, glad others enjoyed it. Not for me though.

Roma: thanks for that. I had tried to make my four 8-letter answers fit into the 9-letter spaces in the perimeter by splitting them into two words. This resulted in asymmetry, which, thanks to you, I now know to be unacceptable. I could still enter them symmetrically, with spaces, but the individual parts would not all be real words. Could this be the way forward, or am I still barking up the wrong tree?

Think I've finally unlocked everything and am satisfied my grid is now correct but the wordplay for 1a is proving annoyingly elusive...

Mark limits strike over lab gear

I've tried to see if the part of the answer "limits" a word for "strike", maybe reversed or "over" or perhaps it contains a word for "limits" without or that "strikes" an "O" but am getting nowhere and tomorrow begins another Listener, so please - someone put me out of my misery:-)

Brendan, it contains reversed 'hits' in a singular mark as in quoits/curling and (makes a change from 'support').

Oh my, thank you so much Granma, I can't tell what a relief it is finally understand it.

Granma!!!

Sorry Granama, that just shows how stressed I was 😂

No worries Brendan, my fault for trying to create a crossword-y user name 🤣

0pt0 post #122,
You've probably worked it out by now, but it's the latter approach.

Frankly, by the end of Saturday I had solved only 18 clues and I decided that did not constitute a quorum to let me proceed with the next stage of solving: so I decided to sit this one out as a spectator. I'm so glad I did and I'm looking forward to something a bit more approachable tomorrow.

Thanks Mattrom @ #128, but I still cannot make the grid work, so I am giving this one up.