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thanks whistler

Finally finished this finely constructed puzzle. Hats off to Raven.
Just one niggle... I can't for the life of me satisfactorily parse 35dn. Anyone able to put me out of my misery?

The 'finish on...' gives the third letter in the answer, the rest is an anagram (bottled) of a word in the clue. The definition is the last word..

Thanks, Malone. I always take 'bottled' to be a container indicator but the BRB tells me it's yet another word to add to squiffy, stinko, stocious...
(I keep meaning to compile a list of all the words for 'drunk' to put in my Crossword Aide Memoire.)

Jif73, glad that helped. I just assumed - rightly in this case - that 'bottled' could indicate an anagram. I did once consult an online list of anagram indicators, but the list contained over 100 examples!

This was a lovely puzzle so thank you, Raven. Slow but steady progress over a few days, but I was never stuck and every time I returned to it I spotted something.

It seems that many people have blind spots on certain clues and mine is 10d. Please can someone explain the wordplay?

A 3 letter word that often precedes the 3 letter clue word (after alteration) suggests soreness [followed by 'back'/last letter of...].

Thank you, drxx. As usual my brain was stuck on a different interpretation of the wordplay.

I thought this was very good. Challenging but enjoyable. Spoiled very slightly by the non words from the clashes and not quite being able to hold the grid symmetry. But very good nonetheless. Particularly enjoyed the top right clash, never thought of that before.

Only loose end for me is 7d. I have the answer, but can't make head nor tail of the wordplay.

And, as usual, posting clears the mist. I have 7d now.