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It’s over, extra, s (middle letter/essentially of tasty), inside dole, a small portion, so it says in Chambers

Thanks quisling

Thanks quisling. I've never come across "essentially" being used to indicate the middle of a word.

Is it just me, or does anyone else think this crossword had too many deletion-type clues? I hate those, because they're impossible to solve just from the wordplay - you have to get the answer first then work backwards.

Agreed MadWoman, what a slog, here's a couple more I've got but can't parse:

23a Words at the back of US magazine Time for long-term residents (4,8).
'Life sentence' works with crossing letters.

2d Monitor what initially Stroud Vehicles takes north (6,7,4)
'Visual Display Unit' I suppose.

17d also annoys me:
Chicken at first laid onto warm foil (5)
A: cheat. This only works if cheat can mean foil, and I don't think anyone ever uses those two words as synonyms, even if they are in the dictionary (I haven't bothered to look).

23 - words is “sentence” and US magazine is “life”

2d - VDU is in Stroud vehicles backwards

Thank you Candledave.