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Actually, on second thoughts (or is it third 🤔), I think my original parsing of 12a is correct. I've just looked up the Salvation Army and they're a religious group and not soldiers, so that wouldn't fit.

Thanks Rog, our posts crossed regarding 12a.

Thanks all, 19D understood now.

Not wishing to give you third (or even fourth) thoughts, Brendan, but I seem to recall that they do (or did) describe themselves as soldiers (Onward, Christian Soldiers being their favourite hymn). But I still think that it parses as we first thought. ‘That’s horrid’ needs to be read as signifying the last three letters (albeit in an argot that I don’t favour).

On 19d. In passing, I have been there many times and it is well worth a visit if you're ever in that part of the world. A famous military history as well as excellent mussels if that's your thing. The water is so clean you can eat them raw there.

Definitely a challenge but enjoyed it. Very clever stuff from Picaroon good mixture of misdirection and GK. Some solutions not easy to parse but got there in the end which is all part of the fun and satisfaction . Hard to choose a COD 10d, 14a ,17d my favourites. LOI was 21a and FOI was 16a.
Thank you Picaroon it was great!

Finally finished, three days on. Really enjoyed it but probably the hardest one I've completed but I only attempted my first prize crossword a couple of months ago.

Good to see I'm not the only Monday finisher. I completed without any help from the forum, but neither of us, both maths graduates, twigged "e" as "base". I was pleased to see other people asking the question I came here to ask, about that.

FOI:19a
LOI: 22 (not a footy fan so didn't get the CP association, had to Google, as I did for the "never heard of it" Leicester ground in 10d)
COD: probably 8a, appreciating the unexpected 4-word definition which could have parsed so differently.

Last week, unusually, I didn't finish despite reading everything in the forum: by Friday night it seemed a bit late to ask for help!