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Thanks. Yes, it was the wordplay that gave it to me. Can't really see how that word means the definition, but it's in the same ballpark so I guess it will do

Agree it’s a bit of a stretch. The best I can come up with is “with . . . sincerity”

Finally stumbled over the line. I made hard work of this one but it was rewarding in the end. I have a couple of queries.

16a - I can't see the wordplay
8d - shouldn't the solution have an 'S' on the end to match the definition?

Ah, I can see 16a now

I think you're probably right about 8d Simond9x.

Now finished, excellent puzzle, a fitting finale from Dysart. 'isolated in May' (4606) remains comfortably in my top 5 Listeners ever. A work of genius.

Farewell and thanks also to JEG. Can't be many people put that amount of work into a single unpaid job anywhere in the world ever. Unbelievable effort.

I really enjoyed this. Agree with you smellyharry about Isolated in May and about JEG!

Happy New Year to all. I have all the pairs that are possible for the playfair code but it is beyond my capacity to work out the codewords. Is it reasonable to assume that the fully encoded placename in the SW sector involves at least two pairs of letters in the same rows not columns? This might give me a fragile hand hold on the lower slopes

Happy New Year.

A fairly obvious line/row can be found in the encoded down clues' initial letters and thematic title - the 7th pairing is particularly helpful (and in combination with the 5th pairing it should give you an in).

I'll have a look at that tomorrow. Thanks.

Happy New Year to all.
Annoyingly, and fairly crucial to the solve, I am stumped on 10 and 42.
Any hints on the parsing would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks