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Not too head scratching this week. Extra hint: many of the pairs are symmetrically placed.

I enjoyed this one - and was pleased to see the £30 first prize seems to have returned, that's two weeks in a row it's been shown.

PS It seems a shade early for an unsolicited hint...

Yes, very jolly. Getting 19 & 25d quite early on helped immensely.

I’m glad the money prize has returned (not that I ever win it haha); I still find it odd that they introduced the John Lewis giftcard, and odder still that it disappeared a couple of weeks later, as if the “experiment” wasn’t the success they’d hoped.

I agree, a nicely paced puzzle. However, 7ac (my last remaining!) is proving difficult, as it seems to me that the answer could equally be either of two words and still satisfy the clue. Or am I missing something?

Looked for nothing when leader makes U-turn? (6)

Piffleworthy
I think the defn is the first 2 words, word play the rest. Cannot see how to parse it with the converse.

Interesting. Not a puzzle I do, but I see the issue. The parsing is identical either way, it’s just whether you choose the first two words as the definition or the third. I think the natural reading has to be that the remainder of the clue qualifies the third word, so I would incline strongly to BuzzyBee’s answer

Thank you both. I'm sure you're right. I'm still not 100% confident but as you say, balance of probabilities tips it.

One of the earliest rules of thumb I was given when I started cryptics was that the definition was always either at the start or end of the clue. I know you’re a very experienced solver, so I’m teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, but I do think as a default it’s not a bad one

I must say that, before I actually started this puzzle, I was a little daunted by the idea of as many as 14 unclueds, once I started I realised that for every Waring there would be a Gillow, then it all fell into place reasonably quickly, although for one unclued which could have been Lennon, I spent a wee while looking in vain for McCartney!
I agree with what I think is emerging as the consensus for 7a, namely that the first two words are the def