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I've spent an hour after breakfast and have mostly filled the left half. My advice for anyone struggling is not to pay too much initial attention to the preamble, other than registering that some definitions need to drop a letter, others need to swap a letter and a third group are more seriously disturbed : just get some answers in. Many of the clues aren't too difficult, with quite a few anagrams and inclusions. Intuitive probably better than deductive. And my apologies for absence over the previous few weeks.

I completely agree - ignoring the preamble completely was a big help at the star. I really liked this one.

Good advice.
I'm not looking for answers or explanations at this stage since I've finished the puzzle and have no doubt about my grid entries. However, I'm puzzled by 3d, which, if I've understood it correctly, appears to link two items that are not in the same family group; I'm baffled by the definition in 7d, which seems incredibly contrived and convoluted; and I don't see the function of 'Spanish' in 11d since Chambers does not identify the word's etymology as Spanish.
Other than those queries and/or niggles, the clues were very good and the puzzle as a whole very enjoyable.

11dn : there is a "(Sp.)" in the first part of the Chambers' entry which includes the answer to this clue. 3dn : the Chambers' entry for "titling" includes a hyphenated word whose second element is the answer to this clue. I too am puzzled by 7dn. I rejected it at first but eventually had to accept it as the only feasible answer. For me the same goes for 32 across, presuming I have correct answer (you can eat it as a pie).

Dryden, I can't help with 7D either (I've explored anagram of cajoling without j, without success) - not yet completed the NE corner - though I'm happy with 3 and 11.

7d, to "commute (ie change) by a deep singe" is a horribly convoluted def. of "char", answer is a synonym of "charring".

32, "sc... now" means that the answer is a modern synonym of the archaic word "sc..." (this clue has a consec. letter substitution in "scone").

Stuck here on the end game (as usual).

I can see A, but not the three consecutive letters in an adjacent entry. Hint, please?

Relate is a big hint in the preamble.

Word is in a clue close to A

Thanks, baretter.
The spacing in the Chambers entry for 11 is very unclear since [sp] appears on a line by itself between two words.
I missed that definition of 'titling' (or rather didn't check it); I assumed the question mark was meant to indicate a jokey definition with '-ling' used as a diminutive. I suppose it is but not in the sense in which I took it.

To kilgoretrout: that's how I interpreted the definition in 7d, but as you say, it's horribly convoluted, and a very inelegant clue both on and under the surface.

djawhufc,

Thanks, got the whole thing now. Silly not to see it really, because I actually knew about the existence of B.