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Although crossword completed I cannot fully parse 12a. Help gratefully received.

Hello uncle_w

I make it the starts to env... and st.. (es), then pale (=light), all reversed.

Well, I have a full grid at least. Minor miracle in itself. I have the narrator and the groups. The letters are a challenge. Is there an accepted standard reference for which words can represent one letter? For example, in 16 I am assuming electricity is e (and a sneaky two letters missing) but Bradfords does not show this. Would that be where a chambers is needed or is it online somewhere? Am not liking some answers where the missing letter is duplicated and might be either and also not liking 32 where using r for right suggests a bogus missing letter (at least I assume such as it is rather distant from the other 15 I have)

Thanks Crossharp.

rrrRobbo, hats off to you if you've been completing the Listener puzzles without Chambers. The setters use it; not only for many verbatim definitions, but in particular for all those little abbreviations you refer to. In this case, Chambers has E as electronic. There's no missing letter in 32. It's tempting to over-complicate this clue : 4 letter word for previous spouses, 2 letter abbreviation for right.

I am holding out to win one - somewhat of a catch 22 situation! My point on right is that it could equally have been just r, leaving the t as an unclued letter. Thanks for the help. Suspect I will need more......

Fox example. Can someone explain 33? And is the title of any significance? Not seeing the drawing or the significance of the g in 30 at all and I think I have 21 letters.

Ah. Got the picture!

Hi, rrrobbo, I’ll echo Meursault’s compliments for solving these puzzles without reference to Chambers!

Did you parse 33a in the end? The definition is “I’m industrious”, and the wordplay gives US for “me” surrounded (“having . . . cover”) by BYE (a type of “extra” in cricket). Two further letters (B and E) are in the opening of the thematic work and hence are omitted from the wordplay. I’m surprised that this expression isn’t in Chambers.

As regards the title, I thought at first that “it” referred to the rather dated, but popular with crossword setters, abbreviation SA for “sex appeal”, but I see that Chambers actually gives the first two words of the thematic phrase as a definition of “it”. So we could regard the thematic work as a note penned after “it” started. According to a biographer of the “narrator of the work” (referenced on Wikipedia), the thematic work was written after the author’s relationship with a long-standing friend became sexual, so the work could be regarded as a “post-it note” in that sense as well.

Many thanks. All makes sense. As an avid and still active cricketer, I am somewhat embarrassed!