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Now I have read, and re-read 'til I am cross-eyed, all the posts and am obviously being very dense about this Crossword (as ever I hear you all chant) but although I have the theme, I cannot see where or what I am to colour (even if I have an idea of the required colours). Furthermore (despite the hints from all) I seem to be stuck in the SW corner having real difficulty with the other clues, I think I have defined the theme removals (but knowing how many of those would help) but am finding the rest of the clues very evasive. Will plod on, hopefully with requested hints flung at me.

MM, I don't know if this will help...
Take the clash at 1A and 3 D - the two letters can be arranged, in the correct order, to form an abbreviation to a location, a specific location in the thematic matter. And if you've got access to the item itself, you can see where the colours come in.

manic mary

Not sure what you mean about "theme removals". Do you need hints on any specific clues in SW corner?

If it helps, there are 17 cells with 2 letters, 2 cells with 3 letters and 5 thematic cells with 1 letter.

The object that malone refers to is the key

Hi Mary,
I was at the same place as you a while back.

Then I googled British "theme word" layout. Theme word is 8 letters.

When you see that, you will know what colours to use where
and what the 1, 2 or 3 letters in a cell represent.

It is not as "dicey" as it looks.

The words you take out of some clues before solving lead you to the 8-letter theme word. But there is no other use for them.

manic mary

further to my previous posting, and with sunrays help, I realise what you mean by "theme removals". There are 10 of them, in 10 different clues.

Thank you all & jijjag in particular, knowing there are ten removals helps as I think I have them all. Poor explaination on my part, I have completed the SW corner and it is the rest of the puzzle that is only sparsely populated, am now going back over the last lot of hints to try and un-block the 'little grey cells'. Would like hefty hints for 1A & 4A please.

Hi Mary,

Answer to 4a is given in post #47 by malone.

1A is 4 letter international sports organisation reversed giving 2,2 phrase

I haven't tackled EV in years but I thought I'd give this one a go as I had some time on my hands. I managed to fill most of the grid and get the theme very quickly (far easier than IQ or the Listener), but once I'd interpreted the somewhat cryptic preamble I was staggered to find that the only way I could get the right final result was to but 3 letters in two cells. I agree with those who have said the first sentence of the preamble is just wrong.

I also think it's wrong in another respect, though I may have overlooked something. The entry at 8d surely does not contribute to the colouring but it has no extra word or words. It does have a thematic word, which is not to be seen anywhere else, but if that is removed then the clue doesn't work.

murky

I think the clue works. Remove parking -

Cancel =def

every year - annual
remove second a (starter for Auto)

Many thanks to all, am now down to my last 5 which I never thought would happen, a few queries to work out and then I must get the colouring set out.