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Hi all, first time posting on this site, really great thread on a great crossword from Claw!

I'm in a similar pickle to Boson but it's in the bottom right quadrant instead, have only 3 clues left to go, rest filled in, but I'm worried I've gone wrong with filling in as can't see solutions!

The clues are
"Stir drink..."
"Explosive fervour"
"We're told Harry's.."

Any confirmation that I'm on the right track or nudges appreciated!

Hello, keeper - yes, they're all there.

Some hints -
The explosive is 3 letters (acronym).
'(To) stir' emotionally [a noisy drinking session, minus a letter].
Harry's wife causes pain, by the sound of it (but the homophone needs the dropped letter to work).

Hi keeper,
Those three are indeed all in the bottom right so looks like you are nearly there.
Harry’s wife is exactly who you are thinking of. Her last letter is the superfluous bit.
The explosive is a three letter acronym and the word for fervour starts with the superfluous letter.
With the word for drink noisily, the first letter is the superfluous one.
Hope that helps.

Thanks for the interactive grid Jono ; )

Hi Keeper. Got all the hints you need?

Finally finished today after putting it to one side as too mind-bending with only 20 clues...
What a wonderful construction, Claw, with a triple pangram: superfluous letters in wordplay, perimeter of completed grid AND the rest of the completed grid! What a pity it had to fall foul of the curse of The Grauniad!

Thanks so much to drxx and Jono who helped with my query, and to lurssen126 for checking in, sorry for delayed reply (was offline a week) and thanks for the hints, most helpful and grid completed! Turns out I had the wrong variation of answer for 'celibacy...' which really slowed me down, shows to always account for the last bit of parsing!

Jono interactive grid invaluable and thanks Claw for an excellent puzzle

Nearly there with the clues, having started filling the grid yet - started rather late with this thanks to family issues. Does "County bridge...etcetc" have anything to do with.... you know, news as it were?

I don’t have my copy any more, but I think county is the definition, bridge partners are two of the usual suspects and rude message is a modern usage which gives the extra letter

'bridge opponents...' (E+S).