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Thanks xij, though my older version of Chambers shows both fah and rah as real words - even if rah is a shortened form. I doubt if I trust in the setter's preamble...so I think that we are stuck with elimination of the 'impossible' (ie that RAF is the entry and impossible because that would be an abbreviation which the setter really should have told us about) and another impossible which is that the Listener checkers have lapsed in the same way in which they have many times before (in not identifying abbreviations...)

meursault, the angle word you could make is "briton", thereby confirming that 12a must end in r. The comment states "not angles (ie British) but angels", therefore briton and pommie, in the other word, should not be used.

Thanks Xij, I certainly see that. Though in the case of 30D, Pommel is the clued answer. In 7D, Chiton is the clued answer, and Cherub the final answer. So, in attempting to find a tie-breaker between RAF or Far, we're reaching out to an intermediate form of 7D...maybe... I'm not saying that it's impossible !

The way I see it meursault is that you have 2 "words", BRERUB and CHITON. Changing the last 4 from the down answer and the first 4 from 30d (altering an even number of entries) would give CHERUB instead of BRITON and AZRAEL (AZRAIE) instead of POMMIE (POMMEL), therefore 12a must be FAR. (I think)

Oh so close....I have almost everything with all the theme done, but can't see these to fully complete. 6 3rd letter. I plumped for m but cannot parse. 42 last 2. 36 1&3. Of course I have words that fit but no idea on parsing. A few others I don't quite get but I have the letters so still thinking.....thanks in advance

rrRobbo, I have K for 3rd letter of 6 (3 definitions). 42, I'm not certain but I think SCOT holding O (for on). 36, 'hostilities only' is HO.

Please can someone help with the first letter of 18d. I can't parse the clue though I know the letter L has to be removed from it. Thanks!

No worries, got there. Another well constructed clue.

I also have been bamboozled by 18 down and would appreciate knowing how to parse it.

Chuckled is chucked

So it's unethical (wrong)

Less I (one) cal(calendar)