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Happy with my solution but not sure I have an abbreviation in the final puzzle and don’t think I spotted an abbreviation in the original solutions. Only possible is a single letter E remaining at the end of 13a. Have I missed something?

I thought the abbreviation was 'tel' left after eliminating one of the "1 across". I haven't checked Chambers to make sure, though.

Tel is an ancient mound, a perfectly good word. In my view the abbreviation is 34d before applying the instructions. The preamble says "one answer is an abbreviation", so I'm happy it applies to an original answer, rather than the final grid

Of course. Many thanks.

Funnily enough the colour issue occurred to me this morning. I think blue is probably what's expected for reasons given earlier, but you could always hedge your bets and colour the cells sea-green.

I have deleted 9 items making 40 blanks (including corners); I have coloured 3 cells appropriately and filled in 6d. I fear I have missed something....

Ethik, your colouring is wrong. All 40 cells must be "similarly treated." 21 identifies what those blank cells represent.

I should add that your error is understandable. The first of the triad of instructions is self-referential; in the interests of consistency the second instruction should also be self-referential, but I assume it isn't. There is nothing in the preamble to say that the number of blank cells and the number of coloured cells must be identical, but geographically that doesn't look quite right.

I was struggling with this puzzle at first. Came to the forum and saw posts saying it was easy so tried again. Once I'd solved it I came back to check and saw how cleverly posters had nudged people towards the solution without giving the game away. Just thought I'd say congratulations to them.

Fair point, dryden!