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Drxx - The preamble speaks clearly of “defined entries”, so we have to enter the word indicated by the definition, and not the word or meaningless jumble indicated by the wordplay.

alwayspuzzled - I'd go with rad, jigjag and ginge for the VACANT cells - it certainly makes more sense of the second phrase, and why the 3 entries cross with each other. But I'm not entirely happy with the way Ifor 'spaced' them in the clues.

malone - Perhaps I worried too much about the use of capital letters for 'VACANT' - did that bother you too? I find it even more misleading now!

I thought VACANT was capitalised for a reason...but maybe I was just making it fit my thinking? Whatever it is, I don't like it very much!

Yes rad, I see that now (I still don't like the caps though - the puzzle's title doesn't even use them!).

Drxx (post 30) - Thank you for that explanation of the wordplay in 28d. There must be another fairy lurking elsewhere. The ones I had were in 20a and 7d.

It has been a feature of the EV series right from the start, I think, to bring the title, always capitalised, into the preamble. As if to say, we didn’t pull the title out of thin air, it really is significant!

Can't win 'em all malone - it's times like this I'm glad I don't send them in - I'd begrudge Ifor the postage.

Hi rad, 30d. its(elf).

You have a forensic approach to EV rad - it's served you well!

I agree with ginge regarding 'elf' in the clue, which makes for a slight hybrid I think.