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There is a problem with this thread, where the first post to a new page will not show until another post is added.

Ignore my desperate please for help. The elusive penny... it's finally dropped!

Ah thanks mattrom, that's why I ended up doing a double post at #61 and #62.
Suzannahj, if you look at my post #57 and the reply at 58, it should help you?

Have come late to this one - having followed my team to France (where the stadium management is awful as widely reported).

Many thanks Lumen for post 57 and also for the suggestion to think symmetrically. Now, however , I am stuck, and as it's late in the week owner if any other hint could be offered. A change of letter produced an Irish name but there seems to be no obvious lead to a surname. Google isn't helping. The first (and second and third) divisions have all finished so I don't think a further nudge would breach etiquette.

Do you know what the thematic pairs are? I thought siblings. That was what slowed me down.

William - have you tried putting the letters in the relevant column into an anagram solver?

Thanks Candledave (and lumen)

No need for an anagram solver - a glance does it! Talk about rabbit holes. I had Seamus in the column and discovered that Seamus Heaney had used the phrase.

This thread is a great help for my peace of mind and for Mrs. Seal's.

Just a general thought. Being 'long in the tooth' - way back in the day, being versed in cryptic crossword conventions, you could usually spot an anagrind when reading the clues. Now a new one appears regularly (some with loose correlations). I think you could print a small book with them now (but would soon be out of date)...

After discovering (yet again) that I am a numpty, I had to put this aside again. Resumed about an hour ago and completed the endgame - which was very satisfying, the letter swaps producing the thematic phrase and the two names in a very symbolic way. I had to check the spelling of what the omitted bars revealed but it is kosher according to Chambers. Thanks to Mozart for some testing clues, several of which yielded only to back solving. But the I am a numpty….

I am coming very late to this one. I found it quite tough and some of the clues were very tricky. Please can someone help me with my final loose end - the parsing of 29d? Everything else is clear and complete but I won't sleep if I can't figure this out!