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An absolute treat from Claw. The perimeter (start at the top of the right side of the grid) is brilliantly done.

That was an amazingly well constructed puzzle. Took a little longer than usual. Still can't parse 5D. "Small men cycling at the front for ages"...though I think I have the answer and the missing letter.

The first 3 letters of the answer form a rather stilted alternative to the 2 letter word left when the extra letter is removed.

Wow! I assume the conclusion is six letters. I have now finished, except that I cannot satisfactorily parse 18A, nor can I work out 12A. Any hints, please?

I read the first 4 letter part of the answer to 18a as a shortened form of a 9 letter alternative for the word left when the stowaway letter is removed. There may be a more elegant parsing. For 12a, the first word is the definition. “Crowds” is a containment indicator.

Thanks for helping with 5D. Super obscure.

On 18A, the definition is the last word and I applied the first word to the word with the spare letter removed. And added the abbreviation for the second last word to solve.

18a parses 4,1 where the 4 is a shortening of a 5 letter word.
12a is a hidden.

Thanks all. I'm still not too sure about 18A, but I shall go with what I have.

Thanks jack aubrey, you gave me a lease of life; I had enough to get the rest - 28 instead of 26 with many Xs so I stopped looking, foolish of me!

Thanks jono, for parsing hints.

All done.

Now I have the conclusion.

Thanks Claw for a really beautiful Genius.

Someone will probably beat me to it or override me, but the way I looked at that one was dikes , minus the thematic letter, minus both ends (endless) plus depth. Definition last