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Hi Roof,

I hope your hip is feeling better and not causing so much pain:-)

24d - 5 letter "insurance company" (pretty famous one, at least in the UK) minus its first letter/'that sacked head' gives a 4 letter "examination" (I'd never heard of it)

25d - 6 letter "creating" minus its outside letters/'ignoring the boundaries' - definition is "like"

Roof,

23d - 4 letter "congregation" goes under/'understood (as in stood under) single letter "nothing" - definition is "for a long time" (bit loose IMO)

29a - 6 letter "arrest"goes around the usual "run" - definition is a rarely used but self explanatory word meaning to "step on a platform".

1d - all abbreviations reversed/'climbing' - definition is "in high altitude conditions"

brendan @51
I had to do the "exam", as, I think, most students at Oxbridge did. It was pretty nerve-racking, as the panel was the prof of the department (Genetics), another staff member, and a very presitigious geneticist!

Hi Brendan

I'll have to go away and think about the hints.

My hips are no better and won't be for some time. I've just climbed to the top of my three storey house to sort out the washing - always a challenge. I've an x-ray of my pelvis on Monday. Perhaps it will reveal something new. Meanwhile I should keep on with the exercises.

I'm hoping to sort out the greenhouse tomorrow (before the rain) and Tuesday - with help of course. Naturally the best day weather-wise is likely to be Monday.

25d the definition is the first word. Take a word for creating and remove the first and last letter.
24 d think of a well known insurance company. Remove the first letter and google the remaining 4 letter word

29a think of another word for arrest add an additional letter and the answer is to the first 4 letters to the clue.

Thanks Chris, that's intersting - I've just Googled it and can imagine how it might be quite an ordeal, especially to someone not comfortable in speaking under pressure.

Thanks Roof, let's hope that, if something is spotted in the X-ray, that it's something that's fixable. In the meantime, don't over exert yourself with the greenhouse:-)

Brendan @56
Oh, I was OK about talking, just not sure if it made any sense!

😂

Well, I didn't find that easy, but thanks to Forum members, I finished. There are some clues I couldn't parse and some words I didn't know like the bird. There were some definitions that were a bit of a stretch.
I should have got 29ac sooner as a retired transport planner. Chris, I was lucky to escape the peril of a 24ac - redbrick not oxbridge.

FOI was 9ac, albeit with the wrong ending. LOI was 25d. COD was 22ac

I expect I shall be here next week asking for help, for which I'm very grateful.

Just popping in late on as I like to read the forum over the course of the day. Interesting about 24. As a graduate of Sheffield University it was always considered an unlikely but dreaded outcome because it usually meant if you had to do it you were borderline on something and they wanted to see the 'cut of your jib' as the phrase goes.

Also funny how it is pronounced differently to the iconic 1970s car that I'm sure many remember.