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mack - I think you’ve shown why the setter and the editors have such a tricky job re preambles.

I’ve solved the puzzle but despite reading your improved version about five times I still don’t understand it

I'm also not sure that there's anything wrong with the preamble. And Mack, I feel that your improvement isn't an improvement at all. Sorry.

Ratherago @19, I take your point about the first word of 12. If the answer had been a different 6 letters then it would have raised Cain - particularly today! 😉

I have an answer for clue 4 (but cannot parse it so answer probably wrong. Capitalised Society and University foxing me. A nudge much appreciated.

A 3-letter abbreviation for one joining (high) society inside a 3-letter familiar term for university, the whole being a cyclical Arab, reversed.

I enjoyed this. Some gnarly clues but hard to give up on. I quite liked the ambiguity of the preamble. Thanks, Phidias.

I celebrated my own "occasion" on 22nd January... the 73rd anniversary of my birth.
Coincidentally, I learned from Wikipedia that, in latter years, the subject of this puzzle was an inhabitant of the town in which I have lived for the past 22 years... I had no idea!
This is the first Listener I've managed to complete since the "Monopoly" puzzle — some time last year? — but, on this occasion, without recourse to this forum for help!
Radial 12 was my LOI... Tricky definition, Phidias!

(I do like a — what I like to call — Dartboard grid!)

Many thanks Ozzy for explanation. As suspected, my answer/guess - EQUINE (Arab horse) - was up the creek and I couldn't make it work from the wordplay.

I have completed the puzzle bar one letter in radial 22! I am happy with rings 1 and 4 and 6 and pretty sure about 3rd letter of 33 and 1st letter of 41. I am missing the letter in ring 2.
I should be able to take the five letters I have and add each letter of the alphabet in turn and see what anagram results but nothing. I think I must have made a mistake but I can't for the life of me see it.
A hint would be welcome

Raggedy, the wordplay is 3 letters from the first word of clue plus 3 letters from the second and third words. Both straightforward enough, but the resulting answer was rather obscure to this solver. Good luck finishing this satisfying puzzle.