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Good morning all, finally got there with some help from you guys and Google. Thank you Brockwell for another brilliant but very tough crossword. You usually call in to forum so hope you get my thanks and total admiration .
FOI 16
LOI 20
COD so many 27, 11, 17 are just a few
Up to twelve and counting on theme, long way to go to catch geeker.

Good morning. It took me all morning to finish the top half after doing the bottom half quickly yesterday. That was tough. But I loved some of the clues, particularly 7 and 19. One parsing issue in 4. Can recipe be treated the same way as, say, Romeo? I’ve not seen that before.

Apologies for blank space, no idea how I managed that.

Hi AdeA, yes, R for recipe is a Latin abbreviation meaning “take”. Doctors use it in prescriptions. Worth remembering as it pops up in puzzles from time to time.

Thank you. I guess it has something to do with why prescription is Rx?

Re 17ac. If it is a fish, OneLook Dictionary can't find it.

AdeA, exactly so. See here..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_prescription

Hi quocunque, Chambers says it’s a fish, so it’s a fish!
A gurnard apparently.

In terms of theme, I really like solution to 2d as an anagram of fossil specimen.

My reading of 17ac -def is the last word, parsing is 1 within 2,4