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Well, after a full schedule yesterday and the hardest prize puzzle for ages (thank you Tramp I think) I have finally finished.

Still many unparsed. I think this was probably beyond my capabilities but I'm OK with that. That's the way it goes. Tramp has also set some of the easier prizes too.

FOI 9a. LOI 4d. COD I liked 19a.

Thanks also to Brendan. Hammers came good yesterday.

Just figured out how geeker's parsing of 11a works. I withdraw my own tortuous attempt.

quocunque, on 11 I got sidetracked on the caffeinated beverage, wasn't satisfied with that parsing and nearly threw in the towel.
I gave the hints early in the thread. Fearing spoilers I was slightly vague. Glad you deciphered it. Turns out to be an excellent clue.

I seem to be the only one stuck on 24a. Rest all done.

amaturestick

24a
Think game.

D'oh, that's caught me out before. Thanks.

Thanks Brendan (@49). I guess it can mean in good condition. 'he still has plenty of ** about him'. Its a deep dive into the vault though

Just finished, and finally parsed the mystifying 14a.

Still can't understand the wordplay of 11a: could someone illuminate? I have a defn, and assume that romeo is first letter, but then ... ?

FOI: 9a
LOI: 14a ... had 2 alternatives, both matched defn, couldn't parse either, but solving penultimate 5d with help of Crossword solver gave the crosser which eliminated one. And then, reading and rereading the forum, I eventually parsed 14a too.

Hi Pam,
11a was tricky…
“Romeo”, usual single letter.
“To come”, a five letter word.
“Back to coffeE”, a single letter placed before (indicated by “first”) the five letter word.
Defn. “one tells”

OK - finally finished. Just had 4D left for the longest time as I clearly did not know the meaning of the answer…. and thanks to this form for much of the parsing (I saw the parsing to 16 right away but missed 6 completely, along with many others). Also thanks to Tramp for the extended period of entertainment.

Question if anyone’s still here; how else should the length of 21A have been indicated?