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13 parses 2 (gold) + 2 (in reserve) , definition is spherical with ‘not often’ indicating rare usage.

Thanks Jono. So not often referred to the obscurity of the solution. Never seen that before

Thanks ChrisE. Cricket terminology is a weak spot for me

Just stuck on 14A - which nobody else seems to have had an issue with. Totally baffled by it tbh :(

14 is a 4 letter anagram of a word from the clue around 2 outside letters from another word. Following that is a 4 letter word for ‘having been let down’.
‘One such’ refers back to the word ‘domicile’ by way of an example definition.

Thanks Jono, that's actually more or less what we thought but we still can't make it into a meaningful term. Maybe some of our down crossers are wrong but they all seem right. Or may it's not a 'one such' we've ever heard of.

We might just have to wait until next Saturday. We'll live with that.

Geeker @25
Living as I do in sunny Somerset, 23 was a no-brainer for me!
Many thanks to all on the forum who provide fantastic assistance.

Yes! That's it - our 5d was wrong - similar but not right - now we get a sensible answer for 14a which fits that clue perfectly. Thanks!

Late to the party as ever (our plan to work on the puzzle during Sat lunch on sunny pub terrace was thwarted when the found the newsagent en route had sold out of Guardians, so had a Weekend I with our lunch and had to wait to print the puzzle when we got home. Pub has no wifi.)

Finished, to my surprise. Gave up and came to the forum with only 9 solved (FOI 14a), but thanks to a1@11, birder@22 and johnny@28 we got the big 7,1 and then the clever 23, and raced on from there. Returning to read the rest of the forum explained some mystery parsings, and the discussion of subtractive or compound anagrams resolved 18, where I had alternative letters "l" and "s" for the first 2 uncrossed letters giving a just-about plausible definition!

Got in a muddle, delaying solving 1a, by absentmindedly writing first word of wrong US govt body (it crossed Ok with 14, and didn't delay solving 12, but I couldn't solve 1a ending in "c"!)

Thanks for your help, all. A tough but entertaining puzzle.

On the late shift here, just wondering still how to parse 1a , 3 and 18. Really liked 12 and 23. Side tracked by the gap between Gr and ace and the ital of One in 10. I assumed these were significant devices in the clues, as things like that sometimes are. Obviously at a loose end at this point.