Cheesecracker

An anniversary (1A, three words) today offers ten unclued entries, all of whose unchecked and cross-checking letters spell out HAHA! DRY GINS ASSURING TRASHY ANAGRAMS. Across 9    State welcome hosted by Oscars (4)11    Stanza in excessive, unending Ave Maria delaying mass (6,4)12    Bash old boy, a grass (4)18    Pulling evenly, stripped part of a bone (5)20    Chap trouble is concerning trousers (7)21    Goddess harbouring worry about mistress (7)24    Hint of allspice lacking in sausage ragout (5)25    Reluctant Liberal associated with profanity (5)30    Grave talk about a collector of filth?

  22 5 42 14 25 31: 29-40, 10-26.

Six unclued entries comprise systematically ordered non-words thematically linked by a normal entry, itself unclued.   Across 1 Awaiting consideration, poor hippie teen holding nothing back (2,3,8) 11 Most of back pain almost leaves (7) 12 Some over-50s right about Hindu music?

Eight unclued entries comprise four pairs whose thematic ordering is provided by 3, 31, 37 and 41.   Across 1 Deft, dry in denial (5) 6 Bitter unit – British back in charge (7) 11 Criminal or liar with cult having three cells (10) 13 Distress furniture suitable for oils?

Eight unclued lights, arranged symmetrically, comprise two quartets, one of which makes the other go round.   Across 1 How much poor Matthew has aged (14, three words) 11 What’s got blowers regularly engaged?

Elements of four symmetrically disposed unclued lights confirm the 5 Down. Enumerations indicate lengths of clues’ ‘full’ solutions.   Across 1 People are pruning every European tree (6) 6 Cook cut gooey rock cake (7) 11 Bishop leaving foundation unaltered (4, two words) 12 Skywriting? (9, two words) 14 Radical Left holds back boy (5) 15 Distort lower grades by class (6) 16 One very leggy girl weed picked up (9) 19 Obtain unlimited happiness (6) 21 Senseless how love ends (5) 22 Baby’s back, bound for Glasgow (4) 24 Harbours shelled on a key date (6) 25 Return right away for departure (6) 31 Ditch outcome of good joke?

Twelve symmetrically disposed unclued entries comprise three distinct interlinked quartets.

Ten unclued lights comprise a septet with a common theme. Across 1 Running article perhaps subject to trial? (7) 5 Again flick back whip (6) 9 Has Olympian formerly lost heart? (4) 11 Ham risotto moulded with cup (10) 12 Muse caught by crude backing (4) 14 Net damages BBC owe (6) 16 Parisian to go across one French river (6) 17 Readily faint when wife leaves (4) 20 Mean to involve London College of Energy? (7) 21 Supplementary rent, one I returned (7) 23 About to go on a rank island (7) 24 Old flat back in a pre-renewal state?

Solvers should heed a warning when deducing ten symmetrically placed unclued lights (two of three words and one of two words). Across 1 Poet entertaining Round Table (5)4 Together, brutes briefly help the old order (9)11 Live international back on a roll (6)12 Sting seen in church right by jetty (7)15 Oddly enough, Chloe broke priest (5)16 Noisy dosser needs time out from extreme difficulty (6)22 Female tailing former PM, an old chicken (8, hyphened)23 Proposition in article again having leader demoted (7)27 Left exercises – one not showing signs of tuition (7, hyphened)29 Yet Helen dancing is a gas (8)32 You picked up excellent dope over in paradise (6)34 Unlimited cut, a bit of a shock for Edmund?

Eighteen clues contain deficient wordplay, the missing elements of which, when highlighted, confirm the theme. Across 1 Party with a previously haughty man (6) 6 Waste disposal initially declined (7) 11 Small braces (4) 12 Dog has a drink outside well (5, 4) 13 Boozer hugging a member’s tree (5, 3) 14 Old coins from the Parisian musical (6) 15 Bloody fool’s excellent!

The seventeen entries with definition-only clues are to be treated according to a symmetrically disposed theme which has to be highlighted. Other clues are normal; all enumerations are of entry lengths. Across 1 Bothers about losing, initially, eight pounds (6)7 Help senior NCO when cutting hair (6, two words)11 Wallop maker (10, hyphened) 13 A salt (5) 14 One fetching (5) 15 It, beer, runs over slacks (7)17 Recess (7) 18 One races by whichever French province (6)19 The beginning (4) 22 E.g. Co-op (6, two words) 24 Checking in, and again, interrupting Queen briefly (9, two words)25 Thumbs-ups about Queen Elizabeth’s tunes? (5)26 Remove, e.g.

Clues for ten thematically linked entries (all single words) have been left out.   Across 9    Hot-rod awry? — fancy not being this (10) 14    Jackass regularly rejected 60s music (3) 18    Behind in award, finally going ahead (5) 20    Get better poet to enter competition (7, two words) 22    Venture around the City, not much of an area (7) 24    Extremely engaging men in ladies’ underwear — crikey! (7) 25    Worries about ship holding water capsizing (5) 26    Fight animals back, avoiding river (5, hyphened) 28    Enduring a lot of cobblers?

All unclued entries are, unusually, not all unclued; all are different and there are no proper nouns. A repeated cryptic clue fixes not only once such entry, but also the central 2x2 block and, as a result, another such entry. Ignore one accent. Doc writes: we welcome Cheese-Cracker to the compiling team.