Feel free to feel smug. It certainly wasn't any easier than average, in my view. I'm happy I've solved it and got the theme and extra stuff, but can you let me know what the bit about "numbers in brackets do not necessarily refer to clue answers" means, by any chance? I've probably missed one of Phi's subtleties. Cheers
I've solved it (I hope), but I
must second turnerjmw's comment; its seems that, even for "thematic answers" numbers sometimes refer to grid length and in others to answer length (eg. 28 & 29ac)? Looks like simple inconsistency to me?