“Nice short preamble” we said, “but ‘undergo removal’? There’s something fishy about that unusual wording.” There was something not quite right about some of the clues too, as I scanned them for the usual alcohol, which was, of course there. ‘Take Victoria’s drinking therapy for lively party (4)’. Later, when we had sussed what was going on, we moved ‘Victoria’s’ and decided that was an Aussie RORT. Gos continued with ‘Bar, one accepting 80 selections (8)’ Chambers tells us that 80 = R and that had to go into EXCEPT A to give us EXCERPTA, for selections. Selections of fine malts, Gos? Cheers!

We knew something was going on, but solved for almost an hour coming up with incomprehensible clashes when we solved the easy anagram at 13d, ‘Governor desperate to land a deal after losing bit of leeway (10)’ We had already slotted DUOMO in at 2d, though the wordplay didn’t quite work, and ADELANTADO gave us an impossible DM at the start of 15ac. It didn’t fit with BEBOP at. 34ac either (Jazz with live beat (5) = BE + BOP).

It was the SYBO and the BRIBER that cracked it for us. In both of those clues, we realized that a word had to move WITHIN the clue, ‘Small young bothyman’s onion primarily’,(first letters of S Y B O) and ‘Greaser born in Brazil, that is right’ (BR IE R round B), and we saw that BEBOP had to fit into 28d, so clearly words were ‘changing location’ within the clues and within the grid. Of course, Chambers told us that that was one of the meanings of ‘removal’. There had to be some other thematic material here as well as simply shifting clues around and moving words in clues so we did a fair amount of head-scratching and attempting to make something emerge from the words and clues we had moved – but it was not to be. So we breathed a silent thanks for a relatively simple solve.

There had to be 18 clues of each type, which rendered our grid fill much easier, now that we knew what we were doing but we still struggled with out last few clues. Yes, 29ac must be an IKON but why. The other Numpty, the military historian laughed out loud. “It’s an OERLIKON OER L’ – once over line – removed”. That left me with ‘Food plant used as fodder for birds perhaps (7)’. Packers, peckers, pickers, puckers? I should have known, I set a weekly crossword for the Farmers Guardian and know that ERS is a fodder plant, so the food had to be PECK and the birds PECKERS. Many thanks to Gos for an original device and an entertaining solve.

Gos last entertained us here with his Graham Greene Third Man themed puzzle. This week, we had a fairly short preamble telling us to remove a word from half of the clues before solving and do something similar with half the answers before entering.

One of the things I like to do when approaching a Listener is to look up every word in the title for unusual meanings. If only!!.

After unsuccessfully tackling half-a-dozen or so across clues, I decided to try the downs. Immediate success with 2dn Two old guys married at cathedral (5) sort of looked like DUOMO… but not quite. Luckily, I managed to work out 5 Canada confusedly changing name for independent old eastern part of it (6) as ACADIA, although I’d never heard of it, and 8 Puzzle misset some-blessed-how, say (6) gave TMESIS. A short while later, and ADELANTADO went in at 13dn, and I was up and running.

Except, of course, the T of TMESIS and the first D of ADELANTADO clashed. Nothing in the preamble told me about that! The clue that finally came to my rescue was 25dn. At first sight these airport roads are mostly concrete-covered (6) was obviously TARMAC, except it didn’t quite work until are and mostly got swapped.

Even then, it would be some time before I looked up removal in Chambers: “change of place”. Then, it was an entertaining time juggling with words in either the clues or the grid.

My favourite clue was 23dn Garden oddly overlooked connected parties alongside a different part (6) which had to change to Garden parties… and led to (g)A(r)D(e)N(p)A(r)T(i)E(s). 36ac Songster, little fella, trapped by flood recurrent after precipitation starts (10) when adjusted took a bit of time to rationalise as TICH in SPATE< after P(recipitation) — I think.

10dn BATTLEDORE reminded me of a Rustic EV puzzle in back in 2012 which was based around the game, and at which the late James Leonard himself (Citrus, Mr Lemon, Rustic) was, apparently, highly proficient.

Thanks for a very enjoyable puzzle, Gos.