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This is a jigsaw puzzle cryptic crossword: the clues are listed in alphabetical order of answer. Answers are fitted into the grid to produce a valid crossword solution. No squares contain more than one letter, and (I'm pretty certain) there is only one solution.

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Bat-bishop raging that his is a clerical office (9)
Lots, less a million, is still some (3)
HRH may tic violently, being 'irregular' (9)
Found in galleries in Montmartre (3)
Spectacles located, surrounded by US crap (4)
Toilets disappointing American, not for everyone (4)
Black suit's not special, it's a gentleman's escape! (4)
Shakily depict one means of misleading (9)
Mother of virgin makes suspenseful threat of imminent calamity (9)
Anglo-Saxon slave taken by thane's nephew (4)
Exclamation of sudden joy is a yes in part (1,3)
Legislative antechamber is tense, campaigner  (8)
Endless march for fruit? Refuse! (4)
Mother's one who's passed the Turing test in African language (5)
Obscure off-target homonym (4)
Unearthed fossil was once German (4)
Quiet drunk is pretentiously luxuriant (5)
Skirt banks of Roma and Riviera (2-2)
Two-thirds of a slice of bacon? That's thoughtless (4)
Bootless, missing toes, fallen over — he's disgusting (4)
Surreptitious kill if assassin's first inside (3)
First tasteless answer adds colour (4)
The appointed officer leads the way (3)
String the trees at regular intervals, leaving no slack (8)
Cruder than crude, lacking maps (9)
Man follows security organisation plot (it's not laid out) (9)
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  • $\begingroup$ Are you certain the consecutive (3) and (4) near the end are the right way around? $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Nov 17, 2017 at 15:38
  • $\begingroup$ Wow you're good at this! They were until I had to make a last minute change to the grid fill and now you're right, the (4) should be before the (3). By the narrowest possible margin as well! I'll edit it now. $\endgroup$
    – user40528
    Nov 17, 2017 at 15:39
  • $\begingroup$ That's a relief :-). $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Nov 17, 2017 at 15:39

1 Answer 1

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Here's the completed grid, with apologies for the excessive neatness of my mouse-handwriting:

enter image description here

Some of the clues were pretty obscure. My last one in was the long one across the bottom.

Explanations of the individual clues -- with the exception of the fifth, whose definition part I haven't made sense of:

ABBOTSHIP: BAT-BISHOP*
ANY: mANY
ARHYTHMIC: (HRH MAY TIC)*
ART: montmARTre
BINS: IN in BS, but I don't understand how "spectacles" works as def
BOGS: BOGus
CLUB: CLUBs
DECEPTION: (DEPICT ONE)*
DAMOCLEAN: DAM + O' + CLEAN, and a rather cryptic definition!
ESNE: thanESNEphew
I SAY!: ISAYes
LOBBYIST: LOBBY IS T (not too convinced by "tense" -> T, though)
MARC: MARCh (marc = refuse matter left after pressing fruit)
MASAI: MA'S A.I.
MIST: sounds like MISSED
OSSI: fOSSIl
PLUSH: P+LUSH
RA-RA: RomA + RivierA
RASH: RASHer
SLOB: (BOOTLESS-TOES)*
SLY: SLaY
TANS: T+ANS(wer)
TAO: initials of The, Appointed, Officer
TIGHTEST: sTrInGtHeTrEeSaT (seems to me "at" is doing two jobs here)
UNCHARTED: (THAN CRUDE)*
UNPLANTED: UN + PLAN + TED

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  • $\begingroup$ What's the jigsaw part here? $\endgroup$
    – Sid
    Nov 17, 2017 at 17:13
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    $\begingroup$ It's called that because the words get fitted into the grid wherever they will go, rather than the solver being told (via clue numbers) where each one belongs. $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Nov 17, 2017 at 17:33
  • $\begingroup$ does that mean there are multiple solutions with the same words but the words being at different positions? $\endgroup$
    – Sid
    Nov 17, 2017 at 18:33
  • $\begingroup$ Nope! It means you have to work out where they go. $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Nov 17, 2017 at 19:08
  • $\begingroup$ I continue to be awed at how fast you solve these! Fantastic work :) On the solutions: BINS is defined in Chambers as 1. Spectacles, 2. Short form of binoculars (I suspect these are related but I haven't checked). It doesn't say regional or dialect (which I was checking for because it felt dialect to me) so I didn't clue it as such. T is also in Chambers as the abbreviation for tense (linguistics). $\endgroup$
    – user40528
    Nov 18, 2017 at 10:18

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