Sixteen across answers are clued without definition; these have an association with 7 down when read (somewhat freely) in clue order. Clues to the remaining across answers contain a thematic redundant word or words;  down clues are normal.  Proper names may or may not begin with a capital letter.  Solvers should add the name of the Speaker under the grid (6 letters).

Across:     1.   Faint before American football referee loses supporter (5)     5.   Partner mixed type 'O', stroking organs (5)     11. Moore to keep going forward – rugby player (4)     14. Low second note (5)     15.  French maid returns with the Spanish - raise prince to high rank (7)     16.  Wood becoming more stable – tree with unpleasant Scottish smell on high (9, two words)     17.  Swarthy and savage nomad territory (6)     18.    Is optimum when there is no time to finish (6)     20.  Common cold (very) starts as Hudson records cold temperatures in Canada (6)     22.  Shortened cotton undergarment supporting bedroom advance (3)     23.  Foot of clay poetry in a mark of the Beast (4)     25.    European Community invested in efflorescence of sodium salts in India (5)     26.  Do not start to stop – manoeuvre bishop little by little (4)     27.  No good erasing mixture – common cold snack with miller bread (6)     28.  Seized for military use without encompassing order or authority (5)     30.  Paving tool put up price (3)     32.  An indefinitely large number manning American city college (3)     33.  Fellow runs for Spenser (7)     35.  Take the top off plastic bollards in the road (4)     37.  Instigates simple fielding – mistaken? (6)     41.  New Zealand white man from Pakistan, Holland, and (slight surprise) Austria (6)     43.  Put back opportunity, scope, or occasion (4)     44.  Indian tree with unpleasant smell – will students return grass? (7)     47.  Publicity shy nymph from Olympus (3)     49.  Short sheet of thermoplastic found in Cavendish science laboratory (3)     51.  Rude or clumsy person changed from one final direction to the opposite (5)     52.  Embrace?  Questionably, Lee Cooper can (6)     53.  Extremely hot in hall – may make setters stop (4)     54.  Wartime camp for Tudor officers with a term of imprisonment (5)     58.  Kelso thatch with no end of work (4)     59.  Poetic river source gives the navigator run round (3)     60.  Arrangement of mah-jongg tiles out of print (6)     62.  Higher areas of the eighth moon moved her heart without hands (6)     65.  Guess King divorced in Spain (6)     66.  Ingenuity or intelligence the male exhibited by call (9)     67.  Improve once in the North after shrapnel rearranged hen (7)     68.  Good flank or loin, peculiar to a district (5)     69.  Watch fowler run over female sandpipers (4)     70.  Oddly, the British liquid used in dry-cleaning Bessemer process...(5)     71.  ...found in waste additives (5)

Down:     1.    Ed’s “Return of the Few” or “Castaway” (4)     2.    Wind is no cure with smoking Scots monarch who liked cigars (9)     3.    Girl embraces doctor – one stupid or useless person (6)     4.    Explorer started after Central America body of great water (4)     6.   Lab gear deciphered by system using symbols involving reasoning about relationships (7)     8.   Go with zero fruit (4)     9.   Concerned with healthy start to recovery, this may make breathing easier (7)     10. Hard wooden ball in Kashmir, run kept back (5)     11. An obnoxious person, a player who cuts the cards hiding clubrfc (5)     12. Only child holds wreath of flowers derived from oil (5)     13. Fish start to evade second rods (7)     14. Giving direction to mosque, wandering Brahmin loses name (6)     19. Stokes artificial mix of clay and chalk plaster (in some parts of the country) (5)     21. Old injury – tense to get even (4)     22. To live socially depressed on earth or in hell (5)     24. M1 groove? (5)     27. Spurs on bird such as magpie on board (6)     28. Fed up with single point once put out of countenance (6)     29. Without constant set of beliefs, have another go (4)     31. Accustomed to losing a cubic centimetre (small volume) (4)     34. So let it be as the last word, a James or Patrick? (4)     36. Top of the head famous university in Holland (4)     38. Gloss over, perhaps, personal appearance in the...(5)     39. ...course. Oil mixture, make chromatic (9)     40. Sing like Crosby – only first parts (5)     42. Vow or promise from Paisley in the Church (unorthodox) (5)     44. Glaswegian drizzle disperses English crowds (7)     45. Top of the head, lack of lines (4)     46. Time creeps, possibly a consideration (7)     48. A knocking sound on hard red wood – rubbish! (7)     50. Withdrew run in leg of stocking (6)     53. To mistake it for a ring on a dog's collar (6)     55. What leads  “Faerie's” author (in name, Edmund) to dissemble (5)     56. Otherwise known as a Somerset quarryman's word for limestone (5)     57. Uncle Sam's intending to grade sodium (5)     61. Small and sweet sewing case does not open (4)     63. Evasive people back secretive Scots (4)     64. Died after, for example, a mild oath (4)

To enter this competition, send your entry as an image or in list format giving the final entries to ccpuzzles@talktalk.net before 8th August 2017. The first correct entry drawn from the hat will receive a book from the Chambers range, which has been donated by Chambers.