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Aha! Managed to get the instructions on my brand new spanking laptop!
The 28 solutions are divided into 4 groups of 7. Each member of each group begins with the same letter, not further defined in its clue. The 4 letters can be arranged to form a word. The subsidiary wordplay in the 28 clues is normal. However, the defn elements in the clues have been swapped aroundand provide the defn for another solution in the group beginning with the same letter.

Well, that makes it nice & complicated, doesn't it? Better than impossible, I suppose. Thanx again, tl ---- I couldn't access that bit at all! Till later perhaps...

Isn't it amazing how the Grauniad is so creative each month, in sucking the joy out of this thing before we even start trying to solve it?
Thanks for the instructions and the link.

Re instructions: "each group begins with the same letter, not further defined in its clue." Does this mean that the first litter of the solution is ignored in the definition element (which is in a different clue) or in the wordplay or both? Anyone worked this out?

Imho this is not a fair puzzle at all, even when you get round to receiving the weird instructions, and I refuse to rack my brain any longer on something so absurd. Reminds me of Paul's worst efforts on the Saturday prize puzzles. Good luck to the rest of you --- I prefer to continue with an old Le Carré (puzzling enough in itself)!

Oh, I'm so glad you said that, GK. I'd reached the same point myself, but I thought I was just being pernickety or dim!

What we have for each clue is an unknown letter + wordplay (but no relevant definition, only a misleading one), leading to a word of undefined length. In what way does this resemble a cryptic crossword clue?

I know I could try to identify all the definitions and consider all the lengths in the grid, but I really can't be bothered.

Having already expended some mental effort trying to solve all the clues WITHOUT the special instructions (a meaningless waste of time - thanks, Grauniad), the clues are contaminated for me anyway, IYKWIM.

I did run through them quickly with the special instructions in mind, but cannot get anywhere and, like you, resent putting in so much effort.

This printout will become a shopping list in a minute, and I'll go out and do something more useful with my time. Enjoy your book!

kiosk - yes the "cryptic" bits don't include the initial letter.
have found one of the groups so far but progress is slow!

Thanks sudokulover, I've found a couple of anagrams that I can add an initial letter to and get a word of the right length, so that's a start.

Finished thank goodness - it gets easier once you suss out the groups and what's going on! Now to try and enter online!

"With alot of help from a friend" finished after all, but neither of us can fathom the wordplayof 2d: we think the def. is "float" in 6d, but can't see the wordplay for the last 3 letters. Anyone able to help on this, with certainty the most absurd puzzle I've ever done? Quite honestly, I think we're all mad for even trying......................