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Samovar, the preamble says "Also, solvers must replace two letters in the grid with the first and last letters of the remaining extra word, to reveal the person’s name". Have you done that?

I think you've missed out a bit of the preamble - 'solvers must replace two letters..'

Hi Samovar, I think I said something earlier about the extra word in 9D having a special role. That word, the second word in the clue, gives the 2 letters which must be used as replacements for the original errors in the composer's name.

Deulc, I think there isn't so much choice, since the inextinguishable was itself a very early composition. You don't need to look too much earlier for the title which must be written below the grid : 3, 4, 12.
And 4 is 4.

Thanks so much, Meursault, Malone and Keepatit. How stupid of me ! I had completely forgotten that bit of the preamble. Next time I will look again before I ask ! Thanks again.

You're welcome, Samovar. It was a pretty lengthy preamble!

Thanks all. As usual so obvious an answer that you kick yourself for not seeing it.

I fascinate myself as a medical experiment. The answer sat two places above the "never-ending" in Wikipedia. Yet somehow I persuaded myself that I'd done something wrong, despite a fully consistent grid, and had to make a call for help. How many 19 letter options were available in the right timeframe? One. What stopped me from seeing it? Thesis to follow....

Back to the 9d 'controversy'. I do not think the main problem with the clue is the possibly extraneous 'like'. I object more to the definition of a transitive answer with an intransitive verb phrase. I do not think the answer means to 'show damage'. Or is the definition simply 'damage' in which case 'show' is extraneous? Or is 'let show' part of the charade?

Buzzb

The let is part of the wordplay so it’s show damage. But that doesn’t make any sense as you say.so it must just be damage. As others have commented, if you take the show and the like out of the clue it makes sense. You can just about justify the show as the link between the wordplay and the definition. The like has no justifiication at all that I can see.

Not for me this one, bottom quartile this year. Obviously the incorrect clue didn’t help, but also found keeping track of the three different clue types a bit fiddly, nothing particularly clever about the grid construction, then the fruitless search for the quote for the best part of an hour, which is always frustrating.

I have worked out the statement and the final word and have found the earlier work and the composer. However, I'm stuck on 3 answers, which I assume must be relatively straight forward as no-one has asked for help on these:

25d: 'Courageous taking in half crazy urchins' (6) - I think that 'urchins' is to be removed as I need the 'u' to make the earlier work. I have
?A??NS.

31a: 'Wildcats non-existent in French farm' (6) - I have ??N?LS.

32a: 'Ruin exercise before poet loses independence' (5) - I have PER??
Is it 'perish' ?? I see the PE (exercise) but removing 'I' from a poet baffles me...

In one of 31a and 32a the wordplay indicates the answer with an extra letter not entered in the grid. I think it must be an E.

Any help gratefully received. Thanks!

GAM(E) + INS(ANE)

MA(NUL(L))S

PERISH entered as PERIS = Elves