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Sorry for typo. I meant s_pugh, of course.

Thanks, murky. Not sure how "potential" comes in to it but I'm sure I've got the answer now.

Meursault, thanks for the help with the wine. It turned out that it only gave me three letters I didn't already have, so my progress continued to be slow until the start and end of the key phrase provided the breakthrough. Never heard the middle word used for it before though.

I have one match now, but it looks as if there's a new process required for each. I think an online cracker is going to be the only time-efficient method.

How Sabre's mind comes up with something like this is a far greater puzzle than the puzzle itself. After initial tetchiness I am now raising my virtual hat to the master.

I will have to assume there is no ambiguity in the top left octagon. Given that it's matching pair could be any one of four words I'm not going to waste any more time checking all the possible permutations. I'm a bit disappointed in the entry, I confess, but it's justified in Chambers so I suppose it's ok.

Thank God that's over.

Thanks Murky. However I actually meant 21 wiggle. Also 25, which looks to be easy, but I can’t come up with anything. My brain, such as there is of it, is beginning to hurt.

xij, 21 wiggle had me stumped for ages. I assumed it ended in GER, fairly frequent TENT word. It does. Six-letter word for search, three letters for vile, then GER.
25 is easy but another one that I took ages to see because I was looking for something more complex. Heave in sense of vomit. It's an anagram.

I've now solved all the clues and wiggles and have entered them into the grid. I'm still none the wiser about the match. The two words I have seem to make no sense so I think I must have made a mistake or so along the way. Is the first word of the 16 squares a name?

I think that I now have the first and third words of the 16 squares, but how on earth does one get the middle word. That of course assumes that my two are correct.

I thought I could try this puzzle to take my mind off the toothache I have but my brain hurts after just reading the preamble and I've decided, like Rosalind (post #5) to do something more useful, especially after reading about the angst some if you wizard solvers have been experiencing.
Hats off to you all - you have my utmost respect (and likewise to Sabre.)
Back to the frozen peas wrapped in a tea towel, and some more strong analgesics methinks!

Hi, planks,

Yes, it’s a well known classical name.

The three words are 6, 5, 5.

I’ve just finished this, having been late back yesterday after a few days in Italy. I’m sure I’d have given up without the hints on the forum, so many thanks to everyone.