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Hi Pat - I'm guessing you've done the first bit and got the mini-grid? For the remainder, as counter-intuitive as it might seem (which is what put me off) follow the instructions in the preamble to the letter, bearing in mind you need 4 identical pieces thus symmetry comes into play. Ref also the note about perimeter points and you should see symmetrical letter pairs, then just pencil 2 lines and sharpen the scissors.

If you get stuck email me and I'll get back to you, but not right now as I'm off for a restorative pint. Never did Morse any harm. Well apart from dying I suppose.

got it! As usual an error put me off track, but all done now.

As a closer from me, for anyone looking in search of guidance this is a real toughie, BUT it is ultimately unambiguous so if you make it to the endgame you won't be in any doubt. Thanks to everyone for the nudges, much appreciated.

I eventually filled the grid, though still trying to make sense of 3 or 4 clues in the bottom half. One which I was unhappy about was 33A. I'm aware of 'orra' being used in Scotland for 'odd' in the sense of 'odds and ends', 'unmatched', 'left over'. But I've never heard it used in the sense of 'weird', 'strange' or 'rum'. 25, the entry not in TCD, seems to be the more usual spelling but with an 'H' included. I can see 'mog' for 'tom', but struggle to see the rest. And I'm not really happy with 36. I think a 4-letter word for disabled, with the 1st going to 4th, but then the last 2 letters indicated by the wordplay are AI, not IA...

I broadly concur Meursault. 25 is okay though, just a synonym of bulk in the shipping sense lacking one Liberal. 33 and 36 are poor for the reasons you give, ditto 7dn - one is one thing and one is another, heat involved in both I guess but not exactly comparable. Not blemish free but a fine challenge nonetheless, it certainly wasted most of my Friday evening and Saturday though the weather outside hardly encouraged anything else - a bit like my time in Scotland really!

Yes, thanks, S_Pugh : I should have thought more on 'bulk'...7D as you say, is also a stretch. I wouldn't have minded a definition of 'oven' or 'kiln', but the one used is surely a stretch. Might as well have used 'furnace'.

Hi, Meursault,

I’m with you and s_pugh on 7dn. I just don’t think that the definition is close enough to the answer. On 36ac, I think you can just about read the wordplay as “disabled cycling” + “ahead of athletic, India”, to give IA as the last two letters.

Overall a clever puzzle with a manageable endgame.

That's a reasonable explanation of 36, Wintonian. I was trying to use 'ahead' to position letters 1-4 before 5,6; but it makes better sense if used to position 5 before 6.

It would have helped the parsing if there had been a comma after 'cycling', which would not have adversely affected the surface.

I can't make much sense of the instruction. If the fourth word of the instruction and the punctuation mark after it were omitted would the instruction amount to the same? Interpreting it as such I have a sequence of eleven letters (with repetitions), which might be singletons, pairs or triplets, but I don't see any consistent patterns in the grid.

I did the same as you murky, then the light dawned. You don’t apply the instruction to the grid....