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Apologies drxx I wasn't trying to be misleading, just meaning that the entry would go in the 5dn entry as opposed to 6dn. Clearly as there are 46 clues and only 40 grid entries it is evident that there needs to be some tinkering somewhere.

Bad news about your car planks, I hope the culprit pays for it one way or the other!
If you do go back to this then you'll need to leave spaces around some of the letters in the corner (if you go with my 'double-cross' interpretation) or maybe form a circle if you opt for the other one s_pugh mentions?

s_pugh - there's no need to apologise, you certainly didn't mislead (in fact you gave the right answer - I was only offering a further hint).

If the 'Queen' clue is an easy one then really I have no hope at all. All I have in the first down column is AB as the second and third letters. Am I on the right track?

Your letters are correct Saoralba and form part of the synonym for masses. Last four words of clue are definition.

You are, saoralba. The first letter of Arab is missing, usual two letters for our queen, and jackets are what I would call girls' shirts. Definition is four last words.

I've solved about half the clues. Trying to place the later down entries is getting tedious.

Thank you caphrist and orson. As always it looks obvious when you know but completely baffling when you don't. I'll see how far I can get now that I have this new starting point to work from. But I'm not sure it's going to be worth the effort.

I am still not clear about how the clues are condensed. I have an almost full grid but I cannot see any double entries.
I also cannot parse the across clue defined as weather and the down clue defined as item of statuary.
Any help would be appreciated.

Casanova - the 'weather' clue is one of those sneaky ones where you can only confirm you have the right answer by looking under 'weather', as opposed to the more usual type of clue where the answer is the headword to check.

For the statue, it helps to think of an informal word for 'our'.

Thank you saoralba

I am finding this very hard and have not yet discovered how to enter the sixteen. The SW and NE corners don’t seem to be affected.
Can anyone help me with the first and third across clues please. Many thanks.