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Thanks drxx.
About 50% done.

Scottish word help.

What is the wordplay for bar in Milngavie? RA?v?

What is the Scottish bird in 33d?

I have answers to both now.

Thanks to drxx and sunray

I have most of this solved, apart from 32down “doctor reversed temporal eddies”
But I have no idea where the preamble is leading me. My left out letters have no sense at the moment ...D E D I B D.
Any idea??

Hi marca, 32d. is one of the thematic 12 with wordplay minus 1 letter. These 12 cross giving 2 relevant 6 letter words (note in 1 instance the missing letters are the same, no clash).
Hope this helps but if you need further pointers post again.

marca - there are no missing Ds and there isn't a missing B.

Thank you both.... but I think I have totally misunderstood the preamble...eg my B came from 4d where it was the second letter in the word, so I thought B, but obviously not.... oh dear.

Hi again marca, not using the position of the letter in the answer but the letter in the clue whose position is given by the "value" of the missing letter, ie A = 1, B = 2 ...

4d - The wordplay gives OA - and the missing letter is 'v' (answer = OVA) so the numerical value V=22 is counted from the start of the clue to this answer and gives the letter A (it's in the last word of the clue '...foAl').

...that process leads to the name of the author but the 5 clashes also lead to the two 6 letter theme words (including the non-clashing omitted letter that is used twice - the two words appear in correct grid order, but only one is to be chosen for the final grid).