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Mattrom, *bows* - you sir/madam are a genius. I wouldn't have worked that out in gazbillion years!

My plea for a hint towards what had to be highlighted is still a live one! The fourth category still won't yield as to whether it's spheres or fictional beings - does it matter? If the former, then the five categories' names total 25 letters. Does any of that make sense?

Hi cockie. I’m not sure what you mean by fictional beings or spheres so suspect this is a wrong path. The highlighted items come out radially (ish) from the centre. Look for letters which seem to be recurring. Along with the central square, the highlighted items link three of the groups (but I wouldn’t describe as synonymous). Despite the hints on here I’m still not certain on the fourth link, other than a separate visual one (also linked to the title) which drxx has eluded to.

Hope this helps

....... it's the spheres. Look up the word for them in Chambers

Thanks for the tips a couple of pages back :)

Oh! I get the fictional characters v spheres bit now and have just looked up the key word. Thanks Gem

Re fictional characters and 'spheres' I relied on Chambers too much, having spotted the possibility for three of them, because
two of the group aren't in as 'spheres'. A quick google would have been helpful.

I’ve got more or less a complete grid but have only recognised 4 of the 5 categories of 5. Still stuck on 15-16, 35-44, 40-34 - any hints would be appreciated. This should help me with the next stage - I’ve already got parts of the instructions. Many thanks in anticipation

15-16...first 4 words defn...a word for 'position within' with 1 letter abbrev replaced by 2 letter abbrev
35-44...defn at hospital (usually means at court)...3 letter abbrev for doctor in 'apply black mark to'
40-34... defn cross-country activity...cycling is usual crossword indicator..men (in chess) including abbrev for 'in'

Everyone seems to be finding the parsing tricky on different clues: my bugbear is 23-11, help appreciated, please.