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Managed to complete. Plenty of time now I'm stuck on the sandbank.

I struggled because I had 'D' rather than 'T' as the superfluous letter in 16 across and this threw me out - I started looking for Eastern European countries districts. Thanks again to this Forum for pointing me in the right direction..

Once the shading of the 38 cells is complete should they give a relevant picture? If so I couldn't see it - any help welcome.

Williamseal. the picture is a representation, rather than a picture of something. The three pairs of cells are stuck inside, closed in on three sides. I expect they came charging (I) in from the bottom, then were surrounded.

Thanks Malone
I can see it now

Thanks, williamseal. I knew you'd have the right stuff, but thought you were looking for more of a picture than there actually was! The preamble's quite fair, it describes the highlighting being used 'to illustrate the trap'.

Brendan, Malone

I agree with you -thought it was a brilliant puzzle. Probably too easy for most solvers but the right standard for me.

Glad you too enjoyed this one, jigjag. I did find it a little on the easy side, but I didn't mind as there were many other good aspects - I liked looking for the superfluous letters, I enjoyed tracking down where to find details of the trap and I really enjoyed illustrating that.

Hi Jigjag,

I'm glad you liked it. I didn't find it that easy and needed some help to tie up all the loose ends. One of the parts I particularly liked was the symmetrical placing of the "six hundred" within "the trap" and, of course, the phrases that created the trap itself - it was all very elegant.

Brendan

Yes I enjoyed the lovely symmetry too. I was familiar with the poem so didnt need to look it up. What threw me for ages was that I too had DHIRD to start the extra letters, and thought it was an author, until I eventually got the right one.

I love Gaston's themes and there is always accuracy, symmetry and elegance. They are not easy for me but I usually solve them. The 6Cs idea was brilliant.