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...and hints, large and small.

So far I've managed to solve about 90% of the clues but still haven't figured out where any of them go!!

I've been looking for any commonalities, especially in the 12 letter 'I' word, the 11 letter 'R' and the 11 letter 'V', maybe foreign letters or something but I just can't see anything.

Any hints would be gratefully received:-)

I'm much the same as you Brendan (but don't have the long V yet). So those long words have to lose at least 3 letters to their clash square to fit anywhere.
I thought maybe there was a way in with the 3s and 4s but not so far! The two clued 3s must be entered unaltered right?

Don't be misled by the 3-letter V word. It's part of a clash so there's no corresponding V to cross with it (I was expecting there would be too). It's hard to know how to give hints without giving too much away with this one.

Do any solutions clash in more than one place?

I've got the four long answers, and plenty of others, but no idea of the symbols to look for. I initially thought maybe plus, minus,... but doesn't seem to work.

Looking forward to a tip, but I realise it's tricky without giving it all away!

I hope this is helpful without being too spoilerish:

The entries for the clues "Free from duty..." and "Where papers await..." are entered normally and intersect at their first letter. The two 9-letter entries in columns 6 and 8 are also entered unchanged (no clash).

And no, only one clash per entry.

My "in" to filling the grid was the 9 letter solutions as only one seemed possible for the LH down entry - this then enabled me to enter around 16 entries normally. I must admit that knowing the 3 nine letter solutions was key for me, and without them I would still be baffled as how to start.

My start was to note that the central letter can't be a clash, and there were only 2 possibilities of a 5 meeting a 7 in the middle.

Thanks for your help with the start Loge. I'd cold solved everything, but had no idea how to start entering the words. Ince I'd worked out the 2 first 2 clashing squares , all fell into place. Thanks again.