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I was expecting your link to reveal an alternative sequence, loge - but the sequences all tally with my list (so I'm still at a loss regarding the controversy).

Please treat this as a response to post 34 from numbskull. I have submitted as a very despondent seal.

I had assumed that the grouping was by quadrant positioning rather than number order. So I had struggled but got somewhere on the NE corner. I had put the answer to 4 across in the right place; inserted the answer to 6 down at 5d; and 5 down at 6 down. I was able to slot in an answer at 11 a , 13a, 7d and 8 down and had the first threes letters of 9 d.

Now I am hopelessly stuck. Is the above wrong? I think I may have to give up. It will be lovely weather on the Norfolk sandbank mid-week.

Can someone help me with 16 down and 22 ac and do these all slot into the central cross?

A bad week alas. I do wish, given the complexity of the puzzle, the clues were easier for a cold solve.

Many thanks, Loge, you’ve come to my rescue again. That confirms what I had worked out.

As far as I recall the controversy - if there is one - concerned the order of the clues in the second set. I did find a list that gave a slightly different order from the list I've suggested and the one you used, but the majority of the information I've found confirms that Vismut has it right. I suspect the rogue information may well be a transcription error, anyway!

williamseal, the clues are grouped by six in clue order, so the entries to across clue numbers 14 through 28 will go in those same numbers, but in a different order.

For 16d you want a word meaning vanishing, and you turn the ""i" (one) into a Chinese dynasty, but the last letter in that is the extra. Unfortunately, I don't have 22 either.

William, 22 is a somewhat unusual word for consideration (also means a source of inspiration) around two-letter abbreviation for papers (as in documents proving who you are) then A(cademician). Main is the definition, as a noun.

That's the frustrating thing for me. I worked out the wordplay right away, except I can't come up with the word for consideration. I've been scouring the thesauruses (if that's the correct plural, and spellcheck didn't reject it.)

Wait! I think I just found it. Is the "main" actually a hyphenated word?

That must be it. Fits in with what Loge wrote - source of inspiration.