smellyharry, I'm still not able to grasp which word in the preamble you are pondering over (#10). If it's the one that's used adverbially, I use the Chambers app where all the definitions of a word are listed with a number and there are only five for the adjective. The next is a noun. Is that your sixth definition?
After last week's numerical slog (still not over...), I was hoping for an easy grid fill and a straightforward endgame, so, thank you very much for obliging, Ares.
I've just found a couple of quotes from another BP – Blaise Pascal – that are indirectly related to our setter's efforts this week: "I have made this longer than usual only because I have not had the time to make it shorter." and "The last thing one knows in constructing a work is what to put first." There's another that echoes my feelings on this latest fad in Listener endgames: "The eternal silence of these infinite spaces terrifies me."