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Thanks SS. I had the 2 letters as part of the 7, but the 'gate' puzzled me. The sequence of the 7 I've taken from a Google search and I knew I had erred somewhere.

I think Mr P will have a very grand 'd.....', to fit his sense of self!

Back to the (drawing) board go I.

Finished everything with great satisfaction except- could anyone help with the parsing if 9 down please?? I seem to either have sensible wordplay that doesn’t make a word or a sensible word that doesn’t have a sensible ‘keynote’

Thank you!!

Triceratops, the answer is a Greek plural. Definition first four words (misprint in the first). Four letter word for keynote inside two single letters

Whew! I hope the dust has settled and it's safe to come back into the room.

Please tell me if I'm breaking any rules - it's getting a bit convoluted - I'm posting on this one because the new third thread appears to have petered out on the 5th - and turns out not to be noticeably much more revealing than the other two.

Oh, and can I assume that "specifying the clue in your post" means, eg., "10a - (9) " - rather than typing out the whole ruddy text of the clue each time? - if the latter, as at first I read it (and which appears on re-reading and reflection to be increasingly what was actually intended) it would be hugely onerous - some clues are three lines long - Norah, Malone - do please reconsider this - we don't all need to be punished like He Who Must Not Be Named!

Well, I'm stuck at the last hurdle:
I have carried out the first part of the instruction, understand the colours, and the specific notation to be entered in the side-flaps, and have carried out the second part, using the seven specific technical instructions, starting and alternating the two colours (bottom>top) in the conventional way, but the 7 letters that I move in this way do not spell out anything recognisable (in spite of buzzb's statement that they do in one of the other threads).
I even know what goes into the barred-off cell as a result of this - but I have no answer.

I understand the title Harry East in terms of the question WMII? in a particular literary context - the final position of the moved items in the grid is indeed M in a different sense - but if the answer is supposed to be Harry's M - TB - I can't spell him out - nor do I understand why the special literary context and title are relevant - I wasn't aware that this thematic activity was indulged in by these Ms - in context they engaged in a much more physical activity - the only vague link I can see is that Google tells me that there is a prominent TB who is a current star performer in each of the activities - sedentary and physical - but two different people of the same name.
I'm obviously missing a vital layer of coding or allusion - can someone help me with a hint or two, please?

If I've revealed too much, apologies - I'm finding the shifting sands of the etiquette on these three apparently almost identical threads, with stuff appearing and then being erased, but not reappearing on the next supposedly more indulgent thread, very confusing.

There's a general term for tb and his m that matches the specific kind of m we've got here, and that's what is spelled out on the way to m (not a name).
I agree with you regarding the overlapping content in the three threads - and the need to provide the full clue when asking a question (could there be a cull on the way?).

There is little sense in typing any full Listener clue unless it is accompanied by the full typed preamble about extra words and missing letters etc. Those who provide 99.999% of the help have already had the clue and solved it in any case.

Tatters, that's true about the preamble, extra words and so on. It's also true for Enigmatic Variations and Inquisitors and clues have almost always been given for those. If I was really so stuck that I needed a Listener answer, I'd be happy to follow the normal politeness of giving a clue and mention any additional info.

I don't know how useful the Answers thread is proving to be. It's hardly been inundated with requests (for clues, the theme stuff is another matter!), but it got off to rather a bad start with people (someone?) looking for several answers, giving no clues, mentioning nothing about Preamble instructions.

Quixote and everyone else. I’m seriously considering ditching the Answers thread as it hasn’t been used for the purpose for which it was intended, ie. giving answers to clues. I’m going to rejig it slightly and then give it another couple of weeks to see what happens.

Meanwhile, it’s up to the individual User as to whether they give the full clue or not BUT I would point out that you might not get an answer without it. If the person hoping to help has disposed of his paper, then he can’t help without the clue, it’s as simple as that. The ball is in your court.

My own take on this is that people who look at this/these Listener threads are a community of regular solvers who are working through the puzzle each week in parallel - if at different speeds. In a spirit of generosity and mutual co-operation those who are more advanced in the solution offer help - short of giving actual explicit answers - to those getting stuck at certain points and requesting such help - so the conversation is normally within a group of people who are quite familiar with the preamble and clues (notwithstanding that some may have misunderstood parts of these).

In this context I would have thought that a simple reference to a clue number - eg. "10a" - would suffice to make the query clear; queries about/references to the preamble might need to be a bit more subtle.

The only reason to give the full clue text, answer length, and the preamble would be if one were soliciting help from kibbitzers completely outside this Listener 'community', detached observers who visit the thread simply to 'cold-solve' clues which they have not previously seen, in a crossword puzzle that they are not attempting to complete themselves.
I find it hard to believe that such gluttons for punishment exist - although I have to say that I have once or twice noticed stalwarts commenting that they have "...not bought the Times this week, and could you spell out the clue and answer length" - so that they can offer a suggestion. Weird! (..to me, anyway).

If most of us are agreed that we are a flock of fellow travellers calling out to each other for reassurance in only a partially foggy treacle swamp that we are wading through in roughly the same direction, can I propose that we agree that a clue number is quite polite enough, and petition our Dear Administrator to let us off the hook of giving the full clue text and answer number with each request for a hint?

Or have I got this completley wrong?

Quixote, there won’t be a fine for anyone not providing the clue and I won’t be deleting such requests but, as I said, there might not be an answer either😢