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Thanks again, Drxx. I really should have done that more carefully some time ago.

Thanks drxx! I'd been barking up the wrong tree, but confident now.

At least, once you've got it, you know you've got it.

To say that I am struggling with this would be a massive understatement. I more-or-less have a full grid, but I cannot parse 13a, 3d, 21d, 34d and 37d. Nor can I solve 35d. Having said that I only have 24 extra words, thus far 13 in the across clues and 11 in the down clues. If these form an instruction in English I have some rather serious problems. Without giving anything away, is what I have so far looking correct?

“If these form an instruction in English I have some rather serious problems“

Once you have eliminated the impossible (with apologies to Conan Doyle…)

I now have the instruction and the advocates name. This gives me 15 extra words in the across clues and 12 in the down clues. However, I cannot see one of which I need. Still stuck on 35d which I have as a normal clue. I think I'll start to grid stare........................

Yes, I'd say you're on the right track (and the faulty grammar alluded to in 35d requires translation).

Are the hidden entities all of the one type, or are some of the type relevant to the other party to the action (leading to the confusion)?

Absolutely the latter. So if the theme were ursine, rather than what it is, the highlighted cells would *not* be brown, grizzly, Pooh etc etc

13a - Def is judges; change over to acting in word for bleaters
21d - egg=O; 3-letter basket
35d: def = letters; if you take the entry as 2,2 you get a French grammatical mistake
37d - words (1 & 2: 3; (4 &5); 6 each give a letter;

Thanks, hw7, but your reply has me worried. Are you saying that ALL of the 30 letters belong to the other group, or merely some of them? There are two very obvious members of what I'm calling the first group (6,6) - are they herrings of a brightly-coloured variety?