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BB - the total number of legs in the shaded cells’ occupants is twelve.

The trouble is that there are so many words for types of the thematic that many will appear by random, especially if reversal is suspected. Teg, for one.

If the ‘direct’ in the preamble had been ‘precisely’ or similar, it may have been clearer (though the addition of clarity is not of course necessarily desirable in a Listener preamble).

When the penny - finally, and after a lot of grid staring, in my case - drops, it drops hard; and I now wonder how it took so long to see what is now blindingly obvious. But you do need the Wiki!

A general observation for those who dislike or struggle with word searches: if you see rows, columns (or even diagonals) with an unusual number of unchecked cells in them, there is usually a good reason for it, and it's a sensible place to start looking.

And belated thanks to Drxx for some very well-judged nudges. Right in the Goldilocks zone: encouragement to think differently rather than steers towards an outcome.

Have filled grid and identified message, with a few clues left to parse (3d, 14a, 22a, 31a). I am about to start grid-staring but in the meantime am particularly troubled by 35d: I can identify the grammatical mistake but the word that results does not meet the definition (at least in my Chambers App) although it sounds like it might.

In my Chambers it comes up as an alternative spelling.

neophyte - look up the singular in the app and you’ll see it as an alternative there

Thank you

I think I need some hints here. I don't have all of the extra words because of parsing difficulties. Plus I am completely unsure of 5d. Is it a proper name? Some of the ones I can't parse are 3d, 22a, and 19a. I assume for 19 that the first five words are a punning definition.

MPRS, definition of 5d is the second and third word. 22a think bridge (as in card game). 19a definition is first 5 words as you guessed. Scots land law needed for parsing! Parsing of 3d is still hazy for me but eighth word is the extra,