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It was wet and cool here yesterday so I was content to plug away at this beast off and on throughout the day. Today looks better so I feel I have better things to do than continue with this unrewarding slog. I may come back to it later in the week as I have almost completed the grid but have not a scooby as to what is going on - I fear the 'work' is unknown to me. Sorry Somniloquist this is just not my cup of tea.

Cockie, I don't think they are red herrings; I found it helpful to look at what letters made sense of the crossing words. One good turn etc.: can't parse the definition of 45, any nudge welcome.

In general, what's the thinking on the 'graphical' representation of the fate...?

Off out now, so will be unable to thank responders till later....

greengage, have you spelt it correctly? The def is a type of glass and a homophone of gossip.

Is the third character seven letters? I have found a spot where he might fit but that leaves me with only 10 changed letters and one of the affected answers does not become a real word.

A brief report from the sandbank, where I have thrown the towel in to Blakeney spit. I know that if I can't cold solve six clues in the first half hour it's not worth continuing. This time I had none.

Now, fair enough, you need harder puzzles occasionally. But the challenge of the Listener should lie in the theme and clever construction in my view. If the clues are just too hard it stops the C stream from joining in. Just to add to my tale of woe the download of AZED first thing this morning was the solution not the empty grid.

I'll spend the day waving my flippers at the tourist boats and hope for better luck next Sunday. Regards to all.

One of the characters is longer than 7 letters, ukridge (there's not a lot of help on the thread this week).

I wasn't happy with the def for 45, greengage - it's certainly the last word but Chambers suggests it could include the penultimate word too (and if that's the case there's a problem, because the first word is there to avoid any ambiguity).

Thank you drxx. Yes you're right about the level of assistance. I have characters of five, nine and seven letters, but as I say, the changed letters don't add up to 14 and I have short entry that doesn't become a real word (after changing a 'P' to a 'W').

I'm confused now drxx. I have the definition for 45 as the second word (plus the first possibly). The last word as def would ruin my entries for 33 and 36