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Ionacarr #57 says that some enjoyment ought to have been possible. How true and how sad! I have not had much enjoyment from this puzzle. I gave up when I got a solution to clue 8 which I couldn’t put in without violating the rules of the game. I came back to the forum where people are telling me to change the way of entering it. But I can’t see any way of doing this.

Rad - there seem to be two kinds of contributor to this thread: those who profess mystification and drop out vs those who profess it and then almost immediately tell us the PDM has arrived. (Perhaps you will be the next one of those).

With Candledave's patient assistance I have got as far as entering 8 as xxxx [AVA] TES, where [ ] indicates a single cell and x indicates a letter withheld in the spirit of fair play. Does this make the theme jump out at you? Me neither. I thought I was onto something topical when I spotted the name of a city in a cell containing four letters, but it seems to be a dead-end.

I can't say more without risking the wrath of the moderator. Haven't needed to consult this forum recently and am surprised it seems to have gone the way of That Other Forum.

Ionacarr, you seem to be close to a breakthrough, but you are not quite entering 8E correctly. None of the last five cells clash

I made an attempt early on to give a clear indication that there are far fewer clashes to be found than appears to be the case (I don't think anyone who finished the puzzle early on did so without erasing a great many of their 'clashes' and I hoped to save others from having to do the same).
You wouldn't have got anything like that from 'That Other Forum', ionacarr (but I'm sorry you didn't get my other, possibly too subtle, hints about the placing of your clashing square - I also find the level of help here is less than it could be at times).

Thanks for your reply, Ionacarr. I don’t think I am likely to be the next jumper-for-joy, but you never know. I agree that some of the members of this forum are not being as helpful as I think they would like to be.

Your suggestion for entering 8 is interesting. I thought of putting three letters in one cell but can’t see any justification for thus going against the normal conventions. It would open the door for doing the same all over the grid and causing even more uncertainty than we already have.

If we do allow 3 in 1 I would be inclined to use the third cell rather than the fifth. That would avoid clashes in the fourth and fifth cell as well as the ninth and tenth. But I’m hesitant about suggesting this as I have so many other grounds for uncertainty. I still think it better to give up and do something else!

Rad, I take your point about conventions, but to quote Sherlock Holmes : "when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth". With the answers you have to 8E and 11E, can you see any way to fill the second row without having more than one letter in a cell?

Drxx and Quisling, I didn’t see your posts before sending my latest one. It appears that we do have to put 3 in 1, but how can you justify it, and is it a technique that we need to use anywhere else in this nightmare of a puzzle?

Drxx and Quisling, I didn’t see your posts before sending my latest one. It appears that we do have to put 3 in 1, but how can you justify it, and is it a technique that we need to use anywhere else in this nightmare of a puzzle?

And I'm quite prepared to risk the 'wrath of the moderator' - I did so by giving the number of a longish answer that can be entered straight across the grid.
I think a deliberately misleading preamble deserves a decent shove from the other end.

Apologies for unintended repetition!