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Thanks acorns, no it hasn't been road tested yet. That sounds like a smart move. Not sure how to go about it though, as don't know other solvers.

Make sure there are no (or minimal) underchecked entries; that the average answer/entry length is close to 6 (preferably higher); and that thematic entries are scattered in a fair way, and the theme is sufficiently rich to make the puzzle more than trivial

Thanks topaz. Really useful checklist.

All good apart from the average entry length, which is less than 6 but is (just) above the minimum given in the guidelines. As a rookie, that was easily the hardest part of the process. Fingers crossed it'll be let through...

Vinhoverde, I will happily volunteer to be a test subject for you. I am away on holiday next week so I will have plenty of time. Feel free to email the puzzle to yaroguelike at gmail dot com.

I concur with the rest of the comments in this thread about 4756. Some of the clueing was quite tricky but all very fair and I got there in the end. I thought that the penultimate sentence of the preamble was quite generous. Rather than including this, the third sentence could have been extended with the words ", and form an instruction for what the final grid must contain." added to the end.

Overall a very enjoyable puzzle and a lovely construction so thank you, Demoniacal.

Many thanks kitsune for volunteering to be a guinea pig. This really is invaluable help, as otherwise the whole thing could fall at the first hurdle.

Hope that your holiday is in sunnier climes and that it won't be iinterrupted unduly by the puzzle.

Will send over the grid, preamble, and clues shortly.

Once again, thanks for the kind offer.

Hi vinhoverde, I'm happy to be a guinea pig too if you're still looking for volunteers? I'm at derekstuartclark at gmail dot com looking forward to hearing from you

Does anyone know how to access old listeners on the Times website? The main listener page goes back to 2017 but it says you can access more by searching on the crossword homepage, but I'm struggling to find this.

Thanks

smellyharry - on the Crossword Club homepage, there’s a search facility towards the bottom and you can search by dates or number of the Listener using that

Many thanks

Happy with all the parsing, finally, but a little concerned about a few points.
(i) No-one has mentioned this, but the last word of the 13 letter restriction from the play (when the one unused letter is added) seems to me to be the wrong spelling for the endgame to work. Is there justification in the BRB?
(ii) Does the completed restriction from the play replace the ellipsis in the title of the puzzle? (Just thought of this!)
(iii) The final grid has a symmetrical pattern resembling a letter. Is this significant to the theme or am I overthinking this?
Great puzzle though, Demoniacal — first of many?