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Thanks Drxx, I've got some time this morning so,I'm going to have another bash at it.

I've got to the stage of a completed grid and almost complete message but can't yet see the 8 regularly spaced cells. Presumably the first letter is in the top row? Is the last as well?

I'm probably being handicapped by being unable to find the second word of the message. I assumed the poet in 'Period poet' is Italian, but if so that seems to lead towards no possible word.

And can someone help with the parsing of 'Fish round jetty'?

Neophyte, if you take the the 3rd letter out of a certain infernal poet, it should work.

Re 'Fish round jetty..' the semi aquatic predator isn't a 'gator' it's the other one and the jetty is just reversed after it to give a fish.

As for the 8 cells, in the end I highlighted all the the 'last word' cells and worked out that the end game must contain them all. The last letter occurs in the top line but that's not the one you want, I don't think.

Could someone kindly confirm whether the second letter of the eight is changed and thus becomes one of the "objects"? This is (in my version at least) in the corner of the drawn shape and seems to be problematic in terms of the required patterns.

basie - change the one that gives the right pattern

I am being really slow filling the grid. Could someone please give me a hint for the "everyone in Otago lived a single life" clue ? I am afraid I've got the Poet wrong, as I can't find any words suitable with the letters I have.
Thank you very much.

Samovar,
Def. is 'in Otago lived a single life', so a New Zealand term. 'Every one', (with extra letter), in 'conjugal union' (3)

candledave - Ah! So perhaps the changed letter does not lead to a real word (the 8 letter word) as I had assumed. I'll have another look tomorrow. Thanks

Thanks very much, Mattrom. I thought it worked like that, but I couldn't find the new Zealand "Everyone"
I had the wrong letter from the "poet" clue. Had the wrong "collie" earlier too !
Thanks again.

Thanks very much Granama (think you also helped me last week). That should see me through.