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Hamishsoup I too found that odd, until I realised that T maps to U to destroy the symmetry. I omitted it from my list of letters by mistake. So the missing letters are lopsidedly split. C, D, E, G, Q, Z

Hmmm. There's got to be a reason for it, rather than just 'use a substitution cipher'... hasn't there?

I agree with you, but I’m blowed if I can work out what it is! There are five 5 letter shifts. V to A, J to P, M to R, I to N and W to B, but after that it gets harder…

I've solved this - having been asked by jono if I remember the rubric. But, as I can hardly remember one month's genius when I look at the blog at the end of the month, I'm afraid I'm no help with the code. Looks as though quisling has the right transliteration but what explains it is beyond me ... though I'm sure I solved it at the time! Presumably the Shakespearean names superseded the alternatives.

Many thanks for giving it a try, Prospero. It was a last try but perhaps we need to put this to bed.

I did message Alan Connor to see if there might be a dusty archive box somewhere deep in the basement of Guardian HQ with an original copy of the pdf … but alas, it seems not.

I have an update.

Following a post I made on the Crossword Centre discussion board, “DRC” has suggested to me that the preamble should read along the lines of…

“Six symmetrically placed thematic words must be encoded before entry into the grid. To do this, the answer to 1 across should be written on one line and the unused letters of the alphabet written below in sequence. Each letter should be encoded by selecting the letter above or below it."

Over to you Quisling.

Of course, Jono. That works perfectly. I should perhaps have teased that out. I thought there was something unusual about the choice of word for 1a, and it turns out there was. 13 letters, half the alphabet, and none of them repeated. I was right with everything I had, save not knowing the first and third encodings in 21d.

Many thanks indeed for that!

Glad we got there in the end. I enjoy a bit of detective work. I think DRC is Doctor Clue of the Clue Clinic. I’ll be sure to thank him.

That was very fine sleuthing Jono. Definitely a three-pipe problem 🥸

Looks like a fun new Super Genius challenge. Solve an old puzzle without the preamble and reconstruct the instructions from there.😁