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20a - you're looking for a synonym for cajole.
25a is very thematic and 4d are some of the manoeuvres displayed once they're in position after... (3rd, 4th word).

Thank you, drxx. I’m now a bit confused by the message they spell out!!

Not sure if it helped but I attempted a hint earlier on -

It's not a straight read - you've to interpret the letters you're seeing.

Full grid, block of nine, three thematic words... so going well. Still got a few corrections to tie down and can't face working out the 19 and 15 tonight. Nice puzzle. Sort of in the Goldilocks zone, for me.

Now that we are past the weekend I hope we can loosen up a bit

I have a thematic word that crosses bars and another that is the answer to a clue. It seems to me that the latter, despite being absolutely thematic can't be one of the three because otherwise the third word would only have two letters (or three if there are intersecting thematic words.

Hi Woodlouse,

I hope it is OK to say there are a 5 and an 8 letter word which both cross bars and, I believe, a 5 letter word which is the early part of a longer entry. I scanned wiki and searched for everything that looked like a possible link.

Thanks Drxx

That’s very helpful in confirming my answers. I’ve never come across that 2-letter word for cattle before!

Dim

Woodlouse - there are several thematic words that aren't one of the three. And you can only work out the messages that tell you what the three are when you know which three are the relevant three. Which seems like a fairly fundamental flaw to me.

Thanks drxx. Sorry for the delayed reply, after 2 hours solid puzzling yesterday I had to get on with other things and forgot to check back here.

As Smellyharry says self-referential nature of the thematic words and misprints + the red herrings was v strange and made the end game pretty tedious, for me anyway. (The misprints don't even indicate the three, just two and the relative positioning of two things implied a likely end result rather more artistic than the actual result).

Not the biggest fan of this one!