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Just taking a look at this one, which the preamble states has 180 degree symmetry. Being 12x12 this would imply even numbers of clues of every length in acrosses and downs, but this isn't the case. In fact there are 149 letters in down answers, so do these overlap somehow ? Indeed one of the three 12-letter across entries starts in a different column to the other two !

Think laterally, ask yourself about the six clashes and the contents of their cells.

Isn't the Listener wonderful?

crosswhit99,

I'm pretty confused here as well. I've never cold-solved so many clues (about 80%) without being able to start filling in the grid. Clearly the "numbers in brackets are the answer lengths" suggests that answer length does not necessarily equal grid length, but I don't know how to progress.

A total (desperate) stab in the dark but could it be anything to do with bars not being entered?

As bananabean suggested, it's actually to do with the clashes, so whilst the bar pattern exhibits symmetry, some of the grid entries are shortened versions of the answers. For example, the 12 letter across answer that starts in a different column is shortened to a 5 letter word by creating a gap in the word where 8 letters are removed. The gap coincides with a similar gap in a crossing down entry and is replaced by one of the 6 letters of the author's surname to create the final entries. The 14 letters removed from the two answers can be rearranged to the titular character. This also explains why there are more letters in answers than cells available in the grid. It was easy enough to work out where the 6 gaps must be once the bar pattern was established, but this did depend on finding the quotation in order to establish the indexation.