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Hi Dryden. I meant putting a diagonal line through each individual missing letter, a bit like highlighting. I suppose though, that putting a line through the whole lot, forming the square, does confirm the first phrase, 4 words, 21 letters, which would appear if the dots were reset as the clashes.
I too had boll for 21, which held me up for a while.

I've got a full grid but I'm failing to find the two instructions. Are they side by side or one after the other?

The first set of letters I've got from extra words is ER, SY, CA, EW... and no words seem to be appearing there! (the SY might be RH).

Some words are appearing later on now and I see the instructions will be one after the other. Even so, my first few letters still don't suggest anything.

Just a nudge, but the second pair is neither of those you suggest.

If it's any help, 6a is partly a homophone clue, so 'heard' is necessary to the clue. The correct choice of extra word will give you a letter pair that will make a seven-letter word combined with all but one of your other letters.

Thanks, gem and dryden; I shall give 6a some more thought but sailor = AB and ship = SAIL (as verbs each) did seem to fit.

Orson - you need 'heard' as 'sail' in answer is spelt differently

Much obliged, crates. It's a good job I'm doing the puzzle in rough copy first. I wish the Listener had as much space as the Inquisitor in the revamped i newspaper as I find the need to annotate the clues.

Yeah. Although I don't submit, I find I have to take a copy more often these days to work on. Anyone who sees my pristine finished copy in the paper must think I'm a genius! (He worked out all those difficult long anagrams in his head!)

I've done it all, except that I have a feeling I should have another K in the grid in order to get a unique solution. I only have one and that is where there is a clash.