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Hi ,
I found this to be quite a difficult Xword and almost threw in the towel on numerous occasions. Perseverance eventually paid off and finally arrived at a complete grid. 1A altered as required and characteristic of final grid found. Unfortunately I have only 61 vowels in the grid. What needs to be done to attain 63 ? Any hints gratefully received . Cheers.

Likewise uncle_w. Perhaps it's simply a case of the setter miscounting the number of vowels ?!

I don't think so. Over on AnswerBank, people are saying there is no problem with that, once you work it out. I'm afraid I don't know what any of it means, as I'm struggling to fill the grid, and working out which word swaps with which is even harder.

I don't think it's a case of miscounting . Why have the phrase '63 vowels' in the first place? I agree with you cloverjo . If you require assistance in filling the grid then let me know. 'FIND and REPLACE' is definitely the most difficult part of this but becomes easier once you have found the first few. Back to grid staring for me I'm afraid!

From AnswerBank it looks like 39A is not what we thought it was (so the correct answer to it and/or 1A may yield the extra couple of vowels) ?

I just have three to get.
4d. Put scallops in small ships (4)
6d. and 17a.
Thanks.

The most common of several definitions in Chambers of the answer to 4d is a colour.
What are the other 2 clues (I don't have the grid in front of me) ?

Thanks, sonofRover. Just 6d to get now.
It's an asterisked clue. McCrimmon's hypothetical wine from the Barossa Valley.

Initials of the country where Barossa is situated followed by another colour !

Thank you.