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I am really stuck on this. I have a full grid, but the five unclued answers have spaces in them. I have tried to encode their opposites but cannot see anything obvious in the results and cannot completely encode them because of the missing letters. The instructions are a bit ambiguous - when I encode 15a, it is 15a that gets replaced in the grid, not the unclued answer - is that correct?
Please can anyone give me a hint in the right direction? Also I cannot see what 1a is and have no idea about the talent scout - is that someone well-known?
Any advice really welcome - thanks!

Hi

The way I did it was to encode what I had and then look to see a pattern.

The clue in the preamble is that if you slot them together they form a link of names- 4 in this case. The one you have 15a is the start of a name. ? u r g e ? ?. it does go in 15a

I could them see what letters were needed to make the names in full.

They are a group who were undercover.

The talent scout is the person who recruited them for the other side.

6- 7

A????d D?????h

Hi bobbibunny.
I started pairing answers and got letters thou a few jokes,remained. Having convinced myself that I was correct in my addition I strung what I had together in the order suggested earlier in the thread and the penny dropped when I started to see familiar names. I then put these names in the unclued answers having been able to finish my gaps in the answers which I had not got. I hope I have done this correctly.
I minder if someone could give me a clue to,the final words. I guess the fifth is J Cc so presume I am looking for synonyms of the two parts of the surname. Suspect 21ac is not part of it judging by an earlier contribution.

You typed faster! So the clued answers need changing. Presumably I will see the words then.

yes you can't get the 5th name until you make the changes as a new word is formed that you need.

Yes, Rickye, J Cc is correct, at least as far as the puzzle goes - in real life I'm not sure it was ever proven. This was UK's version of McCarthyism, many of the people were perfectly normal and wanted only what the Beveridge Report promised. What was slightly abnormal at that time was the idea that world peace could only be guaranteed by sharing the secrets of nuclear weapons (Niels Bohr was an advocate of this) - hence 'mutually assured destruction'. Which worked for several decades, but certainly wouldn't work now.

The names are so familiar. Still hunting the eleven letters. Had to redo the grid as I had put the new letters in the wrong squares initially. Presume I am looking for a pile of stones and some sort of hybrid.

Yes you are on the right lines there rickye.

Thanks

Thanks very much - I'm on my way now! I had 10a wrong which meant I didn't spot the first name!