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Stacey,

There are no vacant cells in column 2. It is split between a nine-letter word that describes an Italian to a Greek....think of the Longfellow poem "Wreck of the......". The bottom part is a four-letter word for a behind comprising a short, as in drink, and a symbol for power.

After more hours than I care to think about I have all the Acrosses except 14 and 24 and the first 5 Downs. It's also clear what the end game is going to be, but the Downs from 6 on are elusive and where the blank spaces are right of column 8 remains a mystery.

Yes, what makes this tough is that you need nearly all the answers to work out where the vacant cells are.

If it helps, there are 'hidden'' answers in several clues, notably 24A, 7D (second word) 9D (second word) and 12D (first word). I kicked myself when I saw them !And look very carefully at 12D second word....the definition is there.

Thanks for those pointers (a bit naughty not to say that 24 isn't in Chambers though). Still stuck with 13 and the 5 further rotations. Are they in 13? And it seems a weakness that 2 (or more) blanked-off cells in 13 are empty. I can find various reindeer herders none of whom is an anagram of IN TENS, so I guess I'm misinterpreting the clue. Nearly there!

Hi

I3 first is a three-letter word for eggs. The reindeer herders are, I'm pretty sure, the Nentsi, which an online source gives as the plural of Nenet. And you're right it does yield two vacant blocked-off cells.

I still don't know about the rotations as the preamble says they are in adjacent cells. Maybe 13 is involved but I'm just not seeing it. I guess the 'death' is The Independent.....

Sorry, not the rotations, the 14 cells to be darkened.....so, after last week, "darken" is the new black ?!

Finished part from the 5 further rotations. It's interesting that this week both IQ and Listener have been set by their Editors, and in both cases there has been much criticism here (and elsewhere) that some aspects have been less than satisfactory. Can it be that Editors aren't able to be as critical (in the proper sense) of their own work as they are of others'? Who is there to suggest that a jolly idea isn't really worth pursuing?

I have clearly misunderstood completely....have several answers but cannot fit them together in the grid which leads me to think that I have not understood the preamble at all!!!!!

Many of the issues around the preamble have been alluded to already but one obvious omission is advice to use a pencil ! I didn't so my grid is a mess although the shape the vacant cells make is still discernible.

On the final stage, the nearest I can get is that you rotate back five of the six earlier rotations, the one exception being the first E in the fifth row (17A), as there is already an adjacent E in place in the next cell....and then draw the blinds on THE INDEPENDENT....I'm not that good at spotting hidden words though....

I am a great IQ fan, but have given up on this one. Far too convoluted for me (although convoluted is usually a good thing!).
I'm sure Nimrod has done a spanking good job, but it seems cobbled together to mark this occasion, with little thought for us, the poor solver!
This may be sour grapes, of course, having come up short as a solver!
Once I start hanging around here for hints on a regular basis, I know it's beyond me, and my self imposed rules of not cheating "too" much must be obeyed.
Little bit of a missed opportunity to draw in the new "I" solvers, also IMO.
Good luck to all!