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Thanks all - I have the gist of it now. I must say, I don't really like this kind of puzzle which involves random guesswork and answers that aren't real words, but I still like to finish them where possible.

Thanks to The Frogman I have almost finished this one but I am stuck on two letters in 29dn. As The Frogman reveals PAUL has to be replaced by another (female) name but I can't think of one that fits the clue. I have the second and fourth letters from crossings. In fact all the letters I have are the same letter.
All the jumbles correspond to the cluing but I can't y et figure this one out.

The Frogman's Comments page should help you on that one...

I went with Mele for the name

Thanks for that. Is Mele in a list of names somewhere? Can't say I've ever heard it but it does seem to fit.

Hebe?

From The Frogman's site:

"I thought this was the trickiest replacement of the lot, and probably the most obscure of the feminine names. The explosive is HE (High Explosive), and the meeting is BEE (as in 'spelling bee' or 'quilting bee'), so the lady replacing Paul is HEBE (the daughter of Zeus and Hera, and not an uncommon name these days)."

Thanks for that jack natter ..... my melee didn't quite fit for explosive meeting!

Can anyone confirm that the 4th letter of 1dn is Y. Having difficulty parsing.

Yes it is...MY (the writer's) in SCAT ([animal] dropping) reversed, with Tracy Barlow's daughter replacing Harry Potter's best friend.