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Thanks - got it now. Had read the first part of the poem without much understanding but not the synopsis.
XX

The "hinting" that the title does about how to modify the down clues is that it is 1 (X), 2 (XX), or 3 (XXX) letters to be extracted.

I'm nearly there but haven't found the answer that leads to the clash and how the quotation is written.

Hi Unclued. The clash is in the second letter of 13. 13 answer is RHO (Greek character, sounds like row as in back row), 9 is AT TABLE. So there is a clash of t/h. The "one answer indicates how to resolve the clash..." is 29, which is THORN. One definition of thorn is the old letter Þ, which represents th. So put a Þ in the clash cell, and also substitute Þ for all 4 occurrences of th in the quoted line, thereby reducing it from 36 letters to 32

Thanks ever so much Meursault. Good to hear from you again.
By the way I was looking through the Listener website and there is a setter Meursault from a good few years ago - is that you?!!

Not me, Unclued. When I began to contribute on this forum I took the username, either not knowing, or forgetting, that there had been a setter by the same name. If I'd known, I wouldn't have wanted to cause confusion and would have chosen another name.

Meursault was condemned for not crying at his mother's funeral, and for not providing any explanation why he shot a man. He refused to present any defence.