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Can't even get one answer. Are the mutilated answers proper words?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

No they're not proper words. The message has to do with the age of the setter. 2 across is very straightforward and might give you an "in". I have the message but am still struggling with about 7 solutions.

Hi Cathco,

No, the mutilated answers are not proper words.

I'm making (very) slow progress, but my 'in' was 17 across, which is reasonably easy working backwards from an aero instrument. And 7 across is relatively easy if you have only the slightest knowledge of camera makes.

When I wrote "2 across" I meant "7 across"! (It's the second across clue).
Having now finished I can say that 7 down and 14 across are real words even in their mutilated form and can be deduced from rheir definitions.

"their definitions".

Thank you cmk and Barretter.
Will stick with it!!

In 7down the actually entered word is defined by "is exhilarating" ; and in 14 across the actually entered word is defined by "church forecourts".

Well - finally finished after a bit of a slog,

Quite apart from the special rules, I found a lot of the clues tricky, and the specialist (?) knowledge required pretty obscure eg the Irish pop star in 31 across (who?) and the robot play reference in 16 down.

Yeah, I'd never heard of the Irish pop star but the robot play is quite well-known and is where we got the word "robot" from.

I've almost completed but hit a brick wall with 18 across. I have POST?IT? In the grid and from the message I think I need to remove B from the complete word, but I can't make anything fit. Where have I gone wrong?