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All quiet...Either that means that it was so easy that everyone has finished and there are no issues ?
Or.

A couple of things to watch for. If you can identify any of the 4 words given by the delete/add/change letters, then make sure you explore it properly. In 3 of the 4, TCD defines the group of 4 to which they belong.
Being able to enter the 6 circled cells gives a lot of help to grid construction.

3 of the 4 quadrants aren't typical crossword format. One is more like a clueless puzzle, a grid for the clueless, which just requires one letter changed at a time. Or at least I'm assuming that's how to do it. :) (Otherwise there is an ambiguity as to how to enter rows 2-5). Two other quadrants, and you may have been concerned that there aren't enough clues to fill the quadrants, involve using the same answers twice.

Hi Meursault,

Yes, that's how I did the odd quadrant because it seemed to work nicely like that and I can't think of another way which would avoid ambiguities.

Hi PKD, usually I complain about preamble ( that there is too much of it ), but on this occasion I've entered here what could have been included !

I logged on this morning hoping to do what I normally do and get some clues for how to complete this from the posts already here without directly asking - that seems less like cheating somehow!! However now I need to ask. I'm completely confused by the construct. Are all the 28 clues of one type or another and go into the quadrant associated with the type or is that a wrong interpretation?

MandyRob - here at least the preamble is explicit and that all quadrants include answers from each type of clue. Meursault obviously felt the need to post a lot of gratuitous information but if you can guess the thematic word that will go in the circled entries it will give you a leg up with the quadrants

Hi MandyRob, obviously there's some cold-solving to be done. Of the 2 quadrants which use answers twice, one is the quadrant which has the down entries reversed. I hope this helps, but if you want any more help, don't be put off from asking...

Thanks both I have about half the answers cold solved but absolutely no idea where to get started putting any of them in the grid. Thinking a good place to start might be with the four words corresponding to the placements so hints to the 2nd and 4th clues would be helpful

mandyrob0704 - 4th clue - First five words form definition (with 1 letter of first word amended) - wordplay is most of a word for a tin-mining district reversed (presume if you googled this it would crop up)

If you have about half cold solved you are probably around the point I was when one of the 4 words jumped out, especially as it is quite a bit longer than the other at 10 letters. Once you have that (and maybe with a bit of Googling) it's significance should become obvious and the other 3 should become easier to identify.

As for clue 2, think Monarch (the co not the queen!). For 4 think of the chemical symbol for tin and check where it derives from.

Hope that helps.

You're absolutely right about the usefulness of the 4 words created by the add/delete/change process. Particularly the first 3, since TCD gives in the definition for each also the group to which they belong. I didn't attempt to put anything else into the grid until I had the circled cells.

Clue 2 : definition is 'path that gives you wind.'
Clue 4 : I've seen this in a Listener recently, it's an 'old [archaic], scottish word for payments to parish ministers' widows. For the wordplay, find the old word for tin (its symbol Sn gives a clue) then the derived word for an area where tin is mined, then use more than half of that reversed.