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S_Pugh, I should have thanked you for your earlier help re Erato etc. But I don't know what you mean about 'spoiler', since you are only giving information that it seems quite a few people are seeking. That's not 'spoiling'.

I wasted considerable time thinking that Reishi joined Pyrotechnist. But do I understand from what you say that my thought about the two 12s being either side of the centre column is correct ? I don't see how it can be : if Vying hangs off Attractively, then it might intersect Pyrotechnist at the 'I'. In which case there would be an offset of one square between the two 12s. Then the symmetrically opposite 5 (to Vying) would need to be ??T?O. But there isn't such a one...

Hi Orson, many thanks for Relevant. It took me a long time to see that the Omitter misprint is the A of woman, which needs to be E.

Orson - I think W is the abbreviation for womEn.

You just beat me to it M. I’m still struggling like you to fit in more than two intersecting words. I also have about 20 clues to solve.

Thanks, meursault and unclued. So sneaky to have women instead of woman!

Sorry Meursault, I just didn't want to think I was giving too much away. That the 2 12's are either side of centre is factually correct, it is just a matter of how far apart they are! Your O ending is correct, as was your earlier muse ....

My conjecture in comment 19 was that the two 12s are just 2 columns apart, ie either side of the central column. But I don't see that can be correct. And an offset of 1 in the two 12s isn't possible either, since that wouldn't allow symmetry in a 13*14 grid.

I may be wrong but I have (tentatively) put them in columns 5 and 9. I didn’t think they would go next to the central column because I assume that is the unclued entry and is possibly taking up most or all of the column.

Either by accident or design, this grid is exceptionally difficult to break into. I have never had so much trouble piecing things together after 75% of the clues solved. The last few carte blanch puzzles I've broken into quite early.

I worked out very early in the game that the twelve-letter answers and the two eight-letter across answers could not intersect. As far as I can see, the two eight-letter down answers do not intersect with the pairs of five-letter across answers that S_Pugh has said intersect with the long down answers. All this means that the normal entry route into a carte blanche via the longer answers is denied to solvers.
Given the number of hours I have spent on idly moving answers around on a grid, I passed the 'no longer enjoyable stage' long ago. It's pretty clear from here and the other site that few people have made much progress. I suspect this has been put out to reduce the number of all-corrects. I'm it will succeed in that. The setter has made very few concessions to the solver - a carte blanche that's hard to break into, one with an unclued entry of unknown length, some fiendishly difficult misprints (anywhere in the clue) and some very indirect definitions.

Even Sabre makes concessions to solvers in his toughest puzzles, and I have usually got a lot further with a Sabre puzzle by this time on Sunday. Challenging puzzles can still be enjoyable, but this one is bottom of the list for enjoyment.

W is not an abbreviation for WOMAN in Chambers. WOMEN