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I spent quite some time thinking of a different theme given the preamble, the five jumbled items and one answer that seemed connected. Nice red herring!

Having been off the Listener for some months I’ve just returned and have got the grid nearly complete. 2D is defeating me unless it is the plural of an abbreviation in which case I can’t parse it! I have enjoyed sorting out the five theme words and can see clearly two words from the corrected letters but I am not getting to a work as I can’t sort out the last few corrections to make any sense. I’m sure Fist must be one but I’m not finding the word.

Rickeye, 2d is single letter "are" in a 3 letter acronym for "Scots boffins" - it's not a plural.

Oh dear. Another one that leads to a verse. A quick and easy fill with many clues of the same type. I am finding it difficult to reconcile ‘alternate words from the work’ ‘inspired by the verse’ which is hinted at by two answers. I have the two answers, but cannot see how the seemingly obvious two missing items from the set are ‘alternate words’ within that work.

Thanks Brendan but I’m not seeing it! My first three letters for 2D are the same as those for 12A. I think I have 8a correct though don’t get the parsing which is neither here nor there.

Rickeye, yes re 12a - all but 2nd letter are the "Scots boffins".

8a - wordplay splits 4,3.

Thanks. I’d just worked out 8a.

Thanks. All done! Nice to be back.

I'm in the same position as useby - frustrating!

@useby: You need more than 2 “alternate items”. I wonder if you are thinking of the title of the work to give you only two. If so, you need to go beyond the title.