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Many thanks Crates (46) and Will37 (47). I changed the fourth and sixth letters of one of my creatures to make a different one and when I then Googled the revised list it came up with the work in question. Having inserted the across entries I appear to have completed the puzzle without the need to solve any of the other clues and without having to work out how the answers to the across clues relate to the entries, which is a bit of a let-down.

I have now "solved" the rest of the down clues and worked out how the first across clue can be read to give the actual entry. Very clever! I presume the rest of the across clues are equally clever, but I am not sure I have the tenacity to work my way through them all, when it seems to be unnecessary.

Yes possible to complete (once you have thematic work) without solving any across clues (which all have something in common) ...

I have completed the grid and Title and parsed the clues except the across clue beginning "Learner". Can anyone give a hint so it doesn't keep me awake?

The one I originally failed to parse ...

Note by Admin - Post removed at the request of Crates who felt it gave too much away

crates - no need to give away answers or be so explicit about what is going on

candledave - Apologies if I said too much - after many years on this site being very careful to only nudge and not happy with responses that say too much ... perhaps I crossed the 'red line' ... but unintentially ... 'slap on the wrist for me' ...

Thanks, Crates, I get it now.

I already had the parsing in your first sentence, but the second one had stumped me.

It's quite satisfying to work out the parsing of the across entries (if you like doing crosswords). Even when you know the answer it's quite a challenge. But I still have six (now 5) of the initial 'easy' answers to get.
I can send off the puzzle but may still plod on.

I'm sure this was a difficult puzzle to construct and reflects a lot of hard work from the setter, so thanks as always to Cagey. Personally I found this jumped straight from too difficult to too easy! At first I thought it would be a DNF, and then with a few guesses and a fortuitous google, it was all over. I've understood the down clues and a couple of the across ones, but I don't understand the order or how the definitions were affected. It was interesting how difficult I found the down clues - the solver has much less to go on when they only partially understand one half of the clue!