Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

I had the same process, counted 26 then saw the 37th lurking.

Assume the positioning of the items is appropriate, at the part of the grid that correspends to their physical/geographic location

Oh, and thanks robt (Henri) for looking in, I really enjoyed this!

Stopped writing yesterday.
Full grid; seven misprints, that give me a year from the last century (?); and can’t take my eyes off the eight letter word, crossing four answers in column three.
Struggling with the “letter pair definitions” and two locations.
Hmm !

DFG2, your 8-letter word is significant, but you'll need the theme for context! I didn't bother with the four (not two!)locations until afterwards - they'd have meant nothing even if I'd spotthem them,which I didn't.
The letter pairs, definitions really did help - and as said earlier, those a the start of the clues proved quite revealing.

Think of the letter pairs bit as a mini-clue - 'Malone on vacation' would give ME. and 'So twisted' would give OS. Just examples, not in this puzzle!

Help appreciated, I can't see 16a and 4d, they cross.
Otherwise full grid, but still the theme to crack

Lumen, the wordplay is simply Caught and Fly,the definition is the first word. That clue is affected by the 'twelve clues...' stuff.

Lumen,I never fully parsed 4 D. I have a common in crosswords 'groom' with a 'starter from...'inside.

Thanks didn't know the fly or the groom.
Carte has to change to give the definition.

I am tempted to cry “A*****!”. Bravo, Henri, my favourite of the weekend crop.

Lumen, thanks - I must have met both the fly and the groom fairly recently! Yes, I expected it'd be Carte to change, but I was too busy finishing off all the thematic stuff at that point!