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My progress in the North West would have been smoother had I not confidently entered “Dallas” at 1 across with a correction of “w”!

Yes, I did that too! I suspect the setter enjoyed writing that clue!

Really struggling with this one. I have a full grid and the part of the quotation (6 words, 20 letters) but there are several down clues that I cannot fully parse, so the instruction is eluding me at the moment.

All finished at last, but still a few clues to fully parse. A very clever and neat final grid.

Having got past Dallas, things proceeded and the final grid is indeed brilliant. Thank you, Sage.

I'm slightly confused. I have a full grid, the quotation and a pretty representation using 28 cells as per the Down instructions. But, the quotation (which I've checked in three different sources) leaves me with six Across clues, not four. Three of these six clues occur immediately before the last word of the quotation. I'm happy that four of my six clues do not have misprints so I don't know what the other two are (I can't see their full wordplay).

I also don't understand the third sentence of the preamble which relates to the four Across clues. I've entered the solutions from the clues as the preamble tell us to do but I can't see any subsequent 'thematic alterations' that could be done. If I have the correct four words, they just seem random to me.

As no-one else has commented on these, I assume that I've done something wrong or just misunderstood part of the endgame.

Simond9x, like Gitto, my quote has six words and twenty letters. This leaves seven across entries without misprints.

My understanding of the preamble is that (i) four of those 'other' seven are subject to thematic alteration and (ii) the wordplay in those four leads to a word which, when altered thematically, meets the definition, and so becomes the entry.

I agree that there is some ambiguity. I'm not sure whether it's entirely by design.

Hi barnacle, must be too much sun today! I hadn't noticed that Gitto had already said how many letters make up the quotation, nor had I spotted that I do, in fact, have 7 clues (not 6) without misprints. I think I need to set it aside for now, take a break and look at it afresh later. Thanks for your response.

simond9x, read the preamble carefully, focusing on the descriptions of the two groups of four clues. That should ease your concern.