This was a good mix of lots of different techniques. Progress was steady until a major PDM when I realised what the keywords were. After that it was very straightforward. I was rather uncomfortable for a while because I had a wrong, but apparently satisfying, answer to 5dn - however this resolved itself.
Am I alone in thinking that the 2,4,4,2 phrase may actually be an example of the type of clue deined in the title - as it is somewhat clumsy ( though good considering the limitations of the letters available). If so, what is the missing word?
Finished it. Faster than I originally thought - I even posted last week's yesterday without waiting to see if I'd finish this one.
Quite an enjoyable crossword, but I didn't like the misprints one little bit - I think that misprints in short and/or sometimes dubious anagram indicators is poor cluing (clueing?).
Agreed Deviant that they would have been unfair without the strict limitations that the author put on them, but given the requirement that they (and their corrections) are restricted to a set of specific letters I take my hat off to Qid.
Just finished, and very clever, the way it all fit together. The phrase at the bottom is good too. In the Galileo puzzle two weeks ago there is no way you could finish the grid and not know what the words at the bottom were. It didn't add anything. Here, you need to think a bit, and if you've filled in some clues without understanding where the misprint is, you might struggle.
Thought this was pretty hard (like Jamesah, only discovered why my key words weren't gibberish right at the end!). Hadn't realised the significance of the title as a type of clue until reading this thread, though - how pleasing it would be if the four word phrase is one as Shelouse suggests. Could propel the whole thing into a different league of cleverness.
Been away and catching up on a number of puzzles but finally finished this one. Reading the thread through I am in complete agreement with everything - take my hat off to those who did it without having the keywords from the start. My IT specialist gave me those to begin with - being a wizard at research, and I would have struggled big time without them. Sadly will not have a 100% year as have already missed one; but this will at least take the heat off later months!