The preamble stated that ‘before solving, one letter must be changed in the definition part of 25 clues, the new letters all being different.  The missing 26th letter is to be revealed as required by the completed grid.”

There were 41 clues, therefore 16 were normal.  It was up to the solver to deduce which 16 were normal and which 25 contained misprints.  

It took me one evening session to solve the clues. The Across clues contained significantly fewer normal clues than the Down clues.  The Acrosses had 4 normal and 16 misprinted, while the Downs had 12 normal and 9 misprinted.  

It took me a bit longer to deduce the last step and even now I am not sure that I have got it right.

I didn’t really think about which [particular letters hadnnot been replaced by misprints until only two or three clues remained.  In a few cases the misprinted words seemed to leap out of the page - e.g. java,  remote,  tap and hacks, but generally  the majority of the clues read fluently on the first scan through.

The missing letter is M and I can see a number of possible phrases to highlight.

e.g. M is same; Miss a M; Dismiss a M; or Miss M, but I don’t really feel happy with any of them.   

‘M is same’ has the attraction of being symmetrically located in its row, but I am not convinced!

I was hoping to highlight something that portrayed the letter M, but have so far failed to locate anything obvious.

Whenever I have done Schadenfreude puzzles before I have found the final step to be very logical, so I guess I have missed something this time.

Where appropriate, the clue explanations below show the new correct letter , the resultant corrected word, and the misprinted word  before describing how the answer is derived.   I have not understood all the component parts of 32 Across - STORM JIB.

An excellent puzzle, as usual, from this top setter. Solving time: 19 mins

* = anagram  < = reverse

ACROSS

4 H AND M (Clothes shop) AID

11 A LEX (Luthor - Superman’s enemy) AND RA (artist)

14 (Yorkshire) BATTER IN G RAMS using metric units = in grams

18 FIT S AND S TARTS

22 ORNAMENTS (smarten on(e))*

25 BR ONZE Third in Olympics etc after Gold, Silver. BR = Brazil (IVR), confirmed in Collins. Onze is French for eleven ie football team

27 TH (RE) AT Last I solved and much easier than it looks.

DOWN

2 DO ONE’S BIT Definition ‘chip in’ Lorna Doone = 19th century novel. Good surface suggesting computers

3 CON GA Con = direct course, a less common meaning of ‘con’. GA = Georgia (US state)

‘conga’ is a verb here, I think ‘to dance’

5 AFGHANISTAN (an Asian fight)* less I (head of Islamists). A nice &lit from the master.

6 DER RINGER Note it’s double barrelled not double-barrelled! That’s where definition and word play meet. ‘der’ = the German, like ‘le’ is the French.

7 A (one) PER (each) Y (year). Colony of apes (less common meaning of the word, but not too difficult from the checking and wordplay).

8 DUE (LL’I S) T A very elaborate & lit with punning on score as in a musical piece ‘duet’

I’ll<    s = second

15 TRADE MARK   ‘used to’ as mark replaced as German currency by the euro in 2002.

18 AS (like) SON (lad) AN (article) CE (Anglican)    Same vowel or consonant repeated - the clue itself being an example.

17 IF FINES S (society)     Remember provided = if

21 Greta GAR BO    Hidden in those answers run together in the order given.

A St Andrew’s Day theme in the appropriate week. One or two tricky clues, but I found it fairly easy overall. Solving time: 16 mins.

Notes on some clues below - happy to explain others if asked.

* = anagram < = reversed

ACROSS

9 INCUS “Cups may be made of soft bone here” I think it’s saying you get cups if you put p = soft in cus. It’s a bone in the middle ear.

13 SAINT ANDREW (was at dinner)* Surface suggesting not too saintly behaviour.

17 (Andrew) LLOYD WEBBER Pleasingly linked with the above (Well-bred boy)*

DOWN

8 ES TEEM meet< Tu es (in French) = Thou art - not my favourite crossword ploy

15 A BE (R DEE) N Scottish flower = Scottish river = something that flows. And it’s not just DEE but R = River DEE if I’ve read it right.

19 HAR (LE) M Tricky with natural syntax reversed = was looking for a synonym of ‘distress’ at first.

Another lovely puzzle from Cincinnus. I particularly like 13A, 19A, 25A and 5D. I found 26A and 20D hard.

Across
1, 28. MAKING TRACKS - double definition
4. THE CHAMP - THE (article) + HAM (bad actor) in CP
9. ADD UP - A (a) + DD (doctor of divinity) + UP (at college)
10. JERKINESS - JERKIN (jacket) + [l]ESS (75% of “less”)
11. LOAFERS - anagram (fantastic) of FOR SALE
12. UNARMED - double definition
13. ASPS - AS (when) + P[oisonou[S]
14. ASTEROID - A (a) + STEROID (drug)
17. DIVISION - double definition
19. HALO - hidden word
22. ORLANDO - double definition
24. RAIMENT - RENT (tear) around AIM (object)
25. ROYAL MINT - anagram of NORMALITY
26. TITAN - hidden word
27. MURMANSK - MURK (darkness) around MAN (chap) + S (seafront)

Down
1. MEATLOAF - double definition
2. KIDNAPPED - “kid napped”
3. NIPPER - NIP (small drink) + PER (for each)
5. HERCULE POIROT - anagram of OUR HELICOPTER
6. CHICAGO - CHIC (elegant) + A (one) + GO (vitality)
7. ABEAM - A (a) + BEAM (shaft)
8. POSADA - PO (post office) + S (small) + ADA (girl)
10. JUST SO STORIES - JUST (only) + SOS (plea for help) + TORIES (right)
15. DIALECTIC - DIALECT (manner of speaking) + IC (one chapter)
16. FORTUNES - “for tunes”
18. VANILLA - ALL IN (comprehensive) + A (a) + V (civic centre) all reversed
20. POGROM - PO (Italian flower) + G (girl’s first) + ROM (memory)
21. BITTER - double definition
23. LAYER - anagram of EARLY