Iq 1730

[hankir]

There is an extra letter in the clue which has to be removed before solving.

10. Historic court reported gutter (4) I think G in gutter is extra.
Answer must be Eyre (court) but why utter?

[scorpiojo]

Eyre sounds like air - express/utter

[ProfessorMaisie]

EYREyes, 'g' extra sounds like 'air' = 'utter'

[hankir]

Thank you scorpiojo and ProfessorM.

I wonder if my guess on end game is correct.
By changing one letter in 20a, I get a name who is associated with other names in 1a, 1d and 20a (by changing letters).

[ProfessorMaisie]

No changes to 21a hankir.

[ProfessorMaisie]

sorry, I meant no changes to 20a.

[ProfessorMaisie]

...but you're right about changing 1a and 1d.

[hankir]

ProfessorM, shouldn't EF appear somewhere?

[ProfessorMaisie]

Yes, but not there - move along a bit and go vertically (changing the middle letters).

[hankir]

Thanks ProfessorM.
I now have 8 names and 10 misprints.
One of the two long names (Noble or brothers) remain.

[ProfessorMaisie]

I followed a hunch and went with symmetry (in a broad sense - looking at symmetrical rows and columns, eg top row/bottom row) and that worked quite well - apart from there being no thematic name in the 5th column (there are two columns that have a pair of names in each of them).

[hankir]

Thanks ProfessorM.
Got them all.

Very well constructed puzzle by Skylark,

[ProfessorMaisie]

Yes, I think you're right about the construction, hankir - it must have been tough cramming it all in with real words throughout (and some rare ones at that).