Solution to Postcard by Hedge-sparrow

 Postcard - Solution

                    Location  THE BROADS            Activity  ON A CRUISE

Hedge-sparrow’s holiday venue is THE BROADS in Norfolk where he is ON A CRUISE (as confirmed by appropriate unscrambling of letters involved in clashes).  He is following a section of the RIVER BURE from WROXHAM / HOVETON via HORNING to RANWORTH (place names derived by unscrambling extra letter sequences in 4 clues), passing nine broads on the way: WROXHAM (W), HOVETON GREAT (H), SALHOUSE (S), DECOY (D), BLACK HORSE (B), BURNT FEN (B), COCKSHOOT (C), RANWORTH (R) and MALTHOUSE (M), confirmed by reference to a map of The Broads.  On the way, he spots three well-known local residents - a MARSH HARRIER, a SWALLOWTAIL, and a BITTERN.

Four clues include extra letter jumbles, each of which can be arranged to give the name of a town: MAX WHO R = WROXHAM; R NIGH ON = HORNING; HOT OVEN = HOVETON; WAR HORN T = RANWORTH.  Solvers are required to ring each town’s initial in the corresponding entry to indicate their positions on the postcard map.

Extra letters removed from 35 clues (all those clues not yielding either town names or clashing entries) give the message SHUFFLE EXTRAS FROM CLUE PAIRS THAT CLASH: the nine pairs of across and down clues leading to clashes contain extra words which must be “shuffled” to form the name of a feature – a broad.  For each of these, solvers are required to enter the first initial of the name in the clash cell in each case.

Also shown in the postcard are the course of the River Bure (23 contiguous cells appearing as RIVER BURE RIVER BURE RIVER), and the names of the three local residents.  Hedge-sparrow hopes that at least a few solvers took the opportunity to emulate the beauty of The Broads through appropriate colouring of their postcard.