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Hi Planks - no extra word in either of those - both 'contribute' to thematic items

Gooing insane with 4A 3 letters towards and only one possible entry that makes no sense at all.

Many thanks s_pugh, that helps.

4a is a capital city 8 letters

The first 5 are in first cell and contribute 5 of 6 to a thematic item.

Capital city starts with m

Primate in wordplay is ape of 4 letters starting m ending a

Way too tough for me I think but I have a few and will stumble on a while. To help, could you confirm if the crowded cells actually share common letters (I assume not as a rule from the 3D check) and is there more than one crowded cell in some answers? Don’t answer if it gives too much away! Thanks.

There is only one crowded cell in any answer.

They do not share common letters in their answers but when the letters from each individual answer are combined they spell a thematic item

Plodding along... Don't understand about the removed words - A=1......?

Ethik - I find it helps to list the alphabet down and place a 1 to the right of the A, 2 to the right of the B etc and then put a 27 to the left of the A, 28 to the left of the B etc. When you have solved a clue and have the extra word and the solution word just take the first letters of both and add them together - so (e.g.) N + P = 14 + 16 = 30 and 30 on the left column = D. Hope this helps!

^ Down as in a vertical column.

Many thanks! I only have a poor O-level in maths....