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A strange mixture os easyish and some I can’t parse at all. Initially over-daunted by the preamble and Playfair and not sure I am pleased or disappointed it was not more elaborate. Just a couple of letter gaps - can you help me out with 21 please.

Kazakhstan is KZ, into which is inseted a word for smuggled. One of the cells has two letters.

I suspect that the encryptions for 17 and 37 were provided for confirmation rather than as a means to solve the key. A key word or phrase for a Listener Playfair would not normally have repeated letters, but this does.

Now I've looked at the Playfair grid more closely, I think it's impossible to work out the key phrase from the given encryptions. You could rearrange the columns and get the same encoding with different key phrases. They would not necessarily be real words, but neither is this one because of the elimination of the second instance of the repeated letter.

Thanks again to you all for all of your help, especially Wintonian who helped to release the hovering penny. Oh how I kicked myself having visited a certain gothic town only a few weeks ago!

I stared intently at my three remaining clues today (no references on here) but eventually I got them. Next time I’ll put my fear of ridicule aside and brave asking for help on here :)

I have just started this puzzle.
If I draw a diagonal from 44 to 10, I have most of the answers above it.
Very few below it.

I have figured out the journey and who transits. Based on that I am assuming the last 5 letters of 31a go in last cell or 13d. Is that correct?

Also I can place the leader of the journey in 13d. The name is 5,4 so it fits 13d's 9 letters.

I have answers to 17a and 37a. When I use the quinapalus to get the Playfair word, it does not find any. When I just put the encoded answers given (KVTPUQ and GUHION), the engine gives several alternatives for the word. How long is that word?

For example I put in 6 letter answer to Dishonest in 37a and indicate GUHION as the encoded answer, it cannot find any. What am I doing wrong?

I have only two cells with more than one letter. Other than the object I mentioned, the two letters are abbreviation of a country.

Any help on 44a appreciated.

Thanks.

Sunray. As dryden has mentioned, creating the Playfair from the given encryptions is probably impossible. You need the key words to create it yourself. You need the vessel used by your 5,4 leader

Sunray. Your assumption on 31a is correct. It is one of the groups of letters referred to in the preamble. 44a is an anagram.

Thanks merenz.
I tried with the ship's name as playfair word.
It is a 9 letter word with one letter repeating.
For GUHION, my grid gives correct letters for GU and ON, but not HI.
For KVTPUQ, I don't get any letters for the answer. Last two letter of my answer for 17a are NG. I get UM, not UQ.

The first two letters of 13d are KD. Playfair gives me HV.
Help appreciated.

Sunray. 9 letters with 1 repeat is correct but you need to include the three letter abbreviation in front.

DRAT! Should have seen it.

Thanks Merenz

Works now.