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Thank you Always puzzled, "Half of officers getting measure of land vessel" originally thought it should have acre in it then just got confused, haven't got that in any of my ref books so there must be some annotating going on now.
I too, think the preamble is messy, it mentions a 4th surname in the grid, surely that should be a 5th as we already have 4 (3 + 1) mentioned earlier. Do double barrelled names have to be hyphenated?

MM, glad you got there in the end.I don't know about a g-------ball as a prize, you deserve a medal for soldiering on! I'm sorry the hints about the highlighting didn't seem to help. As you had the theme and we'd given you seven of the twelve letters needed, I thought it'd take you minutes to uncover the rest.

Chambers defines double-barrelled as hyphenated surnames - I don't think the one in the puzzle is. That surname is like Alexander McCall Smith, where the surname is two words.

Jigjag, I forgot to reply to your post. I don't know if the thoughts/opinions on double-barrelled names confused things - if so, I'm sorry! To me, the relevant answer was the person's final name/final part of name. I didn't enjoy this puzzle very much, so didn't spend much time dwelling on aspects of it.

malone

I am glad to say I have finished it -thank you to all who gave hints.

I agree with MM about the messy pre-amble, and I am told that the relevant surname is a 2 word one (no hyphen). I think it should have been mentioned that not all the surname was needed.

All this double -barrelled, either hyphenated or not, is confusing, but I too did not waste much time looking for the missing part. Incidently a friend of mine, Ann Marie, insists that she has one Christian name, though without a hyphen. Officialdom always treats her as Mrs A. M. X. She refuses to provide an initial on forms etc. and uses her full Christian name.

I also did not enjoy this EV. I did not parse all the clues so did not get the prize - Blister Ball ? And why do they "stand in the way"? I thought they helped entrants.

Thanks to all again...................just thick Malone, that is the major problem!

Hello agaim Jigjag. The four people 'stand in the way' because they, as judges, determine half the scores - the rest comes from the public's vote.The winner of the series gets a Glitterball trophy, apparently. I now know more than I think I needed to know! I'll skip the current series, this puzzle hasn't drawn me in.

I don't know if I felt the preamble was 'messy'. It all seemed logical to me at the time. I was a bit disgruntled after solving as it seemed on the easy side and it was a topic that didn't interest me in the slightest. (I might not have minded either one of those things, but both...?)

Mary

I would not describe Malone as you have - I have the utmost respect for her.

I assume you unfortunately missed the comma before "Malone", but she will not take offence, I am sure.

Thanks, jigjag - that made me chuckle! You can take MM's place on my (virtual) Christmas card list this year.

MM, I am 100% certain that you weren't referring to me as 'thick Malone', some typing errors end up more amusing than others!

Malone

Yes, agree it was one of the easier ones, and subject of no interest to me either, which is why I abandoned it, only to return after references to "cyclist" and other postings which intrigued me.

I was irritated by the Americanisms, math and mayo (not in my old Chambers) and since the full surname was not included , I wondered if the setter was from the States as you could set and solve it (as sunray did) without knowing much about it.

I have asked numerous people why the first word of the title is included and nobody knows, although as I watched the 2 word show years ago, I can see that

Malone

I have made some really embarrassing typing errors, particularly at work, usually wrong letters. Now I read about 3 times before I post and still get some wrong!