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Hope everyone enjoys today's Duck.

Morning Malone

I want to understand the meaning of the preamble. Or is that to be deduced?

Say the extra letter is X. Do I look for where X first occurs in the clue? Or where X has been removed.

What is an index in this context? Say X is the fifth letter in the clue do I write down the 5th letter of 25 across? If X is the fifteenth letter do I write down the second letter? etc etc

Hi woodlouse, using your notation, where (the position) X has been removed from and yes its corresponding position in 25a.

Thanks, all done now.

Help with:

There may be an extra letter in the clue, remove before solving.

15. A Turpin person person possibly reversing arrest, mainly engaged in criminality (7)

2d. Drop stoner from Australian after changing hands,not college student (8) Australian is in italics.

13d. Dital's pin in operation after saw cut (6)

41. Pulled over, stopped by soldiers heading to Scotland, say (7)

Thanks

I don't know about anyone else but I found that a real slog. Clever construction and unambiguous endgame (once I sussed it) but not one of my favourites I'm afraid.

Not sure how much help you want Sunray, are you just asking if these have extra letters in? If so, 15, 2 & 13 all do, 41 doesn't (that's a normal clue). If you want more pointers just say.

15 An extra letter near the beginning of the clue.

2 An extra letter near the beginning of the clue.

13 An extra letter near the beginning of the clue.

41. A five-letter word for 'pulled', with 'over ' = reverse, a usual two-letter 'soldiers' is inside. Definition is 'heading to Scotland, say'.

PS You haven't shown any letters you've got, so I don't know how close you are to solving these.

S-pugh, I didn't find this too much of a slog - and quite enjoyed it!

Must just be me then Malone, had a tough week! I nailed the right half relatively easily, but the left half seemed a lot trickier. A game of two halves I guess! At least the endgame was clear and I learned of a work I'd never heard of.