Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Hi, 0pt0,

I can’t claim any credit for advice on 13ac. I’d entered STAB, where S is an abbreviation for special and TAB is a record of payment, with the definition being task (ask with an extra t). But the answer STUB meaning record of payment, clued as S plus TUB meaning cask, makes much more sense.

Went back to this one, left with 17a "Caught with striped cloth in Macy's bag?" (5)

Just missing the middle letter, think I know what's going on but struggling to get anything out of it. Any help appreciated!

'Macy's' indicates an Americanism - the answer is 4 letters (+1 for the entry) and the 3 letter cloth is Arabic.

I do amaze myself sometimes...

I had c, saw the 3 letter cloth as a possibility to get the 4 letter answer, yet was absolutely adamant that the letter was being added to make 'stripped' and it was removing letters from a longer word for cloth.

Thank you for restoring my sanity.

I remember having a few similar moments doing this one.

Now that the deadline for submission has passed, I'm not confident that anybody is still looking at this blog. But just in case somebody does look at it, and can help with my queries...........

I only started this puzzle on Monday night (10th Feb) having been away on holiday, but got stuck in and managed to post my completed grid at 4.50pm on Wed 12th by paying a fortune for guaranteed next day delivery!! Really enjoyed it, even after going down several blind alleys.

I think my completed grid is correct, but I can't be 100% certain due to a lack of certainty over the parsing of 3 clues :-

8DN "Heard tutor missing first easy question" (9). 7 of the 9 letters in the answer are crossers so NOBRAINER looked a dead cert with "easy answer" being the definition. But I can't reconcile the parsing of the clue. NO TRAINER seems ok as phonetic for "Heard tutor missing", and taking off the T fits with the alteration applied to the 3rd region of the grid. So how come the B is then added? - apart from it being essential as the last letter from 13A/c STUB. I've obviously missed something, and I haven't really accounted for the word "first" in the clue,

26DN "Minor planet surprised Nasa to some extent" (5). Letters from other clues provide AN?ES, which strongly suggests that the answer is ANDES that happens to be contained backwards in "surpriSED NAsa". The only problem is that ANDES is NOT the name of any of the one thousand minor planets/asteroids listed in Wikipedia.

36 A/c "Some wealthy developers are found in Manchester" (4). Again, the first 3 letters are crossers with other clues giving "HYD?" So, it would seem to be a normal contained clue :- Some wealtHY DEVelopers", given that Hyde is a town in Greater Manchester. But this clue starts in the second region of the grid and should have a letter added to the clue/wordplay or to the answer. But it doesn't!!

Can someone please put me straight. I don't believe Phi has made errors in his clues, but it is doing my head in that I can't crack these.

Tio..,.

in 36 A the clue should be 'developers area found in Manchester', adding an A to 'are'. You need it to be that for the clue to work - otherwise the 'are' is superfluous.

Tio… 26 Down - the planet is Sedna (also called 90377 Sedna).

8 D. Take the R out of 'Heard', so Head - and that gives Nob, followed by Rainer, which is Trainer, tutor, missing the first (letter).

Thank you so much Malone.

I've no idea why/how you were still keeping tabs on the blog given the deadline had passed, but I am indebted to you for your response(s) which are succinct and crystal clear. I am irritated with myself for not having got there unaided, which is solely down to not applying the rules/guidelines as rigidly to some clues as one has to all the other clues.

You have saved me from a second sleepless night for which I am very grateful. If you lived next door, I would be round to give you a very lovely bottle of good red wine in gratitude. If you live anywhere reasonably near to Bristol where we live, I would love to deliver it in person. (I've no idea whether trying to make that happen would break all sorts of Data Protection rules).

Thank you again

Tio Mateo