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Thanks demeter, I’d thought of that but had assumed it would be preposterous to do all those calculations. I always forget to read the preamble thoroughly. In the end I had to download an App for a calculator, as my normal one only goes up to ten digits. I still had to manually add up the figures though. Now I’ve run out of Anadin.

Very nice numerical based on one from the archives - 1957. As to whether Elap has overlooked something in the end game I think it's fair to say that he won't have. If it was one of my puzzles then maybe but not Elap!

I thought this was great. Not too tricky and a truly remarkable result that I was previously unaware of. Just what you want from a numerical.

Cockie - only got to this today but in response to your comment yesterday - 0 is a neutral integer and is part of the consecutive series of integers so I would be inclined it below the grid. Nothing in the preamble suggests it is not a valid result.

to include it below the grid

I'm seriously ill-equipped here. I did an Excel course about 20 years ago but have never used it and it is effectively not available. So I fall back on Chambers's Shorter Six-figure Tables,( pub. 1955, bought 1956, credited to the great L J Comrie, who compiled them aided by a small army of young ladies including my sister-in-law). They don't take me far up the ladder of powers, so I wondered if I could go higher by using only the final digits of the numbers in my two chosen sets. This has got me to rung 15, at which point I lose faith in my short cut: I think it will go on producing an apparently positive result forever. I seek help in the form of a non-machine-based method that will do the job rapidly for, as you may imagine, I am fast losing interest.
PS. I'm being asked to confirm that I'm not a robot; that's precisely the point!

durban, I’m not sure this qualifies as a non-machine based method, but if you use this online calculator and enter your chosen set in the form 1ac^n+ 5ac^n+ ..., where ^ is the button x to the power y, it should easily give the sum for each group and each value of n

https://web2.0calc.com/

durban. I think that Elap has chosen the sets very cleverly indeed in that if you go from the terminal digits in each set and power them up then sum them you always get the same terminal digit for each of the sets for each power. Thus the method you were trying as I did too doesn't help. If anyone wants a copy of L1412 from June 1957 then let me know at www.crossnumbersquarterly.com.

Thanks, quisling, I'll try that, feeling a little bit guilty. (And I wonder how people discover these useful tools on-line). And thanks, oyler, for letting me know that the Sage of Konigsberg himself fell victim to the trap I fell in. I remember your Listener puzzle based on the walk over the bridges. Have you been to Kaliningrad recently? A great disappointment, a hive of Russki-mafia activity, but a nice amber museum.

I must be thick, because I simply cannot get going with this one. I have a value for D and I have narrowed a few other letters down to a small number of choices. Would some kind soul please point me in the direction of the next step