Crossword Help Forum
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Opt0, there are only two possible numbers for C and H. Then look at possibilities for i, M and P.

I’m so annoyed I didn’t see the trivial Ns in the end game. I accidentally saw the answer on Facebook, so don’t feel it’s fair for me to submit now.

I came very late to this with a busy weekend. Have filled the grid and worked out the message, but now I’m stuck. I am no mathematician and the rest might as well be in Greek! I have no idea how to proceed from here. Any help would be much appreciated. Many thanks in anticipation

If you have the message you are nearly there. You need to complete two of the sets - from your completed grid following the preamble. The preamble makes it clear that it does not matter which two.
Then pick a value for N (I suggest 2 as a sensible start) and apply it to the numbers in each set. See if the condition in the message is met then pick another adjacent value for N. Continue until you find a value for N that does not meet the criteria in the message. You will find the start and the end of the consecutive series of N values where the condition in the message is met.
Hope this helps.

Many thanks. I’ll try tomorrow after a good night’s sleep!

diver - smithsax puts it better than I could. I used the on-line calculator cited by quisling earlier and this made the process just about bearable.

Many thanks Cloverjo. I will get back on the case now.

With the kind help of smithsax and quisling I have now finished, even though I have no clue of the maths number theory behind this puzzle. Many thanks. Back to letters next week!

Well that was a slog; I really didn't enjoy this puzzle at all. I finally got there, after a fourth fresh start. My admiration and congratulations to those who found it straightforward!

The first to be identified were pretty obvious, but about halfway it all went pear-shaped. The squares were devils. Maybe I was coming at it from the wrong angle, or missing some subtle cues. I'm just glad I don't have to do battle with one of these every week.

Help! I have C = 729, D = 256, F = 32, H = 64, I = 243, L = 441, M = 16, N = 36, P = 81, S = 216, T = 529, U = 9, e = 125, i = 625 and s = 4. However some/all of these must be wrong as I cannot get the bottom right hand corner of the grid to work. where have I gone wrong. If I have only got one wrong I will give it another go. If they are all wrong I think I will have to bin it as Listener 4596 is only 4 hours away.