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Hi theragman. You need to review which three letters you’ve put in for the start of 32... two of them are correct one is the moving letter. For 31... a London suburb, remove the r and the last letter. Hastily is the def (a musical term)

I have completed ring 5, I hope correctly. I am sure it begins at the top rather than at 11, and finishes with a simple well-known word not beginning with F as far as I can see. Still a few clues unsolved and I don’t find them any more straightforward than before. Each entry still has two or even three unches and the letters are not in the correct order. Not my idea of fair!

I don’t deny that the idea of this puzzle is stupendously brilliant. Credit where credit is due. But how sad that the setter and the editorial team didn’t see fit to make the clues more accessible so that many more people could have had the thrilling experience of solving it!

Thanks mattrom and merenz. Got 31 now. Not finding it easy to rearrange 33. Assume first letter of four letter word in Ring 5 has to be M, but with the F misplaced as well, surely the arrangement must end FM, keeping them in the same order?

Hi the ragman. As per the preamble “the rest keep their relative order”. So this doesn’t have to apply to the movers, if you are moving two. Although granted, they do seem to keep their order in most of the other examples

Thanks merenz. This is turning out to be more confusing than ever...!

Is anyone able to offer a hint towards 15 or 16?

Yes, rad - you're right about the 'message' starting from 1 (and it makes Kea look even better!) I took the equipment to be two words (4+10).

16 - how a ship might be if it's 'abandoned' (4 letters) reversed around RL.
15 - an obscure word (Scots) for 'broken ground') could be an old witch (3 letters) it follows a hard bit of wood (normally starting with 'k').

Thanks drxx. I'm late to this thread but it looks like you've been doing a top job helping folks out. Interesting to see how everyone seems to have struggled with different bits on this one. Excellent puzzle, I thought.