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Williamseal, a little correction - for the second B word, I meant to put 'spirits, souls' .

Hi Williamseal. Just finished after a couple of days of cold solving and head scratching. The trick for me was placing the four four letter words in and then got the PDM from 1 across, which is a replacement.

Top corner is an H. Third B word definition is blind, with a three letter word for kinsman, think family, reversed on a common word for lad.

Very satisfying to go from empty to complete in half an hour. Well worth the cold solve effort... Keep at it!

Agree about how satisfying the PDM was - and how quickly the solve came once realised.

For me, the first was replacing M- with L-, at which point the impossible to place D-, P- went in, and the longer D- replacement made sense.

All in all very much one of the more pleasurable ones so far this year.

Thanks Deulc and Malone

Suitably encouraged I will battle on. I am not optimistic. I can take the despair, it's the hope I can't handle! We'll see.

Your nudges are much appreciated.

Many thanks from a female solver to all the posters whose gentle nudges helped me to the finish.

Buck up, williamseal, you’re almost there. I had a similar experience to deulc. There is only one four letter word beginning with H. If you have that, there are also unique possibilities for the across words from the second and third rows. Then you can get at least one of the crossing down entries. Finally, this may give you enough to guess 1 across.

It's now Wednesday evening on the sandbank. If I am right the long down entry in the 11th column is a three word phrase suggesting cause for optimism. If so I'll persevere,

What is bothering me now is the four letter word beginning with'H'.

Down below suggests the place I felt I was in when England were stuffing my native Wales out of sight at Twickenham with 20 minutes to go (it used to happen in the 1980s and 90s). I don't think that's right. Could anyone give me a nudge? If so I can see some daylight.

Many thanks mathprofrockstar and others

What would you call that place in front of the children?

oh dear I'm still puzzled. I'm sure I'll bat myself with my tail

Just got this 'H' one - so on we go. Thanks