Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

This thread is aimed at those needing a little extra help. If you're struggling (really struggling!) with a Listener clue, please post your request here.

Slightly more generous hints to the theme may also appear here. It is, of course, tricky to define 'slightly more generous', but I feel it's worthwhile trying to get the balance right.

*ANSWERS - this refers to individual answers rather than a shopping list of half a dozen or so. And this is not a place for lists of answers to be posted gratuitously. Any such will be removed.

Two immediate thoughts:

The rubric is horrible

Given the 180 symmetry, how can it be that there are only single down clues with 10 and 11 letters?

I don’t know yet but am presuming that that is connected to the second sentence of the preamble

Totally agree about the rubric. All sounds very daunting (but don't most of them on first reading?)

I wonder if the second sentence accounts for the disparity in 10 and 11 letter Downs?

I enjoy Enigmatist's puzzles in the Guarniad so, assuming it's the same person, I'll give it a go. Start cold-solving and see what, if anything, emerges.

My comment was going to be identical to Dylan at #2 !
Acrosses make sense symmetrically.
Maybe the 11 letter down solution goes down the middle? Anyone got any theories on that one? Definition..open?
I have only solved ten so far sadly....

For the 11 letter down - it's a straight clue and the answer is obscure, 'game' is the anagram indicator and 'passed' means it's archaic, remove ('sacrificing knight') one letter from the mix - def 'pawn'.

Thanks Drxx. What a great word!
I really don't know how you got that, cold-solving.
I'm putting it in the middle with fingers crossed.

Yes, great word. I've never seen "game" as an anagram indictor before.

I have the first three Downs meshing perfectly with Across answers in the first two rows, but otherwise stuck. I'm guessing that the 10 and 11 downs are sort-of related by the symmetry (in physics, this is called a "broken symmetry"), so not in the central column.

Since my 10 letter is in column 3, the 11 letter should go in column 15, but I'm not sure. It clashes there with my hypothesised solution to the Olympia clue, which I can't parse anyway.

Off to a wedding now, I'll resume this evening, hoping for more hints.

This one looks jolly tough to me. Normally I say that if I can cold-solve half a dozen clues at the outset it is worth persevering. I've done this but obviously don't know where to put most of them.

So, as is an answers thread, I feel it is acceptable to ask for some early help.
Most importantly could someone tell me which is the first of the down clues. Secondly could someone give me a hint on the second and third of the across clues (my failure to progress on the third is particularly frustrating). If someone can take pity I'll carry on. Last week I managed to finish! Many thanks from the sandbank.

williamseal, I am about to give up on this because I cannot get anywhere, However, for the 2nd across clue N is extra in the wordplay and I think the down clues start with the bookcase clue. I have cold solved 22 clues, but without knowing how to enter them makes this extremely difficult and frustrating.