Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Hi docrum
24d was my favourite clue - I think it's genuinley an &lit. Put the bits together.
26a prospective grooms around new.

Thanks Brendan. I had been thinking along those lines for 26a, but getting a wrong answer had deflected me.

24 is funny for me. I solved "regular" US-style crosswords for years before switching to cryptics. 24 is one of a number of obscure but vowel-heavy words occurring so frequently in US puzzles that they became part of the solver's "toolkit" and were usually write-ins. ANOA ("Celebes ox") is another that comes to mind.

A sly feature of 24d is that the people in question come from Hokkaido, not Honshu. It's a clever bit of misdirection that seems designed to catch those of us who depend on Google out.

Apologies FemmeNoire, I missed your post.

17d - 3 letter "success in theatre" reversed/turned up + 3 letter "watch" + single letter "very" - definition is "famous dancer"

25a Seem my post @59

18d - "our existing declaration" is a 2, 3 phrase minus its last letter/limited then a 3 letter "cricket side" (the opposite side to the other clue - definition is "lose in effect"

Before I even look at the forum, thank you all for being here.

Oh. And the SW corner.

So, I got most SW already. Ps. Can any one tell me the logical interface of chess shorthand and logic? It is just that ingenues to ingenues seem to think it obvious. I'm quite good at these things, and it isn't. All power to good chess, don't get me wrong. Love, slightly turquoise.

Found this very difficult and not overly enjoyable.

Hi Brendan

I enjoyed the Scandi Noir and came back to this this morning. I share with my friend in Sheffield (she is better than me) at 11.30am on Sunday mornings, but neither of us can get 18d, depite your hint above. We have ?E?R ?F?. We guess the second word is the other cricket side but the first word and hence the answer is a mystery to both of us.

But I think I may just have had a PDM, though I struggle to parse it. It will have to do. I really don't know what "our existing declaration" means

I have hated this crossword. It has distracted me from all the jobs I have to do including preparing for my Bridge group tomorrow and writing my last Christmas cards. And I can't parse a number of the solutions.

Having said that, many thanks to all on the The Forum for their help and sympathy or do I mean empathy.

try "our existing declaeation" as it would be said round here - "us is" (seriously that's what most locals would say)