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Hi Brendan,
10a there are two first letters involved.
I also thought 36d was one of those as well.
My problem is whether 31d is covered by the special instruction or not as that would give me 16 down clues. Because it refers to w it probably isn’t.

I did have a slight issue with 47a where "end of encore Verdi" seems to be referring to a single letter?

That is supposed to be “refers to 2” - iPad keyboard!

I took Requiem as the definition so the end of Verdi is just the one letter.

Brendan 10d The 3rd letter comes from the 2nd word in the clue

Thank you Mystogre,

10d - Of course - I'm an idiot 😫

31d - See my @9 It has wordplay, even though it's referring to another clue, so I don't think it is a SI clue.

47a - I agree it's "end of Verdi" and the definition is "Requiem" but why say "encore", that's what I don't get?

Thanks Chrisxxxx, I see it now and it looks so obvious but, for the life me, I just I could not work out that letter 😂

Sorry Mystogre, I miscounted - it looks like 36d is an SI. - I need some sleep:-)

Oh dear, I meant 31d - say goodnight to the folks Gracie!!

All done ,was fun . Must say getting Christmas Crossword puzzle on the 18th Dec is a bit like seeing Easter eggs in the shops in January .
Happy holidays to all in this wonderful forum .