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I have sin for the original answer to 30d , but can't see what'll fit in there if i use the NE in 21?

Sorted! I had that and changed it! Doh!

Well, sort of good news and bad news regarding the app - After having what I thought was a correct grid I just couldn't get a tick. I'd gone over every answer at least three times but so no avail, so I deliberately changed one letter to an incorrect one and then immediately changed it back and voila - a tick! Why does it do that?

Hi Brendan

I was planning today to do my washing, make my Simnel cake (which had been delayed because of my poorly back - now better) and do my ironing before settling down to the crossword. But I was stymied by it taking me a lot longer to make my simnel cake then expected and a parcel of plants I'd ordered ordered arriving this morning. And the weather was too nice for ironing.

So, I didn't start until about 5.00pm and it's taken me ages to read through all the clues and understand the instructions. I've also worked out which are the special clues by counting the letters, but I must have missed a couple as I only have 35. Most are in the down clues - why?? I've got a smattering of answers during my read through, mainly in the across clues. I've almost got 10d, but can't find an actual 6 letter word. Even if I do, I'm not sure how I'll find the sigificance of the instruction about them being "more or less correctly positioned in relation to each other". I'll puzzle a bit more and continue tomorrow, But I'm with ChrisE. I don't mind an alphabetical, but this one seems unduly complicated.

I'm almost there but struggling with 60d. "A prince's Arabic anecdotes (1,4)" with a themed pair to be added. I have A_A_T_A which rather suggests that the themed pair is "TX" but the only word for prince that seems to make any sense is "RAJA" which doesn't help much. A hint would be welcome.

Hi Roof,

I've never heard of Simnel cake so had to look it up on Google - looks delicious:-)

I had similar problems with finding the 37 and it took a few attempts before I eventually got the right number - I was invariably 1 or 2 short!

10d - I don't think I'm giving too much away by saying the thematic pair are the final two letters and it creates a word meaning "a dry sausage of partly cooked meat" - but, again, I'd never heard of it (this would be a fitting epitaph for me!)

JohnTo, your letters are correct. There’s another name for a prince very similar to Raja. And remember there’s a Spanish forename to be found ;-)

Hi Johnto,

60d - You're almost there and have the right letter pair but the "prince you should have an N rather than a J, it's made up from 2 letter "Arab" + 3 letter "anecdotes" - this is the "Spanish name" mentioned in the preamble, although not one I knew - she is a professional tennis player

..... actually, I did know her but never realised that was how she spells her name!

Apparently it’s a girls name of Basque origin which translates as “thornbush” - who knew?