Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

It's a good question, Brendan. I don't think you have gone wrong. I believe you could pick either, as both are provided by crossing answers, but as you are not required to highlight the extra letters or the message they spell, I don't think it matters.

That's great, many thanks Quisling, as long as I haven't gone wrong:-)

Mooncow,

Your post prompted me to stop cold-solving (17 fairly confident answers in) and start staring at the grid, and I’m glad I’ve done so because I’m now suspecting there’s something fundamental I don’t understand about this puzzle, or maybe something blindingly obvious I’m missing about crossword grids in general.

Simply looking at the Down answers, they appear to require more columns than are present in the grid, which is a shock. By which I mean, two answers containing more than 12 cells between them presumably cannot occupy the same column, and on that basis, there appear to be more than 12 columns’ worth of answers.

I have no idea if I’ve stumbled upon an observation that’s key to cracking the puzzle, or (as I fear) one that simply illustrates my idiocy!

Oh of course I’ve just had a realisation I’m thinking about the Downs entirely incorrectly. As feared this is entirely my own idiocy! Apologies for the excess posts…

I suspect that this puzzle requires lateral thinking which is beyond me. May I ask: Are the first two answers entered normally in the first row leaving a space somewhere for the extra letter? I have the first two down answers both of which start with the same letter which is not the first letter of 1 across(but is the second letter) A strong hint would be very helpful before I give up completely.

Jamesa, yes to your question. And your answers sound correct. If you look at #30 (and #31) I could perhaps be more helpful

This puzzle does require some work before entries can start to be put in the grid. As the rubric indicates, you have to figure out "how to complete the grid". And as people have already noted, the message that confirms how is unlikely to emerge until you've already spotted what's needed! It's difficult to say more without giving too much away, but don't despair that your down answers don't seem to fit with your across answers: collect enough of them, and stare at the grid and where those answers need to go, and think a bit laterally about what "how to complete the grid" might feasibly involve, and the PDM may come, and I think it is definitely worth the work.

chrisremo, yes, the down clues pack into the grid fairly tightly but there IS room for them all :-) I think an it's interesting aspect of crossword structure that the way down clues work is so very different from how across clues work, and it always does my mind in when these barless grids appear.

There's just one clue I can't quite figure out the parsing for: can some one please help me understand the third down clue? Perhaps nun's clothing worth furry fabric. I understand the fabric and the nun but I can't figure out the worth...

Hi Mooncow,

3rd definition of "nun" in Chambers and then look up "worth" in Chambers and scroll down to the very bottom and you'll see why it gives the middle 2 letters:-)

Following on from my @90 - Due in no small part to all the posters on here, I've now been able to parse the 8 clues I was having trouble with - thank you all, very much appreciated:-)