Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Malone, asking a question without giving ANYTHING away, or leading to an answer that may give too much away, is always difficult. Hopefully you respect that WE ALL try to respect that.

Thanks, Gitto and Drxx. Yes, it's perilous to navigate at times! I am very aware of the 'Gentle Nudges' advice, - and also of the occasional slightly over-generous help that can be given, has been given. I think Norah had to amend at least one post a few weeks ago.

Identifying the bcde letters - and hence finding the abcde word - is relatively straightforward.

Looking up its definition in some convenient dictionary is then very worthwhile. The disambiguation of many of the cell contents accelerates things considerably.

This is now proving to be very frustrating. I have the abcde word and therefore its first definition in the additional row/column and obviously, I now also know the two word phrase. I have a second definition from you know where. I do not understand how to deduce "a" and am therefore stuck.

I think this crossword will divide solvers into two camps: those who think the preamble should be clearly written to assist solvers; and those that think deciphering the instructions is another worthy and justified layer of obstruction.

The first sentence starting in the seventh row of the preamble is applied to determine the letter represented by 'a' - if b, c, d and e are known, there are two candidates, one likely. The external cells confirm which one it is.

The solver then must work out which [clue] number corresponds to this particular letter, by a brute force, trial and error approach - I think it's a stretch to say the value can be 'deduced'.

As such, I suspect many are in your camp, of a completed grid and then frustrating endgame - though it is unambiguous once solved.

HW7, I can’t agree with your penultimate paragraph. If you have the message spelt by the ten pairs of removed letters, and consider the sequence abaaaaaaacdee in the light of that, only one value of a will enable you to select 12 cells to account for every cell in the main grid, as the preamble says. It’s simple arithmetic

I agree that the preamble is confusing but I am one of those in the camp of confusing preambles being fair game.

‘a’ can be deduced without brute force as it tells you that every cell in the grid is accounted for, so if you know the number of cells in the grid, you know how many cells you are finding and you know bcd and e, then deducing ‘a’ is pretty simple maths

Sorry for repetition, I’m not the fastest typist!

Yes, you're both quite correct and thanks.

I see that 'account for every cell in the main grid' has an implied 'once and only once' i.e. ending on the last square, which makes perfect sense now you've both explained it.

I had ideas of other candidate 'a's going through the end and back to the start, which adds a complication that simply isn't there.

Apols.

No worries, HW7. I actually think that is the most difficult and interesting part of the puzzle, and given it requires a careful understanding of an already daunting preamble I imagine it’s the main sticking point