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Thanks so much.

The 9 missing letters make 2 different anagrams.

I am most grateful to you, Bunty. I thought I was going to do without the EV this week, as the grid was clearly no use and the preamble seemed obscure. Then I thought of looking at this forum, copied the grid and looked at some clues. Eventually things began to make sense, and indeed to promise a lot of fun, so thank you!

What can they do now to help people who are not aware of this great asset? I think they should reproduce the correct puzzle in tomorrow’s Telegraph and in next Sunday’s ST. With apologies, of course.

I earnestly hope that KCIT (who is on the inside of what goes on more than most solvers, I guess) was not commissioned to compose a puzzle with the message that, as far as EV is concerned, this is --- ---.

I have the 6 letter 2 word phrase but there are two different words that can me made from the nine clues that "suffered a loss" but neither choice seems to be thematic.

Only the six letter phrase is written below the grid so it's not vital but I'd still like to know which word is meant?

I think that the two-word phrase simply refers to what the loss is. If so, I thought it a bit of a lame finish.

I have slogged through all three barred thematics this week without much enjoyment - probably just having a few off days.

Struggling with 12 across on this one. "Rupee amongst highest-rated change? Not very African currency AR*AR* - pretty confident of my letters.

Bobbycollins, the 'highest ratet' is often clued as 'the best'' or 'top condition' in crosswords, the Rupee, splitting those two letters, is the usual abbreviation and the 'change' (verb) loses irs 'very'.

Thanks BC, I have the 6 letter 2 word phrase but it's the 9 letters lost (and then added) from the shorter clues that I'm trying to understand - when anagrammed they can form either of 2 words, but are we supposed to focus on one in particular and, if so, why?

I don't think there's anything special about those 9 letters, except their location in the grid entries; the preamble does not say that you're supposed to do anything further with those letters.

I suppose when you are finished you can do what the alphabetically first anagram suggests.

Thanks, malone. I normally access the BRB via the CD-Rom on my laptop, and the currency isn't there. However I have found it in my hard copy - 12th edition. I should have got it from the wordplay🙂

Brendan, I don't think that the nine letters are contributing anything apart from being in other clues. As I said I think that the two-word phrase simply describes the feature of the end-game - that sounds garbled but I know what I mean!