Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Well, I should have waited about two minutes before posting, apparently. I hit on what appears to be the message and I now have everything filled out bar a few remaining ambiguities, and I think I have an idea about how to collapse those down. It'll have to wait until tomorrow, though!

I can quite honestly say that this has caused me some serious grief. I had 2 false starts yesterday and put my 3rd attempt on ice when my brain ceased functioning. When I revisited it this morning my 3rd attempt was also wrong. My 4th attempt WORKED! and I have now completed the puzzle. Like others I had also confused DS and DM. Then, for some completely insane and unfathomable reason, I had discounted 0 as a digit - which needless to say was problematic. I eventually had a PDM when staring at the myriad of possibilities that I had for entry and that led to a (considered) guess as to what the instruction was. That led to a relatively straightforward and quick resolution of what down answers needed to be, allowing me to discount a lot of the choices I had arrived at. Maths/logic puzzles always lead me to the edge of sanity, a position I seem to reside at quite often!!!!!

I've gone through a second time from scratch, this time using a computer to deal with the more complex possibilities. I got stuck in the same place (earlier really, since I knew about the extra prime which the weird list withheld so I had one more unresolved entry). Eventually I decided that the idea was to try both possible solutions and see which one gave me the message, as a careful reading of the preamble suggests that sort of bifurcation was actually intended. (So the thing I'd thought before us likely irrelevant and my earlier question doesn't make sense.) I've ended up with the same grid as before so have submitted.

I do think this was a clever and interesting puzzle. I think it shows I'm uncomfortable with ambiguity, and not having a straightforward logical path all the time. (That said, I look forward to discovering there was something I missed when the solution is published!)

Thanks oyler for an enjoyable head-scratcher. (BTW the website you mentioned doesn't seem to have the list of primes, at least nowhere I could find by clicking around.)

Smst - see https://www.crossnumbersquarterly.com/app/download/12289819/CQ+Tables.pdf

Link is well down the 'front' page

Ah, thanks! I didn't recognise that as being a link to the tables, assuming it was a puzzle or solution to download. Got it now; looks very useful. Cheers.

I believe there are 3432 different grid fills satisfying all the clues!

Thank you Oyler, a very nice puzzle

Another work of genius from the Sage of Kaliningrad. It seems unfair that, because of their smaller franchise, the numericals cannot hope for Silver Salver recognition.

Thanks Durban. Your comment is much appreciated and made me smile. As regards the SSS, Elap came very close one year - 2nd I think, if my memory is correct and has certainly been in the top 5 a couple of times.

On the other website someone mentioned that the lists of lucky and happy numbers have some significance. Can anyone see what it is?