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The one I can't parse is ...

10a - I can't even find out who or what a Florian is - It's not in Chambers and Google suggests it's either a flower, a Roman or Greek name or the name of a place in Venice that probably sells the answer!

I can see a 4 letter (Latin) "hall" and so if Florian is the first 4 letters that leaves a 3 letter word around the hall, which is either "are" and/or "located" but it's present tense and so doesn't really match up?

Help!!

Unbelievable! I've been struggling with this clue since Friday evening and then see it, literally, 1 minute after posting - needless to say I didn't scroll down far enough 😡

Still struggling with 5 across and the "monkeys" clue despite earlier help from the site. I have four gaps to fill in 5 across and two in the "monkeys" clue with the remaining cells filled by answers. does that seem right and is there any further help you might give me.

notrab

5a - defn is first 3 words (its not a common word unless you are a keen scrabble player) wp is anagram of 7 letters followed by a single letter.

Monkeys - defn is first word, but is also part of the wp (as mentioned earlier its an &lit). Seed is a word for first letter.

Hope this helps

Thanks andyp. With your help and another strong black coffee all is now clear. It would have helped if I had thought to put an o before an e in 5 and realised that there are monkeys that don't begin sia!!

The monkey clue was my last entry having gone down a couple of dead ends, one was a bit 'apey' the other didn't parse. 😄

That was a struggle and I'd still be struggling unless I hadn't been pointed back to the 'April Fool' crossword to resolve 'that is'. That and 'indeed' were a step too far for me as far as clueing goes.

The highlight for me was finding the word 'enchiridion' when contemplating manual trades....

I'm so close to cracking this, and a hint to the "manual trades: pound ultimately lost in gains" may get me there. Having said that, I can't see where the sodding bird is going to fit!

BobbyC,

The gains is a bit unusual, I eventually thought in battle terms 'the cavalry 'something' the day for the Royalists' type of thing, the pound isn't to hit or currency related. 'Ultimately lost' is a typical crossword device.

My parsing may be iffy though.

Thanks, granama1. I'm unscrambling my brain with the much gentler ST cryptic. I shall return to the fray after lunch😁

Wow!!

What a bugger to untangle in the middle; and I found a home for the bird!