I don't think there was any puzzle in the first letters as they are written in bold. If it was only alphabetical order there would bo no letter there. It's the instructions which are slightly misleading but it never occurred to me that the answers didn't start with the letter indicated.
Araucaria was of course the master of this. But as he did so many and there are limited X and z words he started doing alphabetical order only. Then to be more challenging he also did Italian alphabetical order, Greek alphabetical order. Then aphoristical, diametrical, rhombical, perimetrical! The absolute master.
We are working through his book containing all these. Chambers Book of Araucaria Crosswords Vol I. Each one takes nearly 2 hours hard work!
On another note can anyone explain T please. Have the answer. Not sure of parsing. Thanks.