Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

williamseal, I think you need to butcher your sow if it's the (dialect) one that has two spellings - use the one with an 'e' and chop its head off (then pluralise it).

I think Williamseal is thinking of gilts...as I did, so the butchery may not quite result in the required chops.

Actually I got tied up with shottes before that too.

Gelts is the alt spelling for gilts, granama1 (that's why the one with an 'e' was mentioned).

Sorry, granama1 - you're right (my gilt is gelt1 not the sow at 2).

(I made a right pig's ear of that!)

...on the plus side, I think williamseal now has his sow.

Really enjoyed this. I found it hard but it had a delightful finale.The changed letter was a nice touch. I got the coloured pens out and was quite surprised at the layout. Just one query, why was there three chance variations of one of the last words? Was it strictly necessary ? Have i missed a pdm?

Yes, I wondered about that too - camouflage, maybe?
It's the only one of the set that can be manipulated multiple times, maybe that's all there is to it - and neatness of course (all of the clues being treated in some way).

@drxx but I think we ended up with a silk purse!

I held myself up for quite a while with 'shottes' confidently thinking 'shot' was kick and tes(s) was the girl. (I don't have the crossword to hand but if I'd looked at it properly it doesn't really parse correctly.

Your alternative sow works pretty well, granama1 - it would have thrown me too.