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Midgers, I know you’re not a very regular poster, and I understand people are getting frustrated with the endgame, but I do think your post #52 goes a bit too far. It’s tantamount to giving away the theme, and against the ethos of the thread. Surely the whole point of the puzzle is to make those connections yourself?

All sorted but can anybody help with the parsing of 16 ac, Jack's line in bouncing readership battle. I have the answer and the change for the definition

A single letter switch, mullingar. Think bouncing as in nightclubs.

Doh, of course. Thank you dodgepot

Note by Admin - For now I have deleted Midgers Post 52, please read my note there.

If the whole post wasn’t too revealing then please contact me by email to discuss further.

jbird54 - thanks. That gave me the missing extra letter which revealed a word that I should maybe have spotted earlier. That, in turn, helped me correct another extra letter earlier in the description which I now have in full and, having Googled, I now have the first name. Time for a coffee then proceed onto the endgame. Thanks again.

Dodgepot/Norah, I shan't post here again but, before I bow out, let me just say this. Let us suppose (since I'm not allowed to use the magic word) that the surface theme of this puzzle had been knitting. Every single clue has a very obvious knitting connection. There have already been over 50 posts, several of them complaining that it isn't fair to have a puzzle that needs the solver to have a specialist knowledge of knitting.

You surely aren't suggesting that there is a solver anywhere who cannot see, after the first two minutes, that there is a knitting connection, or that by "revealing" this I was spoiling anybody's fun? I was trying to do the opposite, by encouraging them to persist,, because the (topical) knitting theme conceals two further delightful PDMs that await. This is a hugely better puzzle than many people give it credit for, and if they are just going to discard it because they don't know anything about knitting, they might as well go out and play golf.

Anyway, I'll leave you to your ethos. Over and out.

This has been a puzzle where each fresh visit has revealed new insights. I still can't do 1ac or 1dn, and I don't understand where the middle letter fo 21dn is indicated in the clue.

I have all the message, but I think some of the corrections are dubious eg in 12 ac, the original word seems to make as much sense as its replacement.

I'm now puzzling over what to do with the three normal entries, and then the highlighting!

21D - ‘initially’ only refers to the second name; the first loses a synonym for ‘one’.

12A - the definition is the last four words; the replacement gives the (surprising?) Chambers entry.

Thanks HW7

For 21dn, yes I see it now

For 12ac, I think the Chambers definition applies as much to the original word in the clue as to its replacement?

Still puzzling over 1ac and 1dn