It’s a while since I blogged a Pangakupu puzzle and it took me a while to tune in to his wavelength today.
We have a mix of straightforward clues and others which were rather more complicated, not to say convoluted. I haven’t managed to fully tease out 18ac, so thanks in advance for the help which I know won’t take long to come – and it didn’t. Unusually, there was only one anagram.
I was amused to see, after yesterday’s cooks and broths, three references to soup and the MUTE SWAN from the Brummie puzzle I blogged last week.
My favourites were 17ac HERE GOES, 5dn BANGLE, 11dn VAINGLORY, 21,23 DARK AGES – all for the construction – 14dn SPRAT, for the apt surface and 17dn HAVISHAM and 20dn PURPLE, both for the literary references.
Thanks to Pangakupu for the puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
7 Minister backed intervening in harbour subject to tremors (7)
QUAVERY
A reversal (backed) of REV (minister) in QUAY (harbour)
8 Leading measure when considering steam? (5,2)
AHEAD OF
A HEAD OF – referring to the expression ‘a head of steam’: ‘the force produced by a large amount of steam in a closed space; a situation in which a person or an activity starts to become very active or successful’
9 Nut, losing head, with shift of active enthusiasm (4)
ZEAL
[h]AZEL (nut) minus its initial letter (losing head) with the A (active – it’s in Chambers: I think it must be grammatical, referring to the voice of a verb) changing its position
10 Take a long time consuming a lot of pretty drinks (9)
BEVERAGES
BE AGES (take a long time) round a lot of VER[y] (pretty)
12 Limitations on soup — cold or hot? (5)
SPICY
S[ou]P + ICY (cold)
13 On the off chance, accepting second note in additional amount (8)
INCREASE
IN CASE (on the off chance) round RE (second note)
15 Beam and grate left unfinished (4)
GRIN
GRIN[d] (grate)
16 A new outburst dismissing universal apprehension (5)
ANGST
A N (new) + G[u]ST (outburst) minus u (universal)
17, 6 It’s coming now — a lot of odd ideas about oneself (4,4)
HERE GOES
A lot of HERES[y] (odd ideas) round EGO (oneself)
18 Also (according to report) Times not open about women in couples (3,2,3)
TWO BY TWO
I’m missing somethig here: we have TWO – sounds like (according to report) ‘too’, (also) twice, round W (women) twice, round BY (Times) – but I can’t see how it fits together (not open?)
Please see comments 1,2,3,4,6 and probably more by now – thanks all; can’t believe I missed ‘to’ = ‘not open’: I’ve seen it enough times!
20 Key point rejected, as far as celebrity is concerned (5)
PIVOT
A reversal (rejected) of TO VIP (as far as celebrity is concerned: under ‘to’, Chambers has ‘in accordance, comparison, proportion or relation with, which I think works here)
21 One eliminating small old city in type of game (9)
DESTROYER
S (small) TROY (old city) in DEER (type of game)
24 Against accepting defeat? One’s in the soup (7)
CROUTON
CON (against) round ROUT (defeat)
25 Quick to carry a blade (7)
CLEAVER
CLEVER (quick) round A
Down
1, 22 Musician’s accessories lacking colour, getting the bird (4,4)
MUTE SWAN
MUTES (musician’s accessories) + WAN (lacking colour)
2 Visual adjustment subject to forcible separation (8)
AVULSION
An anagram (adjustment) of VISUAL + ON (subject to, i.e. under, in a down clue)
3 Ill-mannered clamour about pop group curtailed (6)
CRABBY
CRY (clamour) round ABB[a] (pop group) curtailed – I think of ‘crabby’ as meaning irritable (Collins: ‘bad-tempered’), rather than ill-mannered – Chambers has simply ‘crablike’
4 Right about blocking call for a quicker approach (5,3)
SHORT CUT
RT (right) + C (about) in SHOUT (call)
5 Accessory, Louis Vuitton article, containing new item of jewellery (6)
BANGLE
BAG (accessory) round N (new) + LE (Louis Vuitton – i.e. French – article) – and Louis Vuitton sells accessories – clever clue
11 One in leading group savage about Liberal boasting (9)
VAINGLORY
I (one) in VAN (leading group) + GORY (savage) round L (Liberal)
12 Mammal calculating tail not needed (5)
SHREW
SHREW[d] (calculating)
14 Argument about recipe: he and his wife had very varying dietary tastes (5)
SPRAT
SPAT (argument) round R (recipe) – Jack Sprat, according to the nursery rhyme, could eat no fat while his wife could eat no lean
(To forestall a possible query about R = recipe – it seems a little while since we had one – ‘recipe’ is Latin for ‘take’ and the abbreviation R was formerly found on doctors’ prescriptions)
16 Former area far from the coast, not island (8)
ANTERIOR
A (area) + [i]NTERIOR (far from the coast) minus i (island)
17 Jilted bride experiencing losing no-good fraud (8)
HAVISHAM
HAVI[ng] (experiencing) minus ng (no-good) + SHAM (fraud) – Miss Havisham was the jilted bride in ‘Great Expectations’
19 Soup book is rather lacking in sex appeal (6)
BISQUE
B (book) + IS + QU[it]E (rather) minus it (sex appeal)
20 Turned up literary detective (not the old woman) — such writing is over the top (6)
PURPLE
A reversal (turned) of UP + (Miss) [ma]ARPLE (Agatha Christie’s detective) minus ‘ma’ (the old woman)
21, 23 Knight getting silver, engaged in challenges in times long ago (4,4)
DARK AGES
K (knight – chess notation + AG (silver) in DARES (challenges)
Edit – silly mistake: of course it isn’t chess notation; please see comments 10-16
DNF as defeated by the SE corner. Now kicking myself over PIVOT, HAVISHAM and especially PURPLE as I was sure Miss Marple was the suspect. Favourites ware QUAVERY, BEVERAGES and CROUTON.
Ta Pangakupu & Eileen.
Eileen, I took it as the second TO (sounds like too) around W.
I parsed 16a as “not open” is the second “to” as in ‘the door is to’, ‘the door is closed/not open’
18 across – the last TWO is ‘to’ = ‘not open’ as in ‘the door is to’ around ‘W’ women.
Enjoyed it; also foxed by defn. for TWO BY TWO. AVULSION new to me.
The second ‘TWO’ in 18a comes from to = not open as in ‘shut the door to’ around W for Women, I think. Couldn’t come up with the literary detective to parse 20d, despite thinking of Poirot. I agree with Eileen that it took a while to tune in to the setter this morning. I only had two across clues to start me off on the first pass and then a few of the down clues followed. Found the East side a lot trickier than the West. Liked 16a when I finally saw it.
Tim C – snap!
Sorry, Tim C@3 and Criceto@4, we crossed, but at least we’re in agreement.
[Last time I went skiing, four years ago, I suffered an AVULSION fracture to my shoulder. I’m off to the French Alps tomorrow, so slightly apprehensive].
Thanks Pangakupu and Eileen
I found this a bit frustrating as there were several partly or wholly unparsed. AVULSION I parsed, but had never heard the word. The SE was particularly difficult.
I raised an eyebrow at K for knight – it has never been used in chess notation (knight used to be Kt, now N – K is King).
I got the second “to” as Tim C did – perhaps it’s a local expression.
FOI and favourite was SPICY.
muffin @10 – I don’t know what made me write ‘chess notation’. I think it must be Knight as in KG: Knight of the Garter.
I suppose K stands for knight in acronyms such as KCBE, but that’s similar to saying B stands for “broadcasting” becasuse of BBC.
I think K for Knight is more for honours like KCMG than chess. I liked the definition for SPRAT. Spent too long trying to turn Miss Marple upside down, until I realised it was just the UP that was reversed.
Not easy, had to reveal a few. Thanks to P and E.
Too slow to type with the knight comment. I think it is possible to refer to being awarded a K, for becoming a knight.
I agree with muffin @10 about K not being used to represent knight in chess notation.
But it can represent knight in abbreviations such as KBE.
I’ve amended the blog re K.
AlanC @9 – so you’re suffering 16ac? All the best! 😉
I also found this quite tricky to start with (ANGST and VAINGLORY were FOI!) but I got there in the end. Some tortuous parsings (ZEAL requires 3 steps, including a rare single letter indicator) and ‘to’ is clued in unusual ways for both TWO BY TWO and PIVOT. But all is fair, I reckon, and this was a good workout.
Strange to have ‘not the old woman’ when this actually describes Miss Marple! Yet more soupy references after yersterday’s puzzle, with SPICY, BISQUE and CROUTON 🙂
Thanks to P and Eileen
DNF – lots of tricky clues here and ultimately not on Pangakupu’s wavelength but some good clues nonetheless. Next time we’ll do better.
Indeed Eileen @17 and thanks.
Ticks for TWO BY TWO, AHEAD OF and BEVERAGES but the rest were more grimaces than grins. I still feel Pangakapu is trying just a bit too hard to be challenging and clue quality suffers as a result – too many loose definitions and synonyms for my taste
If CRABBY means crab-like then surely QUAVERY must mean cheesey snack-like?
Cheers P&E
The wordplay was tightly packed and my brain was slightly scrambled(maybe just sleepy) but i could tell this was worth persevering with
The unpicking of the knots was a great wake-up call for the day
Faves BEVERAGES MUTE SWAN HAVISHAM
Thanks all
Quite a lot of this Pangakupu puzzle seemed to be about literature, from PURPLE PROSE and SPICY which is way one writes it, through to TWO BY TWO, the taming of the SHREW, the DESTROYER ( and possibly “the penny BANGLE” ) figuring elements of titles. When I add HAVISHAM, CLEAVER ( Bridget Jones), CRABBE ( Harry Potter ) and SPRAT, characters in the literature, I start wondering coincidence versus not so.
Whichever way round, a nice solve this morning.
Thank you Pangakupu and Eileen.
Bit of a weird one this, with some clues having that certain ‘for-the-sake-of-it-ness’ about them, as in, could have been made a bit easier.
I enjoyed this. As per previous Pangapuku puzzles, I checked for a Maori nina, but couldn’t find one this time.
*Pangakupu
I echo many of the reservations already stated, and would add that ‘grate’ and ‘grind’ are not synonymous in my lexicon. I also think the setter is trying too hard at the expense of elegance. Cluing VER as a truncated synonym for ‘pretty’ is one example among several.
Thank you Eileen. I also stumbled on ”to” meaning ”not open” in TWO BYTWO, but I don’t feel so bad as it’s not a common Aussie expression. Agree that BANGLE was very clever. Chuffed to figure that out with my brain of questionable value.
MUTE SWAN was fascinating. Liked the wordplay but hadn’t heard of the the bird. Then learned that it doesn’t have a lot of relatives in the Northern Hemisphere but is related to the Western Australian Black Swan.
Apart from that, I found the GK accessible, It was the parsing that was tricky, although helped if you ignore punctuation. Fortunately had read Great Expectations, guessed the motherless detective, and had heard of PURPLE prose.
Moaljodad/Mitz has posted on the Guardian blog that today is Araucaria’s birthday. Does anyone with a longer pedigree in Guardian cryptics see significance in today’s puzzle from Pangakupu, or his alter ego Phi?
I enjoyed the game that Pangakupu devised for us today. It took me a long time to parse BEVERAGES as I could see both ”ever” and ”ages” for a ”long time”.
Thought there might be an alphabet SOUP. Spotted the usual suspects for a pangram, Z and Q, but no J, so that was that. Speaking of food, SPRAT was funny.
Regarding the R for recipe in 14D, this is also one proposed explanation for the use of “Rx” to mean “prescription” and the association with pharmacies.
I have been a long term enjoyer of Phi’s puzzles in the Indy and have been intrigued with the development of his Guardian alter ego. Certainly trickier and I found this one to be the trickiest to date. My first pass through delivered worryingly few solutions and it took me several goes to end up with a completed grid – bar HERE GOES (ironically) which never occurred to me: ‘odd ideas’ for HERESY is a really tough call and one of quite a few scattered across the puzzle.
Favourites included HAVISHAM, AHEAD OF, VAINGLORY, BANGLE, PURPLE and SPICY BISQUE (the two soup clues fit nicely together!)
Thanks Pangakupu and Eileen
Couldn’t get on with this, too many quibbles about the meanings of words to be honest. Never heard crabby as illmannered.
I agree, bodycheetah – it was a nice prolonged challenge but the cluing surfaces tended to be pretty clunky, with over-loose definitions.
I beg to differ poc@27. The reversed minister for VER in QUAVERY is so predictable, but a truncated ”pretty” for VER in BEVERAGES was innovative. Got me. Shows that the setter can play it straight, or any which way.
Ui Imair@24: why be difficult, says Pangakupu, when with a bit of effort you could be bloody impossible?
Think of a synonym. Take a letter (or two) off the front, back or middle. Stick the result on the front, back or middle of a different synonym. Add an unusual abbreviation or two. Take away the number you first thought of, add a literary reference, and the answer is… tortuous.
I got there in the end, apart from the unknown AVULSION, but there were a few unparsed (TWO BY TWO and PURPLE among others) and by the end I was losing the will to live. SPRAT and HAVISHAM went straight in from their defs, and for a while there was nothing else. I did like MUTE SWAN, AHEAD OF, CRABBY (once I stopped trying to fit DIN into it), DESTROYER for using the other old city for once, and SPRAT for having the decency to clue R as recipe rather than “take”.
I initially drew a blank on the NW, but 17D: HAVERSHAM fell quickly into place and I worked out from there. I couldn’t parse 20D: PURPLE even though Marple flashed into my mind at one point. Some great clues. Definitely a good workout. With thanks to both.
Sorry, HAVISHAM (!)
This was hard and like others there were several I couldn’t parse, so thanks Eileen, other bloggers, and of course Pangakupu
Very hard going today, though I took too long to see some clues which should have come to me earlier, eg QUAVERY and ZEAL up in the NW corner. Still, eventually managed to get there albeit with HERE GOES unparsed. Favourite was the ‘Louis Vuitton article’ clue.
I’m about to tackle tomorrow’s puzzle from Pangakupu’s alter ego Phi in the Indy and to be honest am hoping for something a bit gentler!
Thanks to Pangakupu and Eileen
I think that this was difficult because, as Eileen pointed out, there was only one (partial) anagram, which is often my way in.
I, too, forgot about pulling the door ‘to’, and also forgot about Miss Marple. I liked the pretty drinks in BEVERAGES, and the former area in ANTERIOR.
Thanks Pangakupu and Eileen
I did laugh at the description from gladys @34, as it describes my experience.
I completed this, worked out AVULSION, looked it up, but failed to parse various other clues, PURPL, even though I thought of Poirot, Miss Marple didn’t occur to me. Not sure I’d have succeeded with this as a Prize with no check button to make sure I’d worked out the right answer. Towards the end I was solving the clues as I got on the setter’s wavelength (other than SPRAT and a few other write ins).
Thank you to Eileen and Pangakupu
A bit of a grind
Thanks, Pangakupu and Eileen. Much the same experience here – about half went in quite easily, but I had to work quite hard for the rest. I agree with copmus @22 though – it was worth persevering with. MUTE SWAN is clever – one of my last in and one of my favourites.
Gervase @18 – funnily enough, the “old woman” reference following on from “literary detective” made me think immediately of Miss Marple, despite the “not”.
I Liked this a lot.
Every clue a little challenge.
LOI & COTD: PURPLE – for the construction and the misdirection.
Thanks Pangakupu & Eileen
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu
beats
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
Not for me, I’m afraid. The ones I finally gave up with and had to reveal – HERE GOES, AHEAD OF etc – I don’t think I’d have got in a month of Sundays.
Gladys @34 put it perfectly, thank you.
Widdersbel @42: re the ‘old woman’ reference, same here. Despite being in the SE, it was one of the earlier entries for me.
Re: Explanation of R from recipe: I had the impression any word could represent its initial letter, but this justification makes me think there should be some precedent of the initial letter having been used this way, as in R for “take the prescription.” Or like Zero Tango Foxtrot in communications from tower to pilots…. Is there a written or unwritten rule?
Gosh, hard work today. Took ages to get any sort of foothold but got there in the end. Definitely spending too much time on these darned things.
Thanks both.
Struggled with this, and as with some others found the SE corner hardest to crack. Until I got Miss HAVERSHAM. Felt as though when I was reading them through initially that the clues were not particularly inviting. Lots of words needed amputation, after first having to be dreamed up/plucked out of nowhere. Really liked AHEAD OF, didn’t like PURPLE, my LOI, as I thought it ought to have had the word prose rather than writing to define it more precisely. Not quite my cup of tea today, even if ultimately successful…
Wendy bea@41 but a bit of a grind,as we have learnt, can be a grin, and might be almost gr8.
Daniel @46 – the usual rule is that it needs to have dictionary support, from which you can infer that people do actually use that abbreviation in real life (because after all, dictionaries are records of usage). However, some abbreviations make it into dictionaries despite only being used in limited, specialist ways (T for tense always gets complaints), which is why some crossword editors (Times, Telegraph) have restricted lists of permitted abbreviations.
K for knight appears in many abbreviations – KB, KBE, KCMG, KCVO, KG, KT, to pick a handful off the top of my head – and is used informally as a standalone derived from that, eg “He got his K after 50 years in the civil service.”
B for Broadcasting as suggested by muffin @12 wouldn’t be acceptable because isn’t commonly used aside from BBC, but B for British is even more commonly used in abbreviations than K for Knight, so would be fine.
I agree with Faankieg @43, hard work, buy it’s not killed me yet. Lots to love here.
I have to say that Eil.leen is my favourite blogger, her humility is an example to all.
Thanke Eileen and the rugby enemy, even with Gatland back we are hardly a threat YET!
This spoiled a good run of full completions but if everything was easy we wouldn’t bother would we.
Revealed six pests. Should have got two of them. The rest? I’d still be staring at them next year.
Thanks for the elucidation Eileen.
Thanks Eileen, like you and others this was a very gradual process but enjoyed the slow unwinding, even with a minor cheat at the end as I googled Haviscam to be confronted with the real solution. My gripes are few and minor – I thought of Hazel as the tree rather than the nut (ie the nut would always have that suffix) though the dictionary says it can be thus shortened (and also known as a Filbert!), and I think Jack Sprat and his wife had very different rather than varying appetites (he never ate fat, she never ate lean, neither ever varied) but I suppose each varied from the other. Thanks Pangakupu, that woke me up albeit slowly!
Thanks Pangakupu and Eileen.
When I saw the grid I immediately wondered what muffin would make of it – I remember his advice of some time ago (to beginners) to choose an entry clue that would yield the most leading letters: no way into this trellis.
I had a similar experience to many: much pencil-sucking led eventually to having to reveal the final few (MUTE SWAN, AHEAD OF, PURPLE and CLEAVER) and then I was annoyed with myself for not persevering. But I’m afraid gladys@34 articulates the experience quite well.
Self-abasement time. I have been bleating regularly about the unfairness of the use of synonyms as gladys describes in her second paragraph. As if I hadn’t enough to do and for no good reason I have been treating myself to an occasional Arachne from the archives: and that esteemed lady is not entirely innocent of the practice! So I am forced to remove my objections heretofore, forthwith and so forth. What can’t be cured must be tolerated.
Lyssian @25 @26 : my Googling has turned up that “Tuaone” is Maori for “beach”, such a NINA featuring in Row 3. “The Beach” is also both a novel and a movie, so when I add movie to my @ 23 spiel, we have play ( taming of the SHREW ), film ( The Beach ), novel ( TWO BY TWO ) and poem ( Jack SPRAT ….. lean …..clean ) going on here.
Dashed clever these Antipodeans !
Heavy going, I’m afraid. Just ground my way through it.
Thanks Pangakupu and Eileen
Gladys @ 34 😀
That was a grind, and a few of the clues grated, but some were excellent. HAVISHAM and BANGLE were favourites. Thanks Eileen and Pangakupu.
Really tough in parts, but most enjoyable. Had to look up synonyms for fraud to get HAVISHAM, and then the rest of the SE corner got sorted out. I enjoy Pangakupu’s puzzles, today particularly QUAVERY, ZEAL and MUTE SWAN. Thanks to P & Eileen as ever.
Did anyone else get LONGINGS for 17 down? (losing ng fraud)
@28 paddymelon Mute Swan is the full English name for the standard white swan Cygnus olor
Got caught out initially with 20d as I was trying to fit in (Ma)igret. Eventually got Miss Marple.
Many thanks to Eileen and Pangakupu.
Very tough, for me it was harder than a Prize puzzle and less enjoyable.
Gave up on SE corner. Failed to solve 17ac/6d, 20ac, 17d, 20d.
Liked INCREASE, BEVERAGES.
I could not parse 8ac and the second TWO of 1ac / W in TO
New for me: AVULSION.
Thanks, both.
In 18a I thought “to” must have meant “not open” but wasn’t sure. There were a couple of others I couldn’t parse till I came here: HERE GOES & PURPLE. Never heard of AVULSION, HAVISHAM or MUTE SWAN. At first I thought perhaps the latter was REED SWAN.
I also struggled getting on right wavelength and failed at AVULSION which I didn’t know. Also failed to parse TWO BY TWO …just too many toos. And to my shame missed HAVERSHAM despite doing it at o level.
Thanks Eileen and Pangakupu
Thank you, Gladys at 34: your first two paras had me roaring with laughter – and perfectly described my experience of battling with this crossword.
Thanks also to Eileen, for explaining all the ones I failed to parse completely, or couldn’t parse at all. Some were CFEs (crossed finger entries) which I couldn’t even work up the energy to start parsing.
I got there in the end – but oh boy it was a struggle.
And thank you, Pangakupu – although I suspect our respective wavelengths are just too far apart…
I’d like to add my own appreciation of Gladys’s comment @34. 😉
Gladys @34, couldn’t agree more.
Gladys @34, couldn’t agree more!
Allow me to join others in applause for Gladys @34. I counted five occasions in which the dreaded take-one-letter-off-the-back-of-a-synonym was deployed: 10A “…a lot of…”; 15A “…left unfinished”; 17A-6D “…a lot of…” (again!); 3D “…curtailed”; 12D “…tail not needed”.
Very nice puzzle, though I needed a lot of help, but all fair in the end. Thanks a lot!
‘to = not open’ is new to me.
However, I took the convoluted route of wordplay
not open = ot (not – n), about (reversed) = to, followed by ‘women in’
Rx on a prescription is short for recipe (meaning “take”) and would have been followed by a list of ingredients for the pharmacist to mix and dispense.
The “x” after R is for the illegible scrawl that “ecipe” became!
Trust me, I used to be a doctor.
Mrs S and I did much better than we expected this evening. We’re no longer ashamed of checking and looking up, it’s not about winning it’s about enjoying the game.
Well said Gladys @34
I’ll join the long queue of people agreeing with gladys @34. ZEAL had me thinking along the same lines – ‘shift of active’, indeed.
I thought of MARPLE as the detective but was misled by ‘not the old woman’ into swerving her altogether. I got as far as HAVI(ng) in 20d without remembering any ‘jilted brides’ (doh!), so it’s not all the setter’s fault. And I gave myself a pat on the back for remembering AVULSION without ever having suffered one. (Good luck on the slopes, AlanC!)
The ‘former’ meaning of ANTERIOR is one that I can’t remember having seen before, and I could have looked at ‘measure when considering steam’ for several million years before thinking of A HEAD OF.
Thanks to Panagkupu and Eileen.
It’s possible that I’m the same age as Tim the Toffee @65, as I also had “Great Expectations” as my O level set book. However, unlike several posters, I do remember her name as Havisham rather than Haversham 🙂
Hello, Scotblok @72 if you’re still there
I don’t recognise your name, so welcome to your first comment – and my apologies if it isn’t.
The issue of R = recipe = take is long-running here and I included my comment in the blog for the sake of newer commenters who might not have met it before.
It was explained to me, rather more than half a century ago, by my kindly rural Norfolk GP, who knew that I was doing Latin A Level and might be interested (those were the days, when GPs had the time and prescriptions had the image! ).
I would add that having had Dickens inflicted on me in most years up to O level, “Great Expectations” was the only one I even got close to enjoying. Dickens suffered greatly in readability because he was paid by the word…
Thanks Pangakupu. This took all day but it was very satisfying with MUTE SWAN, SPRAT, HAVISHAM, and DARK AGES being my top choices. Now that I know Pangakupu is Phi’s evil twin I will put him on my “must do” list. Thanks Eileen for the blog.
I think that this was the first time I have completed a puzzle by this setter. I needed the wordplay for ‘avulsion’, – a word I have never consciously seen .
[muffin@77. Bleak House was set in my first year at Uni. All 800 pages of it. Needless to say I didn’t read it. Too many other interesting things going on.]
I do feel reassured when the blogger has trouble, makes me feel less of a dim wit!
I haven’t got on this setters wavelength yet.
Like many I think gladys @34 has already a spoken for me! I found this quite a slog that I had to abandon yesterday and come back to today just to grind out a finish (with some impatient bunging and checking at the end… I can’t leave a puzzle unfinished and I prefer to avoid the Reveal button).
Thanks to Eileen and all previous commenters for helping me work out what I’d missed!