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I'm down to the unchecked Playfair letters now. Before I go away with a cold towel to try to work it out, has anyone made any progress with the square?

Fraid not, still tidying up the WN's and PL's...I'm hoping the square will have at least ?WXYZ on the bottom line?

Yep, all completed this morning after sleeping on it. I got the square from four of the playfair clues and used it to get the other two.

The bottom line isn't ?WXYZ. 20D may help with that.

Well, I've solved all the clues, other than 2 of the PS ones, but the real problem is the Playfair codeword. I assume that this is Christmas-related, but there are no clues to what it might be, and all one can do is to think up any three-word phrases which might fit the bill, and go for the one with no repetition of letters. Here goes....

Still got one PL and 3WN's...have a plausible answer for 19D but requires the wordplay "man of the cloth" at 12A...BUT, I've already used cloth as a defn. also requires (a)erie to equate to pedestal...am I completely off track?

Ignore that - I've re-read the preamble for the WN, I failed to appreciate the "belongs as a whole" bit.

Martin: I doubt that you will think of the phrase by guessing. It's best to try and complete the squares with the codes you know from your completed Playfair clues.
As I said above 20D is particularly helpful and, if rearranging some of the others gives a word, then that will also help.

I'm a newcomer here and would be very grateful for any hints for PL32. I've solved all the others but haven't got anywhere with the Playfair code phrase - I'll keep trying!

32D Use more than one letter for the centre of Macau. Chambers Word Wizard will do the rest.

I have all but 20d and the playfair keyword, but I may have an error, since I seem to have a logical inconsistency in any 5x5 square I try to create. Anyway, if 20d is critical to the 5x5, I would appreciate a hint as to the answer.