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It'll be a breeze next time, ixion!

I have all the answers except 6 across - can anyone point me towards the "real" - ie uncoded - answer? The I can get my head round the square...

Use an abbreviation for special followed by a word for corroding process. The answer, for a type of leather, is not a common word (it's dialect) so you may need Chambers.

Thanks for the hint - I had got hung up on a different word for corrosion...just off to write my clue

I am still going round and round in circles trying to sort out this Playfair square and it is driving me insane. Could someone please tell me if both sets of 3 words are in the pattern 4-4-6 and if they both read left to right. If anyone would be generous to give me the first letter in the square, I would be extremely grateful!

I’m not sure what you mean by both sets. The code phrase comprises 3 words that read from left to right from the start of the 5 x 5 letter square, as set out in the example in the instructions. The pattern is not 4,4,6. If you’ve solved all the puzzle, you will have a whole series of pairs of letters and their coded counterparts. If you go through them systematically, you should be able to work out which of these pairs of letters fall within the same rows or columns, though you will need to work out the correct order of the letters.

I hope that helps.

The Playfair phrase is three words but not 4-4-6. The square starts with B and then reads from left to right in the same way as CANDLESTICK does in the example given.

Many thanks, P and S. I have been juggling pairs of letters for the past few days, and did guess at the first letter being B (two words in the first 2 lines, but, if correct, cant make sense of a third word). What I meant about 4-4-6 was the DNKS ILSL STORME pattern in the title.

The third word is a common word but only makes sense when you have seen the 4-4-6 title. If you have done the square then use it to decode the title which does make sense.

I meant to add, even if you've only partially compeleted the square, try to use what you've got to decode the title. You will be able to guess the words from a partial decoding of the words.