A million thanks to everyone,not least Brackendale-very good entertaining post-but am I excused if I continue the struggle tomorrow hopefully with a clearer head,trying a bit on my own without checking with you first-otherwise it would just be copying and no work.It's all very clever,parsing etc,but sometimes for me very far-fetched,being used to more general knowledge type xwords.Since you all are so clever I strongly recommend,again,the International Herald Tribune Sat-Sun issue,it is actually New York Times',no indication how many words on each line,always a theme/title you have to guess before it all makes sense,sometimes several letters or a word in the same square-I dare anyone of you to try it once-but I can promise it is FUN.!!Going from that to wordplay ones is confusing-am not very good at it-THANK YOU AGAIN!