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As Mama72, I am quite willing to be shot down in flames and accept any doubts of my sanity, but...... Is the ultimate goal the item itself, or where it is? Taking Throcks point, search area can be traced in the grid. Going upwards within the search area is CIAE (unless I have some wrong answers). As the whole damn thing is strewn with acrostics, CIAE could be interpreted as C (atherine) 1 (first wife) A (utumnal) E (quinox). I know this is perverse, but at least its in a straight line, within the search area, and more importantly, in the grid. If it is correct, Poat should apologise, and pay for the alcohol that led to this bizarre suggestion!!

This may not be as obscure as it seems! It did cross my mind - and I'll give spoilers, since I don't believe anyone should feel bad about being told parts of the solution to an impossible puzzle - that CLOSE BY AMPTHILL (the third of the acrostics and thus the final stage of the 'trail') defines the 'search area'.

As you say, the 'ultimate goal' of the *trail* is the precise spot at which to dig. (The HARE is more specifically the ultimate goal of the *search*) The steps required in this puzzle are convoluted enough to resemble those of 'Masquerade', which - similarly - led to a sentence about Catherine's finger that didn't exactly spell out what the digger had to do, so something equally opaque is certainly on the cards here.

One thing I'm sure of is that the three almost-appearances of HARE are red herrings.

My daft thought relates to accounts I've found of sugar beet farming at Ampthill in 1949. BEET appears in the search area. Yes I know, totally barmy, I'll keep taking the pills.......

Late to the party this week. I have a message which reads something like : "ONE OF THREE CLUE ACROSTICS." To save me from death by apnoea, would some kind soul please indicate the appropriate clue acrostic.

What I love about the difficult or contentious puzzles is that people from another site all discard their 'no help' principle and flood onto this site. Highly amusing...

Meursault, I thought you would have read through all our posts as a preliminary to seeking help. But perhaps, in doing so, you zoned out when confronted with the wordiness of my last one?

Meursault, if you put the first letters of the clues (in order) into three columns (or rows) you'll see three messages, two of which are red herrings. So one message is the first letters of the 1st, 4th, 7th clues etc., the second message ditto for 2nd, 5th, 8th etc.

I don't have the grid in front of me and can't remember which one is the important one, but that leads to the 'trail' endgame which is causing such consternation.

Thanks IonaCarr and Hesienberg.

In fairness, IonaCarr, I understand that not everyone begins the puzzle at the same time; on many weeks there are people who only begin after the weekend is over. In the past I've accepted that the later starters won't always read every comment thoroughly, and perhaps will only skim through - so as not to give themselves too much help if you see what I mean. So, it has sometimes resulted that I have needed to answer the same question more than once.

Heisenberg, thanks. What bothers me about this sort of thing is that, although so many people seem to say that it's a clever puzzle, there's nothing clever about this kind of coding. Every 3rd Unch, every 3rd first letter, etc. It's just a chore. Sometimes you have setters who delight in wasting people's time...That doesn't make them clever (or funny)...

Meursault - I'm looking forward to hearing your comments about the location of the hare.

This whole thing is filled with potential red hare-rings. For example, the letters of AMULET appear in the top left-hand corner in the form of a cross. Is the top left S the sun, casting a shadow? It's enough to drive one to drink.

Hi Unclued.

Well, I researched the subject. At that time I was nearly 30 years old, but I don't recall it at all, though it seems that it was a controversial event, with allegations of insider dealing. And so many people fell for a book-selling stunt...

My answer is that I really don't need to bother. I never send my entries in, though I do check them 3 weeks later. Sometimes there are mistakes, mostly careless, but I don't lose sleep.

But do I plump for highlighting the preamble, lifting the lift, or finding another word (arch, cart ?) in the grid ? Probably it's in the grid in a form that I can't see. I need to be up early tomorrow and hate wordsearches anyway !

Good luck.
PS I don't think Beet can be right, because it occurs twice.