Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Thanks for that confirmation Daniel - I was beginning to doubt it myself!

Grid filled and correctly totalled, but can't parse 1A and 19, would appreciate hints

B Es s is a French degree

TTL is an abbreviation for through the lens

Many thanks djawhufc!

I guess 72 is right, but the way of arriving at it in the grid is certainly not elegant.
My other nagging doubt is about the rest of the cells. If the grid shows the solution to the riddle clearly the only letters that should be there are the relevant ones, which is why I said earlier that my grid has no proper words.

I can see the riddle in 8 of the missing words but can't see the second "the" in any any of the clues. Can someone please help here? Many thanks.

To add to my previous post, I suppose the wording in the penultimate sentence of the preamble, 'contains a (literal) solution...' rather than 'represents a (literal) solution' means the grid should be intact, but since there are so many non-words erasure of inessential stuff would have been a neat way round that problem. I wonder if anyone will do it, and if they will allow it.

unclued, there is only one 'the' in the opening nine words of the riddle, and it's in 11a.

There's an extra 'a' in 10d. Is that what you need?

Just limping over the finish line at last. I'm probably being dense as usual but I have a question about the critter in the lily. Would that be one of the number that landed - or was he already there, meaning that he's a 'plus one'? An academic question for me as I don't submit competed puzzles any more.