Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Finished except for 7 down. Can anyone help?

monotreme

Does anyone else out there object as much as I do to clues with no definition? I think this is acceptable if signposted in the special instructions or "of a kind" or even themed. Saturday's Paul offering had far too many which were left to guesswork. Otherwise another great puzzle.

? is the sign of a pure cryptic no definition necessary

Paul - for what it is worth - i thought it was a very good puzzle(except the Dickens clue).Are you Paul the setter?

Paul, why, then, does 3d have a question mark?

'M - give it ten' ([hand] in [glove]) and 'Dr Castier' ([throw] in [the towel]) are not crossword clues, they are Dingbats. These can often be found in the junior sections of other papers and are quite enjoyable in the right place though not in the Guardian cryptic. Similarly constructed clues in which the absent definition is hinted at by the words used are legitimate, and if this is effective the question mark can be superfluous.