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Thanks again emf. I thought about ADRIFT but can't quite work the clue, apart from the fact that it gives us a Jack Tar relevance.

Thought about ADDICT as well and apart from addicted to tar...can't figure it out either.

Crowd...the only thing that brought to mind is "Three's a crowd" but am no further forward. Where does the franc come into it? It could denote the letter F I suppose but beyond that...
Thanks for KEEP NOTE suggestion.

can only think adrift, as in off course.

Crowd abolishing franc, and crowd suggesting end of pound?
maybe lock gate or gate lock
gate and flock are both 'crowd'(drop the f(ranc) to get lock).

A pound lock is a type of lock on a canal with a gate at each End.

Excellent! Thanks for that.

- - E - / GATE would work.

The reason I have the E there is the answer BEETLE suggested by Jolan to:

Simple game requiring short polo mallet.

Seems right, doesn't it? BEETLE a game and a mallet.

umm - yes beetle looks good. what are the letters you had?
gate - does that give the last letter to other one?
Also out of interest,if lock was correct, which e in beetle would be changed, and to which letter of lock.
Hope tht all makes sense!
trevor

For the mallet clue I have only one certain letter: - - - T - -

The final E of BEETLE gives me - - E - for the word that would precede GATE:
- - E - / GATE

Your LOCK GATE would give me in place of BEETLE:

- - - T - C

I think it is Rustic(simple)
RU - rugby union
Stic(k)
The words 'simple' and "short' in the clue seem unecassery for the word Beetle.

How would this help others?

The only certain letter for the second word (possibly GATE) is the T:

- - T -

The G for GATE would come from the final letter for the answer to the following:

Putting up ones dukes?(9)
E - N - - - I - -

The whole of that corner of the crossword would fall into place!

Is STICK a word for polo mallet?

RUSTIC allows LOCK GATE, allows UPHILL for Jack, and would give me for the following clue:

For Americans, quite the best book (6)

P - U - -.

For the dukes clue, I have ENNOBLING, which would add a B, so P - U - B.

Looks like PLUMB.

probably is a word ending with 'ing' (Ennobling, perhaps)
I'm quite confident of lock gate and rustic,what letters do they give to other answers?

(i think you said one would give last letter to the Jack's clue)