Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

ionacarr's hint for 25 across is a very finely judged hint to a most creative (but fair) clue: thanks.

I can't see a connection with the theme in 27dn, carpox1, but it's about 40 years since I read the book, so there may be something thematic that I've forgotten.

Whether fair or not, it breaches a standard Ximenean and Listener convention, but I've often observed in the past that Sabre is given more latitude by editors than is given to others.

Since 20A and 26A do not clash with any clued downs I assume the letter replacement must coincide with the unclued entry, which seems rather unfair, or perhaps it's in one of the unchecked cells.

I have in mind one possible entry for the unclued (8,4), which might be connected with something in ionacarr's last comment. Am I on the right track?

I don't think it breaches conventions. "Hope letter-opener" should be thought of as "How a letter to Hope would begin" i.e "D---- ---. So it parses in the conventional manner.

Thank you for nudges, but I am still not getting anywhere. 9,12,17,20 and 29 remain... Anymore hints would be great.
Simon

20 is a + cant (slang) + h.

Thank you. Can anyone enlighten me to a term for 8 to 12 pints! I am sure I have heard one before(in a crossword of course, not real life)

Simonsays, see my post #29 below for a hint. After that, do a bit of arithmetic and stay in the same cultural territory. The first two words of the clue are the definition. There are no fewer than three words for it!

Thanks. Almost done now, starting to think about pairs. No clue as to unclued yet though.

token,

The clue lacks an exemplification indicator. The Ximenean convention, normally followed in the Listener, is that ‘dog’ can indicate SETTER, but ‘setter’ alone shouldn’t be used to indicate DOG; it needs a qualification such as ‘setter maybe’.

I’m about to give up on this one. It’s the first Sabre I’ve failed to solve, but I’m getting nowhere in my efforts to resolve all the clashes and detect a theme. If anyone can answer any of the questions/issues below I may be encouraged to plough on.

1. On the assumption that the unclued entry doesn’t coincide with replaced letters in the crossing answers I have a time-related answer consisting of two words. Is that right?

If it is right, I’m puzzled by the fact that 20a and 26a appear to have no letter replacement since there are no clashes with down entries. Possibly 11a as well, but I cannot be sure as I don’t have 6d (any hints to that appreciated). I assume it begins or ends with L.

2. I also have no clashes in 35a, 19d, and one out of 30a/31d and one out of 33a/24d must be normal, so that makes four entries where there appears to be no letter replacement, yet the preamble refers to only two cases where the letter and its replacement are identical .

3. Is there any rationale to the shortened entries? I have five of them; three appear to have the last or penultimate letter missing, but as that coincides with unchecked letters in two cases it’s difficult to tell. The other two appear to have a letter removed from the middle. In the case of 25a it coincides with an unchecked letter.

With so many variables I’m finding it difficult to make sense of the letter pairs since in some cases I cannot be sure which is the right letter pair. I imagine the letter pairs are read in order, but not consecutively, which complicates things enormously.

Sorry for such a long list. Any hints will be gratefully received.