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Ouch. Just wasted an hour not trusting my maths and logic and being sure that 5d was dodgy and wanting to complete the puzzle without looking here for once.........oh I hate getting old and doubtful of my brain.

On reading again the preamble, and this time not falling asleep, I see that F and W are indeed discounted from value 2 on account that they would cause only one-cell answers (as is B). This puzzle is indeed a real struggle of wakefulness, but reading the preamble all the way through (in one go) does assist in solving. And thankfully, nothing to highlight in such a long preamble...

Disappointed to only find only three of the four 'treasure' letters consecutively in the preamble. I thought they might make a feature of it. Thanks for the link on the first post - I was on the verge of just writing the F name of another sequence and celebrating my second consecutive earliest listener solve. And a second double entry, saving postage and double prizes I note! How can life get better than this?

Maths was never my strong point so am struggling. Can anyone confirm N being 19. If so, what are Z, P and C?

I thought I had cracked it but fell at the last fence. Would someone please tell me what 19d is? Many thanks.

Is it a bit early for direct spoilers? Not sure what the rules are here. Giving away NZP and C seems a bit hefty. I know I have had lots of help here for other puzzles, but not quite so early in the week maybe 8-) Anyway, 19d has a 2 in the middle.

Hi Xij, I needed to put the puzzle aside yesterday, but I had N=19. In solving J at 3D, I think N at 3A was resolved...I found it useful to write a list of the squares 1-625 (no spreadsheet required, just add ascending odd numbers from square to square).

Looking through the thread I'm wondering if some solvers could be forgetting "then with the largest initial base" from the preamble. Certainly helps to keep it in mind, hope this helps.

I also took Meursaults approach by writing down the squares. I found it helped to work out at least some of the grid - starting top and bottom as 180 mirror. Making a few guesses from the letter patterns to start and then applying some trial and error was enough to get there without too much pain.

...and for 11A it helps to bear in mind that "all entries are different."

Xij, For Z, I have 15 or 25 (to be determined after my midday meal !), P=5 and C=14.