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All done now, and it turned out to be one of my big interests- only realised near the end!

I’m still puzzled by 18ac and 38ac. I can guess what goes in, but not really sure why.

Dylan

18ac is ‘without’, 2 letters, inside ‘reject’, 5.

38ac Clue wordplay is are, 1 letter, lowered, 3, E. Anagram is a proper name and you’ve probably got four of the letters.

Hope that agrees with what you have.

Thanks Rad. I wonder why the entry for 38 ac isn’t mentioned in the preamble as not being in Chambers? I’m not clear, now, where the Misprint is in its clue?

I’m sorry, I have 18ac, I meant 16ac for the other one I don’t understand

Thanks again

Hi Dylan,

16a is in Chambers as "expensive" (archaic) so 'vintage'.

38a the misprint is in the first clue (33) - i think!

Dylan, 16ac entry is a 4 letter anagram from the last part of 36.

Vintage is an archaic indicator, and expensive the definition.

Morning all,
Just starting out on this today. Am I right in my guess that the theme is something to do with weird science?

I have finally staggered over the finishing line, but with a completely frazzled brain. 24a was my very last solve, and having entered 21d in the wrong sense had me flummoxed for a very long time. For 20a, and not having the OED, I have assumed that the consonants in the second word are in reverse alphabetical order, confirmation of that would be greatly appreciated. It appears that having to cold solve many clues is becoming quite prevalent, which is extremely frustrating as it seems to contradict CROSSWORD - but hey ho! Finally, as the PDM came a little late on for me (should have read chambers for the 5 letter set group), there seemed to me to be an unfair number of unches. Still, it is a brilliant puzzle, and I would sooner have niggles over the complexity and high difficulty than the ease of the completion.

......and sorry muraria, you are correct.

I am finding this tedious because of Set 3, and have been stuck on 24 and 12 for a long time. Nor do I understand the wordplay for clue 9 and am not even sure where the break comes. I am also puzzled by the wordplay for the second part of 33; I am assuming that the misprint is in the first part. I can see an anagram of the misprints but it does not seem all that relevant to the theme. I found quite a lot of the wordplay somewhat forced.

Many thanks gitto