Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Hi DHope,

That sounds lovely, hope you and your son have a great visit:-)

Good morning everyone and happy Easter. I’ve finished the beast apart from 49D which refuses to budge. I have ?A?I?R?T?D which seems to give only one word but I have no idea of parsing or the theme letters. Put me out of my misery please.

Hi Cymro.
49d. Defn ‘wavered’ made of 5 letters ‘sign’ + 3 letters a word for spearing grass (only found in crosswords). Then two letters added at the beginning for the grid entry.

Hi Cymro,

49d - 5 letter "sign" (of the zodiac) + 3 letter "spread grass" (I only know this word from barred puzzles like the Listener) - initial definition is "wavered" as in oscillated but not a word I knew - thematic pair are first 2 letters.

You only show 9 letters but the original answer is 8 and then it's 10, but presuming your just missing one at the end, your A, which should be the 2nd thematic letter is wrong but the ?I?B?R?T?? are all correct.

Sorry if I've explained that badly but I've been up all night:-)

Cymro, I've no longer got a copy of my scribbled notes - but I remember the 'sign' being astrologocal, and coming after the theme letters...

Ooops, your letters are all correct.

Sorry, I did tell you I was sleep deprived:-)

That should say ‘spreading’, not spearing. And your letters are correct btw

Hi Malone, did you do this?

Morning, Brendan. I did some - not all - of this. It got to be a bit of a grind and I put it aside. I thought of you when I did yesterday's EV...

Thank you Brendan/ Jono/ Malone for putting me out of my misery. I wondered if the second largest theme pair would make an appearance.