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Thanks Chris and Mystogre

I stopped to watch Beck and then returned to your messages with their hints. So I have now done all bar 22ac and 22d.

I need to do the washing up now that wouldn't go in the dish washer - loads of cat dishes - he is spoiled.

Chris we have vine in our garden (a cutting from my Sheffield friend). It is a Pinot Noir grape, but we call it Pinhoe Noir, because that is where we live! Unfortunately, I cannot get my husband to prune it correctly, so although we get lots of grapes, they are too small and have pips, so not very edible.

I hope to finish the crossword before going to bed

I sent the message and immediately got the last answers before I even did the washing up. Just got my Wordle in three goes! That glass of white wine did the trick. But without your help I would have given up - so thank you.

I cannot remember my first word in but 8ac was an early one. I think together with 26ac they are my favourites. It took me ages to understand the chess reference. I don't play so was thinking Bridge. Other favourites were 10ac/24ac and 9ac/25ac.

Many thanks for all your help.

I loved this *but* - the second "number of Romans" had me floored. I eventually figured it had to be not one of my "standard" set of IVXLCDM but instead a mediaeval addition representing 160 (according to Wikipaedia). Not very happy with that one. Loved it otherwise - I always relish a Brendan puzzle, they are consistently witty and clever.

Are you sure? I had it as one of the standard that you list.

Jvector, I originally had the answer as an item of clothing, but it didn't fit with 3d. There is a different solution.

Jvector, just to confirm: in both cases the required Roman numeral is one of the standard ones (a diff one for each clue). What threw me initially is that it's inserted into a slightly different place in 26 than 8. I hope you like the crossword better now!

I really enjoyed this, but didn't manage to complete as many without the forum as I've been doing in recent weeks. A big thanks to all on the forum for your helpful hints. I wonder how the idea came about: I'm wondering if the setter had come up with a clue for a normal crossword but felt it couldn't be used because it had two possible answers, and then that led to the idea of making a feature of that.

I was a bit ambiguous in my first post, sorry.
In 8 /26 I have the paired first part as you'd expect; I had wondered about the second word being the same in each answer (making one quite common phrase for 8 and a slightly less common but existent one for 26) but that clashes with 18d. Choosing an alternative second word for 26 (mattrom's garment, I think) fits 18d but requires the non-Roman Roman numeral in 26.

D'oh! Just seen it!! Totally hiding in plain sight! What a setter this is!

I was late to this as usual and struggled for ages - just dropped in to say thanks to Brendan for the hint to check you've put the answers in the right place! Had gaily filled in top half, fully understood the instructions, just didn't think to check if my answers fitted equally well elsewhere. Muppet. Still stumped by 4d/14a but will sip a gin and think about it. I'm hoping for something fabulous next week :-)

And got them seconds later. Phew.