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brendan (and jono): re 9a, I think the punctuation points to the second half being the definition (and it better suits the thematic nature of the crossword), but I agree that it’s not wholly unambiguous!

Justsolve, I think we can say that 5 and 9 are not cross references to other clues. “This” is also an important part of the required interpretation…

JustSolve - focus on ‘of this’. (5/9 doesn’t refer to the clues, and ‘/‘ is significant).

Hi Justsolve,

I'd recommend ignoring 5d and just look up the definition of 9a ( a homophone of "take') in Chambers - 2nd definition in the list of nouns.

Rogissimo, yes I agree, in this instance the punctuation must be obeyed, when so often it is there to mislead! :-)

PS jono re your post at 13, I wish I had your memory for great crosswords (or for anything, come to that).

Rogissimo @23 - then I've completely misunderstood 5/9 and stumbled on the theme by accident - this is going to take some thought!

Rogissimo @26, my memory of the Brendan puzzle results from a puzzle by “Jay” (if you search the forum, it’s #11) which deployed one such implement and caused some discussion at the time ;-)

Brendan, think of 5/9 as a fraction of “this”!

Thanks Jono and Rogissimo. None the wiser I'm afraid, but will continue to scratch my head although it feels more like I am hitting it against a brick wall!

Thanks Jono, the penny has dropped:-)