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Looking at todays rather daunting grid, I realise that unless I can solve the first clue I cannot even begin to enter anything else. So has anyone undaunted got a hint for me please? Clue reads Bare end is hot in flat mud-flow (5) there may be an extra letter in wordplay……

Hi Jogamel,

I'm not sure how this would parse but..

"flat" is 'planar' and if P is extra letter and the N is replaced by H(ot) you get LAHAR which means 'mud flow'

Trouble is that I can't see how replacing N for H comes from 'bare end'?

Ah, 'bare end' could be (e)N(d)

Thank you Brendan! It’s a start isn’t it?!

I'm off to a birthday dinner with my family at the Prospect of Whitby so you're 1 further on than me 😄

Ooh that sounds lovely. We are up in the Yorkshire Dales.

That's equally delightful, have a great time:-)

'Extra letters generated by wordplay' are not usually entered in the grid, so I don't see how we are then to drop them in the column? Anyone follow this better than me?

Given Brendan’s answer to the first clue I’m guessing P goes in the first cell of the bottom row. However I’ve no idea how to position answers or even whether the first answer starts in the first cell in the first row. I’m considering abandoning this before I’ve really started.

Lumen, the preamble says “dropped FROM the appropriate column”. That is to say that the relevant letter falls to the bottom row in the cells beneath the down answer which gives the shared extra letter.