This week our crossword has been designed by reader Chris Lansley and for you cryptic fans it’s a beast of a puzzle. The list of successful completion …

By mark

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Mental Monday #8 The Super Cryptic Edition

Blimey. I told Mark mine weren’t that cryptic. This one is proper. Got 10 so far.

One left to go (15 down) and it’s bugging me!

Any idea what’s going on with 18 across? A 7 letter word and a 5 letter word yet I’m only seeing 11 spaces

@Hedgehopper – looks like the numbering in the question is wrong, it’s 6,5.

Ta

One left to go (15 down) and it’s bugging me!

Got them all except that one and was stuck for ages. Just got it!

@onewheelgood – gimme a clue, it’s doing my head in!! 😀

@pyro – no spoilers! 🙂

15 is killing me- is it actually a single word?

Sort of. Don’t think you’ll find it in the dictionary though.

was starting to wonder whether that was going to be the case.

The annoyed/frustrated geek in me thinks that if you wouldn’t find it in a dictionary, it shouldn’t be in a crossword…

(That may just be the annoyed/frustrated geek who’s only just got it, and doesn’t think it was a good one…)

I have to admit that doing the acrostic below at the same time helped me as the extra letters from the ‘magic word’ at the bottom helped me with a couple of clues.
From thinking it was impossible I got there eventually.
Thanks STW team.

Glad to see some folk got all the way through this. Feel like the feedback is gentler than I feared too! 😀

Yes, got it done. But had to call in the big guns of cryptic crosswords (Mrs Yak) to point me in the right direction. This sort of technique is obvious to her, but I am a cryptic punter.