EV 1008

[x_word_fan]

An interesting puzzle, good not to be looking for misprints for a change. I thought the bit in the preamble about alphabetical order served to confuse things rather than help.

[slaney]

Good evening everyone.
This EV took me ages to finish, partly because I was trying to watch the rugby at the same time, and partly because I didn't read the preamble properly.
The "vertical barring" bit passed over my head, and the alphabetical order did help me to spot my error.
The "Sarnies" were quite difficult to untangle.

[DocHH]

Hello x_word_fan and Slaney,
Struggled for a while, but managed to populate the grid, with the across and down clues! That crowbarred me into solving rows 1 and 3, the symmetry then helped elsewhere! Certainly a step up from previous weeks EVs. Time for a pre-prandial! Late posting as am recording unexpectedly this week and had to edit suitable articles!

[novalis]

I agree with comments about the step up from recent EVs. One question - The preamble refers to 6 down. As well as entering the vertical bars ( I normally enter bars vertically but how I leave them is a different matter! ) do EVers think that numbers should be entered as well?

[slaney]

Hi novalis - I didn't enter the numbers - it's not mentioned in the preamble, and
in any case thought I'd already spent too much time on it!

[novalis]

Thanks for that Slaney.