Speccie 1931

[zita-green]

19d. Please don't give me the answer but am I looking at a part anagram & how significant is Finchley? I don't know London at all well. Thanks.

[Mysterons]

Close to Finchley = y

[slaney]

16d "close to Finchley" in this clue just means last letter of ..

[zita-green]

Thanks to both.

[Pentalpha8]

It's the "close " to Finchley .The letter Y

Without giving too much way they are a class of people who do things on their own Merit etc and Y

[DocHH]

Hello zita,
It's an anagram! How would you call a Mercedes as a 4 leeter abbreviation, plus CITARO and then as you have been guided the last letter of FINCHLEY.

[DocHH]

Apologies, LETTER not LEETER!!

[zita-green]

Doh! Doh! Doh! MERC/CITARO/Y - MERITOCRACY. What a dunderhead I am, obsessing over Finchley

[zita-green]

Thanks Pen & Doc. You are all so clever

[DocHH]

Zita, It is essential to think differently, and try and look at cues analytically, a bit like parsing! As I have said before, it is essential to get into the mind-set of the compiler, and also use the title of the Crossword to your advantage! This week the title is quite descriptic, but you will need to make some leaps of faith in respective of the 8 letter and 4 letter words. I find it useful to highlight unclued lights, so I don't spend time looking back to see if they are unanswered or unclued!
And as always, get Chambers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[zita-green]

Thanks, Doc. I got the 4 into 4 straight away but got stuck on prominent & Finchley. Why does Finchley = y? The same thing happened last week; got song, composer & Northern Lights quickly then got stuck on aspheric. I ask you! Your idea of highlighting unlued lights is a good one; hadn't thought of it.

[bathtub]

Zita, it's also a good idea to equip yourself with a copy of Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary if you don't have one. This helps (among many other things) with 'indicator' words and phrases like 'close to' and steers you away from red herrings like Finchley.
Mind you, just when you think you can spot a red herring a mile off, along comes a clue that proves to be nothing of the kind. A couple of years back, the Observer 'Everyman' puzzle required as an answer an obscure suburb of somewhere like Luton or Southend, I forget which. I wasted a huge amount of time looking for wordplays that simply didn't exist - it was a straightforward if rather bizarre clue, probably included for the hell of it. The compiler's place of birth, or something like that.