Mephisto 2450

[kayakamina]

Can someone please tell me if there are any special instructions with the crossword in the paper itself ,as my downloaded copy shows diagonal shaded areas the second of which looks as it it could be 'Mephisto', but no preamble or instructions.

Thanks.

[rmleake]

While definitions are normal, wordplay in clues excludes any letter(s) falling within shaded area. Eg 26 is defined as a 5 letter word but wordplay indicates only the middle 3 letters.

Does that help?

[kayakamina]

Aha ! It certainly does Rml. I knew there had to be something along these lines as some of the clues did not make sense- but now they do.

Many thanks K

[dizzyduck]

glad someone else is doing this - enjoying it so far but could be stuck on final few. Will post if I get really stuck.