Guardian 24,975

[john_smith_13579]

Last one: 32A ?O?E?I?M Fish leads split in the church, it's said, but it shouldn't be.

This seems to be the only clue left to fit the 6 letter Z clue in also! ZOOECIUM? With ZOOECI? If so, I can't make either clue work.

Thanks

[flicrat]

Solecism

[john_smith_13579]

Funny, I just spotted that as another option, which in turn means I've messed up somewhere else, as the Z flower is nowhere to be seen!

[flicrat]

Sorry. Can't help as I don't have the Guardian,so you are talking double dutch as far as I am concerned. Just gave you the above answer from the clue.

[flicrat]

How about Zinnia for a 'Z' flower?

[john_smith_13579]

No problem - thanks anyway.

[jwdd27]

Unless he's being really sneaky - he did say some of the A-Z answers might be hidden in other answers.

If z = zinnia then "Use C in G" could point us towards 35d, which is G - Gloxinia, which contains "xinia".

Maybe. :-)

[john_smith_13579]

Basically, Mr A's done a part alphabetical, part normal crossword, with all the alphabetical answers being flowers. The catch is that some of the answers are hidden within other answers. E.g. ROSE in PRIMROSE and ERICA in AMERICA. The trouble with the Z answer, is there's not a single Z in any of the other solutions! So whilst ZINNIA is good, it doesn't fit my grid. So I must be missing something somewhere.

[john_smith_13579]

Thanks jwdd27 - that looks possible. Horribly sneaky (and clearly not properly hidden) but good enough for me to fold this one away nicely and say "thank you very much" for an enjoyable Easter puzzle