Guardian Genius 217

[LeenaH]

One or more letters are ignored in the Clue's wordplay in across clues. One or more consecutive letters are ignored in the wordplay of all down clues.

I can't get any answer except one across.

2d temperature plummets from heading up to spleen (3,6)
Is the answer ill humour

Please give me some hints . I can't figure out any answers.

Thanks in advance

[JJ109]

2d No - ill-temper = Till (heading up to) with the T(emperature) plummeting down to 4th place

The "emper" are undefined and part of the theme!

[JJ109]

Big Clue

[JJ109]

The answer to 22d begins "OR" and these letters are undefined

Therefore if you read, therefore, the undefined letters downwards you get "emperor"

[LeenaH]

There is no 22d.
I still can't figure out the links between across and down

[JJ109]

For the big clue - look at columns 1 & 15 (all letters in both columns are undefined in the across clues)

Each pair of downwards clues in a column includes a theme word. The first letters of the theme word are the last letters of the upper clue and the last letters of the theme word are the beginning letters of the lower clue.

(please see "emperor" for what I mean

[JJ109]

Sorry - I meant 27d (my 7 looked like a 2!)

[JJ109]

The downwards entries include all the theme words. Obviously when there is a theme word the crossers (the across clues) have those letters undefined also.

If you look at 14a for instance, only the 3rd, 5th and 7th letters are defined by wordplay. The other 5 letters are all parts of theme words going down and are therefore undefined in the wordplay