mephisto 2524

[crockshard]

Sorry, Rollo, back on the case! Thankyou tor your answer. Will phrase my problem questions more explicitly!
10a 'Heard diminuitive woman call to horse to stop' (should be 'whoa, but have PRU?). If 'pruh', I don't understand.
29a Grandmother's written the same as old ' flightless bird'. (NA? ??. 'Nandu' is a rhea, but where does 'doo' or dus' come from to finish the 'nan' word? Until I sort out the 'nandoo' (or whatever) word, I cannot be sure of the final two : 28a Tail (docked tail) I put in salt (9) AR? E??AT?, and 24d One singing number with soldiers (5) T???R.
These Mephitos are so hard, I have to do a third of the clues before I can even begin to look things up in dictionaries!

[kayakamina]

See my answers to your previous post

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Quizzes-and-Puz zles/Crosswords/Question690034.html

[kayakamina]

28a Arse niate

24d Ten or

[crockshard]

Thankyou, Kayakimo - I have just come back and checked your respones - and thankyou so much! Other clues now fit. Problem was that I did not find 'nandu' spelled 'nandoo', and (despite owning horses for 25 years) do not recognise 'pruh' as 'stop'!

[kayakamina]

Both Pruh & Nandoo are in Chambers as are the alternatives of Proo , Nandu & Nhandu.

You really do need Chambers to help you complete this type of crossword.

Good luck K

[crockshard]

Yes, I do! I put one on my Christmas list, but Santa didn't oblige! Is it better to subscribe to the Chambers on-line, (dictionary and thesaurus, but I only tackle the Mephisto in the horrid winter months, when I can grab the time) or buy the dictionary? (or wait until I win one from sending in a crossword? (I supplied our local school with a shelfful of Collins dictionaries when I used to snd in the Sunday Independant crosswords regularly, and often won.(I think Times ones must have more sent in!). Since we have been subscribing to The Times, I have never won a dictionary or anything when I have submitted a completed grid!)

[Rollo]

I use The Chambers Dictionary & Thesaurus on CD-ROM.

I know it is the 2003 edition but 99.99% of the words needed are there, and it has the added advantage of finding words where you only know some of the letters, finding headwords that have the word you input in their definition, and it does anagrams too.

http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/books /dictionaries/tcd_cd.shtml

I almost never have to use the actual book anymore.

[bathtub]

If you want to buy a new Chambers (the 2008 edition) it's available from Amazon for �16.25, post free. Alternatively, it's now down to �18.75 on the Chambers website.

[crockshard]

Thankyou for your advice, Rollo and Bathtub!