Middlesbrough Gazette Cryptic

[Donaldinho]

20a Actually faced problems to be completed - D???? ??
13d Silvery metal in solar orbit - ?e???r?
15d Utter balderdash - P???l?

[Tilly2]

Piffle!

[factor-fiction]

Mercury

[daveygh]

13 mercury

[factor-fiction]

Is it not DE FACTO?

[factor-fiction]

Are you sure it's not 2,5 rather than 5,2?

[Tilly2]

Dealt (with ) it?

[factor-fiction]

Actually is a synonym for de facto, and de facto is an anagram of FACED followed by TO at the end to complete it.
I'm convinced anyway. I think.

[Tilly2]

I think De facto is right, facto.

[Psybbo]

I agree

[factor-fiction]

Thanks ladies.
Tilly- I went to the Swinerton Arms last weekend and a few Stoke pubs.

[factor-fiction]

Oops- Swynnerton

[Tilly2]

Aw! I haven't been 'home' for ages. They keep visiting me.....I wonder why?

[Captain2]

I mentioned this on a late(r) night thread a couple of days ago.

Donaldinho - have you ever wondered where your replies have been going to?
I think I have found the AB 'Black Hole' - look at date of original post and follow it through.

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Quizzes-and-Puzzles/Crosswords/Question1262741.html

[Captain2]

By the way, Tilly and FF we have friends who used to live in Swynnerton and we've visited that nice hostelry quite a few times.

[factor-fiction]

Ha- that is weird. Maybe Donalidhino has that original thread saved as a bookmark and has it open alongside current threads then when he wants to reply he clicks on the tab for that 2013 thread

[Captain2]

Don't think so FF because there are other lost souls wandering around in the ether.

[factor-fiction]

Captain- maybe it's the confusion caused by having a crossword thread with the title Crossword. I wonder if people who are trying to reply to other posts entitled Crossword are accidentally clicking on this one from the Related Posts lists. There may be others entitled 'crossword' that also attract these random looking replies

[factor-fiction]

There are other posters on there but most of the 2014/2015 ones (covering several pages) belong to Donaldinho

[Tilly2]

What are you two on about? I'm completely lost. (As usual)

[Captain2]

Tilly - open up my link - it is originally dated 27/7/2013 but there are 200+ random replies going up to 5/2/2015