Azed 2450

[RayH]

if the first two across are Quipster and Rude then where does Eyepiece (the answer to the ninth down clue) fit?
Also, do we need to put letters in all the squares or are there some blanks?

[Neveracrossword]

My Eyepiece goes down from the end of Rude. I have no blanks.

[RayH]

But Rude ends at the 12th column, not the ninth..

[ProfessorMaisie]

There are only 9 down answers starting from the top row - answers in columns 4,7 & 11 start lower down, so EYEPIECE does start from the end of RUDE in column 12 as Neveracrossword says.

[RayH]

Ok thanks... so there are some blank squares then ?

[Neveracrossword]

RayH, I don't have a single blank cell in the grid.

[ProfessorMaisie]

There are no blank squares. The top row is -
QUIPSTERRULE (12 letters = 12 columns.
The second row has only one 9 letter word that starts from the 4th square in (1dn, 2dn & 3dn provide the letters in the first 3 squares, so no blank squares there either).

[ProfessorMaisie]

...sorry, RUDE not 'rule'.

[RayH]

Thanks, I think I get it now. So not every group of letters is a word ie the first 3 in row 2 ?

[Neveracrossword]

Yes, that's it RayH. If you put in the bars, mentioned in the preamble, it'll look like a real grid in the end.

[RayH]

Thanks. I didn't really understand what he meant by bars but I do now.

[Neveracrossword]

Good, RayH - without the bars, those clumps of letters look as if they're meant to be words. I got caught out in a couple of places.