Speccie 2422

[Farrwest]

44a Initiate a set, having the support beforehand (6) T??T?E. Thanks

[Mamyalynne]

Tee the

[Calibax]

Tee the

[Farrwest]

Thanks Mamyalynne and Calibax. However that gives me two possible answers to 35d so my answer to 41a must be wrong. Any suggestions for 41a?

[Mamyalynne]

Clue?

[elliemay1]

What about a clue?

[ProfessorMaisie]

41ac is unclued - FARAD

[Farrwest]

Sorry - should have mentioned it was unclued.
Yes Professor, but that leaves FOR?E for 35d which could be one of three possible answers which is not allowable is it?

[ProfessorMaisie]

Not sure what the 3rd is but there are certainly two possibilities, Farrwest (Doc's puzzles tend to have these little ambiguities - it's almost a sub-theme!).

[ProfessorMaisie]

...but if you check Chambers you'll see the acrosses come under the capital F, and the downs come under the lower-case f (and one of the two possible downs is capital F, so that's the wrong one).

[Farrwest]

Good morning Professor. With 35d as FO?R?E I have three possibilities FORCE, FORGE and FORTE - none of which is capitalized so where am I going wrong?

[ProfessorMaisie]

'Forge' is not a possible answer,as neither F nor f is an abbreviation for that word.
FORTE comes under the (capital) F entry in chambers - I know it's actually spelt with a (lower-case) f, Farrwest but its abbreviation is F.

[ProfessorMaisie]

...sorry Farrwest - I've got that all about face!
FORTE has 'f' as its abbrev (and is spelt with a lc 'f')
'force' is spelt with a lc 'f' but its abbrev is capital F.
So, it's FORTE for the down entry - not 'force'.

[Farrwest]

This is all getting ridiculous! Where did abbreviations come into the solutions? Anyway I have forte in the lower case abbreviations together with fathom,female and folio so will go with that. Am I right?

[ProfessorMaisie]

I've just got back home, Farrwest - sorry for the late reply.
The four you've got are right, and there's a fifth ('FOLLOWING' is abbreviated,'f').
I think Doc has been reasonably fair this time - the idea is given in the title - '40 furlongs' (40 = the medieval Roman numeral 'F' and furlongs = 'f'). Also, the preamble mentions Across and Down lights separately, so the treatment has to be different in each case.

[Farrwest]

Thank you Professor - see you next time!