“This is very disappointing, as it’s an excellent puzzle, as I’ve mentioned on these pages before. There has obviously been some repositioning this week for a special festive edition and someone on the paper seems to have performed a very inadequate cut and paste job.

Unfortunately I’m away at the moment and don’t have access to the original, but if I did I’m not sure that it would be fair to paste them here as it is a prize puzzle and this would disadvantage readers without access to or knowledge of this site. The paper has also omitted to publish the preamble, which explains that in certain answers one letter is ignored in the wordplay of their clues.

I have emailed the paper and requested that the puzzle be reprinted in next week’s edition and that the closing date be extended.

Other than that, all I can do is apologise on behalf of the paper for the inconvenience this has caused.”