Turning The Tables III from the setter’s point of view

I started setting this puzzle around about the same time as the previous two. TTT appeared in M91 in July 2010 and was rated a C with 49/56 and TTT II in M97 in Jan 2011 and was again given a C rating with 62/68. However I didn’t complete setting it in that whilst solvers certainly enjoyed them it was clear that the novelty value had worn off. So I put it aside. I found it again about 18 months ago and looked at how far I’d got which wasn’t that far. There was the parity aspect, the Latin square constraint, the filled in grids, the ascending order and a few clues. I racked my brains trying to remember what I’d intended and recalled that I’d wanted to remove as many clues as possible. I set to work and came up with the scenario that the missing clues had been stolen by the thieving Magpie. However I found that most of the missing clues would have to be given as otherwise it would become a total lottery. Since I’d invoked one of our cats, Tango, in a clue in EV1118 because of his 3-leggedness in that I needed the answer to be prime, I hit on the idea that Tango and our other cat Flo would launch a counter offensive and steal back most of the missing clues. Owing to space constraints in the magazine that didn’t make the final edit.

 

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Tango – the nice one!

Flo – the evil one!

 

Given the Latin square constraint the puzzle proved not too difficult to set. I await the stats and comments with interest as I have a few other ideas that may fit this format!!

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