to anyone interested ... i have today had a reply from MM to my email protesting about the apparent spelling of "tendril" as "tendrill" a couple of weeks ago. yes, it was an error. the clue shd hv been plural so that the answer was "tendrils". but MM assures me: "entries that ignored the word, or used the plural or left the last character blank were allowed, of course." end of matter, i think.