Crosswords by Coworkers

Five colleagues at work pooled their efforts during the lunch-hour to solve the crosswords in the daily paper. From the information given below, can you work out who provided each of the first five answers to be found, give the number of the clue in question and say in which order the words were discovered?

• Colleagues: Bernard, Edward, Elsie, Shirley, Thora
• Answers: Balsam, Barely, Bindweed, Regatta, Silence.
• Numbers: 4 down, 8 across, 15 across, 15 down, 21 across.
• Order: First, second, third, fourth, fifth.

1. Thora produced the answer to 8 across, which had the same number of letters as the previous answer to be inserted and one more than the subsequent answer, which was produced by one of the men.
2. It was not Bernard who solved the clue to" Balsam", and Edward did not solve 4 down.
3. The answers to 15 across and 15 down did not have the same number of letters.
4. 'Silence', which was not the third word to be inserted, was the answer to an across clue, as was the fifth one to be worked out.
5. 'Barely' was the first word to be entered in the grid, but 'Bindweed' was not the second answer to be found.
6. Elsie's word was longer than Bernard's; Shirley was neither the first nor the last to come up with an answer.