Listener 4131 - Carte Blanche en Tore by Ten-Four

[cluelessJoe]

Easiest one of the year for me by a long chalk. Am I getting smarter, or are these Listeners getting simpler?

[mullingar]

I have eleven acrosses and twelve downs.I have hit the wall. Even if I follow the tip about 26 across I run up against the problem that 28 down, which looks like it must begin with a three letter abbreviation for judges, has no connection with my answer for 26 across. I know that even if I succeed with more cold solving the geometry will bamboozle me but I shall be fascinated to find out

[AndrewG-S]

While not taught I think this is one anyone can work out and indeed it is fun to do.

[dr b]

mullingar, you may have run up against a problem, or you may have discovered something useful about the relation between 26 and 28 in the grid. Both are possible!

[JackDeCrow]

Wow, quite a marathon! And after all that, the alignment on the final problem was not very helpful - every standard solution I've seen seems to involve a more rakish angle and lots of nice tidy parallel lines. A deliberate attempt to make it even harder?!

[contendo]

I'm more or less at the same stage as Mullingar. Cold-solved 14 across clues and 12 downs but I've no idea how to begin fitting them into the grid. Looks like it's going to be my first failure this year.

[mullingar]

Thank You Dr B. I will consider that possibility. It would help if I could solve 28 down rather than just guess at the opening three letters but I feel I can't be too far away. I can report I now have 24 solutions - every step forward feels like a milestone reached!

[perseverer]

mullingar - if you assume your first three letters are correct, there are not too many options in Chambers to look through (and 50 isn't always what you expect.)

[mullingar]

Well I never came across that for 50 before. You live and learn. Thanks for the encouragement perseverer (very apt).

[JackDeCrow]

For those with 20-something solutions, I reckon you need about 10 more before the grid starts to sort itself out. Worth staring at the clues for a bit longer! And when you do start on the grid, I would agree with dr b's spreadsheet recommendation to speed things up!

[EagleCountry]

This is very difficult, bordering on the impossible, for me. Please can someone tell me if 5D crosses 24A and 26A?

[midazolam]

only one of them

[EagleCountry]

Thank you. (I don't suppose you'd tell me which one???)
Back to the drawing board!

[bellabee]

sorry to be a pest but i'm getting nowhere with this endgame. have tried myriad possibilities and keep ending up with just 2 points failing to 'correspond' - my crash course in graph theory [well supported by my cse grade 4 maths!] has led to the discovery of a device called 'knotting' which i believe is necessary for connecting 7 points. my question is this - can the endgame be achieved honestly? ie without recourse to strange devices like knotting - and are we really dealing with 'straight lines' here as the preamble [though not the instruction i note] states? i'd appreciate any help.

[bellabee]

eaglecountry - the one that crosses only just crosses [if you know what i mean], consequently it doesn't join with that very tempting letter you are possibly looking at!

[EagleCountry]

I don't have any tempting letters, but thank you anyway. I now have 5 words positioned in the grid - I can't see how 1A and 1D can go anywhere other than the obvious and now have 3 connecting words in the middle, so have a long way to go.

[perseverer]

bellabee - if you want to, email me at [email protected], and I will send you a link which shows how it can be done.

[bellabee]

a dangerous assumption eaglecountry - i found the position of 1ac and dn quite late on. i think trux gave a good hint for where to start [it was the way in for me] there aren't many better places if you have the answers of course.

[bellabee]

thanks perserverer - will you please hold that generous offer over until tomorrow to give me a last chance to work it out for myself?

[bellabee]

perserverer - email sent! i've had enough.

[bellabee]

i'd scoured the web for something like that! ......now that's an end to it. thankyou perserverer.